Included in the old law was a commandment not to kill (the Hebrew verb ratzakh means “to murder, to slay with premeditation”; Exodus 20:13). That law, of course, still stands. But the higher law is to refrain from even getting angry. The Savior charges us not to allow the feelings of anger to get started that could lead to murder. Anger is a very strong emotion. It is beyond irritation, annoyance, disgust, or other such feelings, which are also contrary to the spirit of the gospel; it is a deep, passionate wrath or rage that could lead one to commit murder. Even Nephi, son of Lehi, a noble, righteous prophet, struggled with feelings of anger toward his enemies (his older brothers), and he knew that such intense feelings were wrong, sinful, and damaging to his own spirituality (2 Nephi 4:17–31, especially vv. 17–19, 27–29). Nephi knew that such intense anger was forbidden by the gospel of Jesus Christ, as is plainly expressed here in verse 22. The Joseph Smith Translation of Ephesians 4:26 asks the relevant question: “Can ye be angry, and not sin?”
“We have seen that anger against another can only result after we commit sin (think unrighteously), but there is something in the nature of anger itself and its consequences that is also sinful. Anger itself is a sin when sin is defined as anything that retards the growth or progress of an individual.”33
“President Spencer W. Kimball, in his excellent book The Miracle of Forgiveness, tells us in effect that anger is ‘a sin of thought’ which, if not controlled, may be the forerunner of vicious and violent acts.”34
Elder Theodore M. Burton taught: “Whenever you get red in the face, whenever you raise your voice, whenever you get ‘hot under the collar,’ or angry, rebellious, or negative in spirit, then know that the Spirit of God is leaving you and the spirit of Satan is beginning to take over. At times we may feel justified in arguing or fighting for truth by contentious words and actions. Do not be deceived.”35
One sister missionary learned through experience to avoid anger. She wrote: “I had one companion that I regret very much getting angry with. That was twenty-five years ago, when I knew nothing about it being a sin to criticize and even let something get to the point of anger. No one got along with this sister… . We just walked to a different drumbeat. She was very philosophical in an emotional way. She was all heart. I was all head and hard work. She wanted to disobey the rule that we should be in at 1 P.M. every afternoon, to study and allow the people their siesta time until 3 P.M. I desperately needed that study time. I loved studying the scriptures and Spanish. She was bored with that and really didn’t know the discussions. She loved talking to the people all day long. She would cry and get emotional at almost every door. It was so embarrassing to me. I refused to stay out with her. It made us both hardhearted towards one another to the point that we wouldn’t even walk down the same side of the street together. Now, when I look back on it with the maturity and gospel knowledge I have about anger and contention, I wish I had let her have her way now and then and not been so rigid. Keeping the Spirit would have been so much more important than having all that contention… . She wasn’t asking that we break any covenants or commandments; she was just happier teaching than studying… . I could have loved her anyway. She wasn’t asking me to go to movies or break those kinds of rules; she just wanted to rearrange the proselyting. I could have done that and lived with fewer regrets. I wish someone had taught me about anger back then. I thought I was justified. I wasn’t.” She spoke further about uncontrolled emotions: “Do I repent daily and frequently, especially of improper and unkind feelings such as anger, impatience, sarcasm, and cynicism? Do I understand that anger and irritation are wrong, even when I am in the right—that anger is an offense to the Spirit and is not the Lord’s way of solving differences and frustrations?”36
“Anger, irritation, annoyance—all from below. My, how the devil loves to separate people: spouses from each other, children from parents, ward members from each other, brothers and sisters, etc. [BYU colleague] Catherine Thomas said that the reason we have abrasive people in our lives is so we can learn to develop divine love. This life is a laboratory for practicing divine love. And until we get the hang of it, we will have one irritating person after another come into our lives to give us plenty of practice.”37
Every disciple of Christ is expected to learn to control his or her strong feelings. Some people these days consider themselves victims of their own anger. Elder Lynn G. Robbins explained that each of us can choose whether or not to react with anger:
“A cunning part of [Satan’s] strategy is to dissociate anger from agency, making us believe that we are victims of an emotion that we cannot control. We hear, ‘I lost my temper.’ Losing one’s temper is an interesting choice of words that has become a widely used idiom. To ‘lose something’ implies ‘not meaning to,’ ‘accidental,’ ‘involuntary,’ ‘not responsible’—careless perhaps but ‘not responsible.’
“‘He made me mad.’ This is another phrase we hear, also implying lack of control or agency. This is a myth that must be debunked. No one makes us mad. Others don’t make us angry. There is no force involved. Becoming angry is a conscious choice, a decision; therefore, we can make the choice not to become angry. We choose!
“To those who say, ‘But I can’t help myself,’ author William Wilbanks responds: ‘Nonsense.’
“‘Aggression, … anger, … screaming and yelling,’ are all learned strategies in dealing with anger. ‘We choose the one that has proved effective for us in the past. Ever notice how seldom we lose control when frustrated by our boss, but how often we do when annoyed by friends or family?’ (‘The New Obscenity,’ Reader’s Digest, Dec. 1988, 24; emphasis added).”38
The text of Matthew 5:22 reads, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause.” The latter phrase is deleted in this purer rendition by the Savior as recorded among the Nephites (3 Nephi 12:22), because there is no cause, no justification, ever, to become really angry with a brother. The phrase was also deleted by the Prophet Joseph Smith in his inspired revision of the biblical text (JST, Matthew 5:22). The Spanish Bible (Casiodoro de Reina, dating from a half-century earlier than the English King James Version) also omits that phrase.
Raca is an Aramaic term that Joseph Smith adopted from the English Bible as an adequate rendering of a certain concept in the language of the Book of Mormon plates. Raca means an “empty” or “worthless” person (interestingly, the modern Hebrew cognate ravak means “bachelor”). Labeling someone as a raca or as a fool is forbidden by the Lord because we must not tell another child of Heavenly Father that he is worthless or “good for nothing” (on the value of every soul, see D&C 18:10; Topical Guide, “Worth of Souls”). It was, colloquially speaking, the ancient Aramaic way of calling someone an “airhead” or an “empty fool.” A person may be doing foolish things, but he or she is not inherently a “fool” but a child of the God of heaven.
In the Greek New Testament, “the council” referred to the Jewish Sanhedrin (Matthew 5:22; 3 Nephi 12:22). A person charged with denunciation, castigation, or condemnation of a brother could be arraigned before that council. In a larger sense, one guilty of such sinful name-calling in a future day may be arraigned before a heavenly council, at the judgment bar of God.
“Hell fire” in Hebrew is esh Gei Hinnom, “fire of the Hinnom Valley,” or, in the Greek transliteration, Gehenna. The hell to which people are cast down or cast out, the place of punishment by ever-burning fire, is represented by the Greek word Gehenna. The Hinnom Valley was the border between the Israelite tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8; 18:16). The valley lay to the southwest just outside the original City of David. Centuries before the Roman period, the Hinnom Valley was used for burning the trash of the city and for the burning of incense (2 Chronicles 28:3). The valley was also the scene of the burning of children as sacrifices to idols (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31); prophets warned of fiery judgments upon all those involved in such a repulsive practice.
The burning came to be symbolic in the New Testament of the devouring fire of judgment, representing the concept of hell as a place of continual burnings and eternal punishment. The book of Revelation describes hell as a lake of fire and brimstone (see commentary at Mosiah 3:27). There are twelve occurrences of Gehenna, translated as “hell” or “hell fire.” The most famous is Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:22), repeated here among the Nephites.