The most recent horrific news story to happen in the UK on Saturday 3rd July involves the shooting of a young woman and her partner in Gateshead. The young woman is being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds but her partner died of his injuries.
This incident was followed on Sunday morning by the shooting of a uniformed police officer at point blank range. He also is in hospital being treated for his wounds.
It is being reported that the police believe the same 37-year old man, named as Raoul Thomas Moat, is responsible for all three shootings – a man who had only been released from prison three days earlier. It is believed the shootings may have been motivated by a grudge against the couple and perhaps against the police.
Remarkably, in an interview with one of his neighbours, Raoul Moat was described as a decent, non aggressive man.
The bible has little to say about individual crimes such as this. Instead, it identifies the fundamental underlying problems that give rise to all kinds of wrong behaviour in society, which range from the clearly criminal through to anti-social behaviour, vandalism and the like.
In fact, the bible goes much further when discussing wrong behaviour than do many sociologists. Instead of considering only conduct, the bible looks at the heart attitudes that give rise to the behaviour.
Most people have heard about the “sermon on the mount”, preached by Jesus, even if they don’t know what it was about. One of the points Jesus makes is:
“You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.’ But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother ‘You good-for-nothing!’ you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.”
(Matthew 5:21-22 GNB)
And in similar manner, Jesus said:
“For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill, commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly. All these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean.”
(Mark 7:21-23 GNB)
It’s the thought patterns we develop that are the main determining factor for our actions. For most people, the accepted norms of society act as a constraint on how we actually behave, but there are few of us who have never at one time or another felt so angry with someone that we wanted to strike out at them.
Controlling what goes on in our hearts (our inner life, thoughts and emotions) is notoriously difficult and the bible says can only be controlled with outside help – God’s help.
If you struggle to control anger or any other strong emotions, then perhaps it’s time you allowed God into your life to bring about a transformation.
