Bethany Lutheran Church

Seven Deadly Sins | Anger

March 19, 2023 Pastor Anthony Celia
Bethany Lutheran Church
Seven Deadly Sins | Anger
Show Notes

Dante calls wrath a “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite.” Once words are spoken in anger, once actions are taken in wrath  … it is hard to walk back from. It isn’t about reconciliation and restoration but dominance and revenge. The wrath of the religious elite killed Jesus. Yet even in his arrest Jesus tells Peter to put his sword back and categorically shows that wrath is not the way of God. The peacemaker, the meek understands that justice is God’s. Meekness is about a dependence on God because those who war and fight will eventually lose everything.

Matthew 5:21-26 (ESV)
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Mathew 5:1-2, 5 (ESV)
At Bethany we read through the Gospels to follow the life of Christ and learn the way that he calls us into.