“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.” – Matthew 5:22

Be careful what you think and say about other people made in God’s image! King Jesus doesn’t just care about your formal behavior. Jesus always, always, always cares about your heart, your mind, the internal conversations in your head, and the words that spill out of your mouth when you’re frustrated, angry, or impatient.

As people rescued from our sin by Christ’s sacrifice and made new creation in Him, that new creation must radically change how we think about and treat other people, even those who drive us crazy. Let the Holy Spirit work in your heart. Let Scripture work in your mind. Let Jesus work in your soul so that you begin to view and think of people in the same way He does.

Our sin nailed Jesus to the cross, yet He still loves us and reaches out to touch us gently with forgiveness. We fail Him over and over again, yet He never calls us “fool”, insults us, or becomes angry with us. We misrepresent Him regularly and disobey Him routinely, yet He holds onto us in love rather than rejecting us as we deserve.

Because Jesus treats us this way, He expects us to treat others the same way – with patience, humility, dignity, respect, and grace they don’t deserve. Train yourself not to condemn others when they cut you off in traffic, slow you down in the grocery store, or infuriate you on TV. Work to take “fool” out of your vocabulary. Love your neighbor as yourself!

“For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.”
– Psalm 11:7

God’s righteousness, our righteousness, the righteous things we do to delight in God and to delight God, these things are all wonderfully interconnected…

God is perfectly righteous. He does only right things and can do no wrong things. It’s simply His nature to be righteous. There is no shadow of darkness or hint of sin in God. Because He’s perfectly righteous, God loves when those made in His image do righteous deeds. He loves it when you do the right thing. He loves it when you concern yourself with intentionally doing what’s truly right, not simply what’s convenient, comfortable, cheap, easy, respectable, or enjoyable. God delights in your good deeds, they’re a source of pleasure to Him.

That doesn’t mean that your good deeds make you righteous. No amount of righteous deeds could ever make us righteous enough to match God’s perfect righteousness. No amount of good deeds could ever make you “upright” either. Thankfully, when you trust in Jesus, His perfect righteousness as the sinless Son of God is credited to your account. You’re declared upright by the Lord. You aren’t made upright by your righteous deeds, but Christ has made you upright by His work on the cross. Because you’re upright, you should be eager to do righteous deeds.

It’s the delight of those made righteous by God’s grace to do righteous deeds, not to earn His blessing, but simply to delight in delighting God and to glory in glorifying God. As a follower of Jesus, made upright in Him, the promise of this verse is that one day you’ll see the face of God. That’s a wonderful promise for you! One day, you’ll see the face of God and it will be a face of radiant with joy and delight because of the righteousness of Christ in you and the righteous deeds you’ve done in Christ’s name.

“The people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
– Matthew 4:16

In fulfilling this ancient prophecy, Jesus truly is the great light that’s dawned upon this dark world. He is God come in human flesh to live among us, to understand us perfectly, and to rescue us from our sin. He’s the One Who sustains all creation and Who stepped into Creation. He’s the One Who lived a life without any sin despite every terrible temptation that could be thrown at Him.

He taught with authority. He overpowered every supernatural evil. He controlled the forces of nature. He rearranged the elements of nature to turn water to wine. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He loved and touched the untouchables. He spent time with those rejected by everyone else.

Jesus really is the great light for us who live in a world darkened by sin. When He first walked the earth, that light dawned. As He rules and reigns today, His light grows brighter as His Kingdom spreads. One day, the light will grow unimaginably and beautifully brighter when He returns for everyone to see. That moment will be clear, unmistakable, and glorious.

Until then, don’t let the dark things of this world draw you in or get you down. Focus on the light. Celebrate, praise, and worship Jesus – Who He is, what He’s done, what He’s doing, what He’s going to do. Walk in the light of Jesus and do not fear the shadow of death!

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'” – Matthew 4:8-9

Take a moment to consider what Satan was offering to Jesus out in the desert. Satan’s offer to Jesus was authority over all the earth in exchange for worship. Standing as we do on this side of Christ’s resurrection, we know that God has given Jesus, “all authority in heaven and on earth.” So what was Satan really offering here? The opportunity to gain that authority without having to suffer the horrors of the cross.

Satan’s goal was to get Jesus to shortcut His very reason for being born into this world. Satan offered Jesus earthly authority, so long as Jesus would submit to him rather than to God’s will. Gain without pain, that was the temptation here. Thankfully, Jesus resisted this temptation, just as he resisted every temptation. This was not an uninformed decision. Jesus understood what obedience to God would cost Him.

Jesus remained in God’s eternal, redemptive will to rescue mankind from our sin by His own bloody, excruciating, sinless sacrifice on the cross. Jesus resisted Satan’s evil offer and chose to carry the terrible weight of your sin on His shoulders as He was nailed on a cross to die for you. Jesus chose to experience the terrible force of God’s righteous wrath for your sin so that Satan would be ultimately defeated. Jesus took no shortcuts to His authority and we praise Him for that, for by His perseverance and suffering, we are saved!

“My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.”
– Psalm 6:7

There’s no guarantee that a believer’s life on earth will be all sunshine and roses. The psalms help us see and understand this reality. Grief and sorrow touches just about everyone in this sin-saturated, fallen world. Many among the faithful have battled depression across the centuries. King David knew grief, suffering, oppression, and despair better than most and he wasn’t afraid to talk about it with God.

Psalms like this one help us understand that it’s OK to go to God with our tears and our grief. It’s OK to be honest with God when we’re hurting, overwhelmed, angry, or depressed. He knows this already, yet sometimes we seem to believe we’re supposed to hide the truth from God and put on a happy face. That simply isn’t true. Be honest!

However, learn to be honest like King David… The psalms show us how to express every emotion from absolute joy to utter sorrow, but to always do so with trust and confidence in God’s goodness and faithfulness. In this psalm, David pours out his heart in sorrow, yet remains fully confident that, “The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.”

Please note that David isn’t saying he’s sure that relief for his grief is right around the corner. David’s confidence isn’t in an earthly outcome. His confidence is in God’s presence, God’s attentive listening to the prayers of His people, God’s love and faithfulness, and his knowledge that with the Lord, he’s never alone. May that be your confidence as well during hard times of grief and sorrow!