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Being Angry With One’s Brother

Matthew 5:22

I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother rashly shall be subject to the judgment.

Apocalypse Explained 693:8

It is to be known that in all evil there is anger against the Lord and against the holy things of the church. That this is so has been made clearly evident to me from the hells, in which all are in evils, and from which are all evils. For there, when they merely hear the Lord named, they become inflamed with vehement anger, not only against Him, but also against all who confess Him. Thence it is that hell is the diametrical opposite of heaven, and is in the perpetual effort to destroy heaven, and to extinguish the Divine things in it, which are the goods of love and the truths of faith.

This shows why evils are angry with goods, and falsities of evil with truths; this is why “anger” in the Word signifies evil in the whole complex.... [As] in Matthew:

Jesus said, It was said to them of old, Whoever shall kill shall be liable to the judgment; but I say to you, Whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the judgment (Matt. 5:21, 22).

“To be angry with his brother without cause” here also signifies enmity and hatred against good and truth. Those also who have such enmity and such hatred commit murder continually in mind, intention and will, and would murder actually if it were permitted, that is, if they were not hindered by the laws and the consequent fear of punishment and loss of life or of reputation, honor, or gain. For what a man cherishes in his mind, that he does when it is permissible.

“He who is angry with his brother without cause is liable to the judgment,” the same as he who murders, because “to be angry” signifies to think, intend, and will evil to another. And all evil of the will is in the life of man’s spirit and returns after death, and this is why he is then “liable to the judgment,” for what belongs to the intention and will is judged like deeds.... It is self-evident that every evil conceals in itself anger against good, for it wills to extinguish what is good, and even to murder him in whom there is good, if not as to the body, still as to the soul; and this is altogether done from anger and with anger.

Arcana Coelestia 1010

“Shedding blood” in the literal sense is killing, but in the internal sense it is bearing hatred against the neighbor, as the Lord teaches in Matthew [5:21-22] ....

Here “being angry” signifies receding from charity... and consequently hatred. He who is in hatred, not only has no charity, but also inflicts violence on charity, that is, “sheds blood.” In hatred lies actual murder, as is manifest from this, that he who is in hatred desires nothing so much as that the one he hates should be killed; and if he were not withheld by outward restraints, he would kill him. For this reason the “killing of a brother and the shedding of his blood” is hatred; and since it is hatred, there is this hatred in every one of his ideas against him.

It is the same with profanation. He who profanes the Word, as has been said, not only holds truth in hatred, but also extinguishes or kills it. This is manifest from those in the other life who have committed profanation. No matter how upright, wise, and devout they have appeared outwardly during their life in the body, in the other life they hold the Lord in deadly hatred, and also all the goods of love and truths of faith, for the reason that these are opposed to their inward hatred, robbery, and adultery, which they have veiled with a show of holiness, and while adulterating the goods of love and truths of faith to favor themselves.

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