When I see hurting people, it makes me angry. When I see good people suffer, it makes me angry. When I see injustice perpetrated on the weak and infirm, lies passed off as truth, and evil appear to prosper, it really just ticks me off. Yes, even good Christian people can get irate about situations and circumstances that confront all us. The Bible does not say, never get angry for it is a sin. What we are told is to be slow to anger and quick to listen (James 1:19). Being quick-tempered is where anger can turn to injustice. There are a few instances where we can attribute anger feelings to our Lord. When Jesus cleared the temple of those using it as a means of personal financial gain, He showed great anger. In Matthew 21:12-13 we read, “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. ¹³ He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” In another instance, in the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus became angry with the Pharisees because of their hard heart toward the miracles they were seeing. “And he [Jesus] said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored” (Mark 3:4-5). In both cases, the Lord’s anger was based on a holy love for His Father’s house and the Pharisees lack of love for the infirm and hurting people they were supposed to be ministering to. Anger, in and of itself, is neither moral nor immoral. Anger is an emotion. It becomes sin when displays of anger are selfish, destructive, unmeasured, uncontrolled, and improperly placed. What the Bible says concerning anger is this, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). Next blog, we will look at the qualities of anger that is just and pure before God. May God bless you even more!

 

Pastor Chris