Question on Matthew 5:22-24

Matthew 5:22-24 (NASB) "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

The above confuses me. From what I understand, this says if I am angry at my brother/sister in Christ I am in danger of hell fire, but if my brother/sister in Christ is angry at me I best drop everything and go reconcile with them.

Does anyone see the problem I see here? That I am always to blame?
This says if I am angry it is my fault and if they are angry it is my fault.
What is Jesus saying here?

[Edit later as a friend helped: the word “brother” is used four times. So that means first of all that this is between Christians, believers. My friend, being a believer asked me if this happens between the two of us. I had to admit it does, as we are both eager to keep things right between us and not to harm the other in any way. No matter which one of us comes with a sincere apology the other too, apologizes. This is easy between us. That helped tremendously as I can see there is no “blame” like I saw it from the world, an unpayable debt. The other thing she pointed out to me is that within that relationship we ARE both responsible for our own anger and responsible for helping our brothers and sisters to not sin by not giving them reason to be angry and thus, sin.]

1 Like