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Matthew 5:21-26 is the text for this sermon entitled, "Jesus' Teaching about Anger."

Anger is mentioned 14 times in the New Testament. Here are a few for us to look at:
•Galatians 5: 19-21 – Works of the flesh (include wrath, hatred, strife)
•Eph. 4:26 – Put a time limit on anger
•Eph. 6:4 – parents, don’t provoke your children to wrath
•1 Tim. 2:8 – pray without anger
•James 1:19-20 – slow to wrath, man’s wrath doesn’t work God’s righteousness.

Rich Walters wrote a book called Anger: Yours, Mine, and What to Do about It, 1981. He wrote that Anger is a form of communication: emotion carrying information which you can interpret and them make use of.

When Jesus delivered the sermon on the mount, he used the concept of leaving an offering at the altar to represent worship. Worship must be done with a “right heart.” How we translate our emotions, say anger against or from another person, needs to be righted by translating that anger into information that we can then use to resolve the conflict positively. That’s part of “taking every thought captive.”

Setting up educated priorities based on the New Testament and then applying them is a prerequisite of worship, according to this section of Jesus’ sermon. Jesus is warning us that we must come to terms to settle the “debt” (or issue, disruption, dispute).
What happens to debt that is deferred or ignored?
•Gets larger
•Becomes a glaring problem
•Unlawful and unethical
The long-range effect of unresolved anger comes with parallel impacts. It negatively affects your worship (and possibly that of others).