Question:
In this morning’s lecture we had the verse, “Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew As noted in the answer to one of the earlier questions, our salvation does not depend on our works—what we say or do, or what we refrain from saying or doing; rather it is based on our recognizing our lost, sinful condition, our deserving hell fire for eternity, and placing our faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross for our salvation. Jesus shows us in the verse quoted in the question that calling someone a fool is in the same category of committing murder. Thus, it is a very serious sin and we Christians need to be on guard against name-calling of any kind. Jesus’ primary intent with those words, I believe, were to move the religious Jews of His day off of their complacent attitude that they were “okay” because they hadn’t committed murder, adultery, etc. Who of them could say they had never called someone “fool” or “dummy”? Much of the Sermon on the Mount serves to challenge professing Christians as to the reality of their relationship with Christ. Years ago, after taking up the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 in a Bible study at work, a co-worker said to me, “Before we started this study I thought I was a Christian; now I realize that I am not.” The study had achieved its desired effect for her.
Answer: