Jesus said that whoever calls someone a fool will be in danger of going to hell (Matt. 5:22).  However, the Bible repeatedly calls people fools.  Is this a contradiction?

Let’s examine the context of the Matthew passage.  Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount.  As a Jew living under the Law of Moses (which would be in effect until his death — Heb. 9:15-17; Col. 2:14), Jesus had just informed his Jewish listeners of the need to obey the Law of Moses in order to “be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19).  He then challenged them to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees who were teaching them the Law (Matt. 5:20).

To elaborate on this last point, Jesus then takes the spiritually superficial teachings of the scribes and Pharisees and exhorts his listeners to go even further in their obedience to God (Matt. 5:21-48).  For example, while the scribes and Pharisees condemned adultery, Jesus went further by teaching the Jews to avoid the lust that would lead to adultery (Matt. 5:27-30).

Along these same lines, he took the scribes and Pharisees’ condemnation of murder and went to the next level by condemning the anger and insults that would lead to murder:

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.”  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.  (Matt. 5:21-22)

Let’s break this down.  The scribes and Pharisees were correct to teach that murder is sinful and that judgment would be forthcoming to murderers, but apparently they had little to say about what often leads to murder.  Therefore, Jesus waded into these untouched waters by basically saying to the Jews, “The scribes and Pharisees focus on the sinfulness of murder and how murder will bring you into a courtroom.  I’m expanding on that.  I’m going to focus on the heart of the matter.  Don’t murder…and don’t have within your heart the anger that would lead you to murder.  I want you to view being angry with someone like doing so would bring you in front of a judge just as murdering someone would.”  

This is in line with such passages as 1 John 3:11-12, 14-15, Galatians 5:19-21, Ecclesiastes 7:9, Colossians 3:8, Ephesians 4:26-27, 31, James 1:19-20, Psalm 37:8, Proverbs 14:17, 29, Proverbs 15:18, Proverbs 16:32, Proverbs 19:19, Proverbs 21:19, and Proverbs 22:24-25.  It would be worth your time to study those verses and apply what they teach about anger to your own life.

Jesus then turned his attention to insults.  The ESV has him saying, “…whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council…”, whereas the NASB puts it as, “…whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court…”, and the KJV, NKJV, and ASV say, “…whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council…”  Raca (rhaka) is an Aramaic term which Strong defines as “O empty one, i.e. thou worthless (as a term of utter vilification).”  Thayer defines it as “empty, i.e. a senseless, empty-headed man, a term of reproach used by the Jews in the time of Christ.”

Jesus is basically saying, “I’m not only condemning your unrighteous anger.  I’m condemning every step that would take place between anger and murder.  So think of anger like it would bring you before the local magistrate.  But when your anger motivates you to insult someone and call them stupid or good-for-nothing, I want you to imagine that doing that would bring you before the Jewish High Council to be found guilty without question.”

This brings us to what Jesus had to say about the term “fool” and how he promised that those who use that term “will be liable to the hell of fire.”  “Fool” comes from the Greek term moros, which is the etymology of the English insult moron.  Thayer’s definition of moros is interesting:  “foolish; imprudent, without forethought or wisdom; equivalent to empty, useless; equivalent to impious, godless” (emphasis mine).  “Godless” obviously refers to being “without God,” i.e., someone who has allowed sin and immorality to reign in their lives.  “Impious” has to do with showing a lack of reverence or respect for God in their life.  Thus, moros (“fool”) carries with it more than the notion of someone who is foolish and lacks wisdom.  It also carries with it the charge of being “empty (or) useless” in the sense of being “impious” (lacking reverence and respect for God) and “godless” (being a very sinful and immoral person).

Jesus’ point is basically this:  “I’m condemning every step that would take place between unrighteous anger and murder.  Think of anger like it would bring you before the local magistrate.  Think of insulting someone like it would bring you before the Jewish high council.  And if your anger then leads you to unrighteously judge the object of your anger to be someone who is completely immoral and lacks any reverence for God, that will cause you to lose your soul in hell!”

Keeping this in mind helps us to see why the Scriptures as a whole use the term “fool” a lot even though Jesus connects its usage with going to hell in Matthew 5:22.  A cursory examination of how inspired writers use the same word for fool and similar terminology throughout Scripture (cf. Matt. 7:26; 23:17, 19; 25:2ff; Lk. 11:40; 12:20; 1 Cor. 1:25, 27; 3:18; 4:10; 2 Tim. 2:23; Tit. 3:9; Rom. 2:20; 1 Cor. 15:36; 2 Cor. 11:16, 19; 12:6, 11; Eph. 5:17; 1 Pet. 2:15) shows that they used these terms in righteous, instructive ways.  This shows us that Christ’s point in Matthew 5:22 is not simply to avoid saying these words.

His point is for us to avoid using them out of unrighteous anger with the motive to hurt, abuse, and denigrate a fellow human being who has a soul for whom he died on that cross.

His point is for us to realize that if one first allows unrighteous anger to dwell in one’s heart, one will soon begin to show it.  You’ll need to vent that anger, first by insulting the intelligence and usefulness of the object of your anger (“Raca,” “good-for-nothing”).  Then you will find that it feels better to vent by slandering them and accusing them of godlessness, immorality, and having no godly wisdom or usefulness (the meaning of moros, “You fool!”).

By this point you will definitely have real hate for them in your heart.  Combine that hate with anger, and let both simmer in your heart…and what will happen eventually?

Sooner or later the insults and the indictments of wrongdoing on their part won’t be enough.

In the end, the anger which breeds hate will result in that hate fostering a desire to take their life.  That’s exactly how the first murder came to be (Gen. 4:5-8; cf. 1 John 3:11-12, 14-15).