Snippets of

‘But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.’ 

Matthew 5:22

Raca comes from the aramaic word term, Reqa. it is a derogatory expression meaning “empty-headed,” insinuating a person’s stupidity or inferiority.

After reading this verse, I realised that it is important that we don’t call people, ‘stupid’ or something degrading. Looking at Jesus’ tone and what he says, it seems as if it is almost like a sin to say such things, such that, we will be in the ‘danger of council’ or even ‘throw into the danger of hell fire’. And Jesus said this in the context of telling the disciples that being angry with each other without a cause is also in danger of judgement. I think that sometimes in our rage, or in the moment of anger, we burst out and we unintentionally say things that we don’t mean. 

For example, in a fit of anger, we call our friends/family members things that we don’t intend and we may even call them ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb’. I guess Jesus is trying to remind us to always speak in love and in patience. 

YES, I do need to work on this area as sometimes, I feel that in a fit of anger, I just say unkind words to my parents and yes, I do need to work on that.