But *I* say unto you, that every one that is lightly angry with his brother shall be subject to the judgment; but whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be subject to [be called before] the sanhedrim; but whosoever shall say, Fool, shall be subject to the penalty of the hell of fire.
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I have solid material from Kelly (two works) and McBroom. Writing the response now.
The Verse in Context
In Matthew 5:22, the Lord lifts the sixth commandment off the plane of outward act and drives it down into the heart. Where the law said, "Thou shalt not kill," He names three graduated expressions of the same inward root — anger, a word of contempt, and a word of scorn — and shows that each one already stands under God's judgment.
William Kelly gives the sweep of it:
William KellyHere, in verse 21, we have the light of the kingdom cast on the command, "Thou shalt not kill: and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment." The law took cognizance of this extreme form of violence; but our Lord gives length, breadth, height, and depth to it... That is, our Lord treats as now coming under the same category with murder, in the sight of God, every kind of violence, and feeling, and expression; anything of contempt and hatred, whatever expresses the ill-feeling of the heart; any putting down of another, the will to annihilate others as far as character or influence is concerned: all this is no better than murder in God's searching eye.
And he underscores why the outward consequences are beside the point:
Therefore it is not at all a question merely of the consequences of violence to a man, for there might be no very bad effect produced by these words of anger, but they proved the state of the heart; and this is what the Lord is dealing with here.
The Three Degrees — Anger, Raca, Fool
Kelly treats the same verse again in a separate exposition on the Gospel, and there he brings out the graduated form in which the Lord denounces anger:
"Ye have heard that it was said to those of old, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be subject to the judgment. But I say to you, that everyone that is [rightly] angry with his brother shall be subject to the judgment; whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be subject to the council; and whosoever shall say, Fool, shall be subject to the hell of fire"... The law and the prophets He had vindicated. All must come to pass. Yet the law made nothing perfect. He speaks Who is above the law and gave fulness to all on His own authority.
He then identifies what is really being exposed:
Thus is the commandment made exceeding broad and deep. The axe is laid to the root of the evil tree. All violent feelings are judged as in God's sight, and every evil word of malice and contempt shown to be of sinful and dangerous consequence... Here He warns, not so much of every light word, but of wrath, hatred, and contempt. The Judge of all the earth, Himself despised by man and abhorred by the nation, as was soon proved, could not fail to discern aright.
And the spring of it all:
The danger He denounced is the burning sense of self, of the old man set on fire of hell. Circumstances might hinder its expression; but it stays in the heart it ruled, and makes itself at length felt in its malignity.
Is All Anger Forbidden?
The question at once arises: if anger exposes a man to the judgment, how can Scripture elsewhere say, "Be angry and sin not"? And how did the Lord Himself look round with anger in the synagogue? Kelly meets this directly:
But we know that very recently (Mark 3:1-6) the Holy and the True looked round with anger in the synagogue on those who watched with murderous hate, if He would heal a poor sufferer on the Sabbath... They (the high and the broad) were silent; but the fire of their anger burned to destroy Him, after He also bade the man stretch out his palsied hand, restored on the instant His holy anger was distressed at the hardening of their hearts...
If it be objected that so the Lord was entitled righteously to denounce, but no one else may, what are we to learn from one of like passions with ourselves? He on just occasion could say in the Spirit, to an erring saint at Corinth with questions about the resurrection, Fool!... The same apostle tells the saints (Eph. 4:26), Be angry and sin not. If one truly follow the Lord and the apostle, anger then is a duty, not a sin; yet one surely has to watch and pray withal.
He draws the line cleanly:
The source, motive, and aim decide. If of God and for Him by the Spirit, anger has His sanction; if for self, it is evil that exposes to judgment: and so the Lord denounces on its various degrees expressed in a form familiar to Jews.
So the Lord is not forbidding every stirring of indignation — He is forbidding the burning of self, the wrath that despises a brother and would reduce him to nothing.
The Heart Laid Bare
Thomas McBroom places the verse within the whole movement of the Sermon on the Mount, where the Lord is tracing every act back to its inward root:
Thomas McBroomWe may now pass on more rapidly till we reach the end of the chapter. In verses 21 to 37 the human heart is laid bare, and evil is traced back from the overt act to the motive which gave it birth, and with this the adjusting of existing relationships in regard to earth and heaven, time and eternity. Violence (verse 21) and corruption (verse 27) are mentioned only to be traced to the heart of man, however cultivated, and then (verses 29, 30) not only is the spring of evil in man traced to its source, but the cause or opportunity of it must be cut off... It is from the old corrupt tree of fallen human nature that these evil things spring; introduce the new life, and instead of the works of the flesh there are love, joy, peace, long-suffering: against which there is no law.
The Synthesis
Matthew 5:22 is the Lord's exposure of murder at its root. The law restrained the hand; the King of the kingdom of the heavens judges the heart. Anger toward a brother — when it rises from self and not from God — has the same moral character as murder, because it is the same spring. "Raca" (empty-head) and "thou fool" are not merely careless words; they are the audible eruption of that inward contempt, each degree more hardened than the last, each drawing a heavier judgment until the final one — "the hell of fire." The Lord is not outlawing every form of indignation: holy anger against evil, moved by the Spirit and aimed at God's glory, is sanctioned and at times even required. What He condemns is the burning sense of self — wrath that would annihilate a brother in feeling, in word, or in reputation. And because no mere reformation of conduct can reach this root, the verse silently demands what the Lord was already preparing to give: a new nature, born of God, in which such murderous flame has no fuel.