Foundations of Faith
ANGER (I)
Do you ever get angry? If so, you have lots of company. I recently polled about 75 young people on the question, “What makes you the angriest?” Only one respondent denied getting angry. Is it wrong to get angry? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We will try to sort this out in this series of articles.
This topic is slightly out of place. No doubt it should have appeared prior to the Oct00 issue of GROWING. The problem of anger has been mentioned a few times previously in GROWING, but it is such a widespread and serious problem, even among Christians-young and old alike-that it merits special consideration in this publication. Anger destroys marriages. Anger alienates parents and children. Anger has led to physical assault and murder. Road rage maims and kills.
The problem is not new. There are nearly 500 verses in the Bible with the words “anger,” “wrath,” “bitterness,” and related words, and there are over 40 people, or groups of people, in the Bible who are reported to be angry.
There is one Person whose anger is referred to in the Bible more often than that of all others put together:God. Why is God angry so often? Here is just one of many examples:”You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people that are round about you (for the Lord you God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and destroy you from off the face of the earth” (Deut. 6:14,15). Some Christians seem to be embarrassed by the frequent references to the anger and wrath of God; but we need to remember that God is a holy God (Nov93) and hates sin and must judge sin; that is why He had to send His own Son to bear His holy judgment against sin.
There are basically two kinds of anger-righteous anger and sinful anger. There are at least three reasons we can know that some kinds of anger are not sinful:(1) God has anger and we know that God does not sin; (2) Jesus Christ when here on earth sometimes displayed anger and we know that He never sinned; and (3) we Christians are commanded to “be angry” (Eph. 4:26).
How can we tell the difference between righteous anger and sinful anger? Let us consider the examples of Jesus’ anger:”He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they watched Him, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse Him…. And when He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He said unto the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it out:and his hand was restored whole as the other” (Mark 3:1-5). Jesus was angry because of the people’s hypocrisy. They were very happy to be able to have whole bodies and be able to use their hands and feet properly on the Sabbath day; but their hearts were so hardened that they were more interested in having an opportunity to find fault with Jesus than seeing this man’s body made whole like their own. Jesus was angry because of their pretended concern for the Sabbath of Jehovah-God and their corresponding lack of concern for those whom God loved.
In Matthew 23:23-31 we have another example of Christ’s anger when He openly denounced the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They pretended to be religious while carrying around many very sinful attitudes and behaviors. One more example is found in John 2:13-16 where we read of Jesus overturning tables and driving out merchants from the temple. By selling animals for sacrifice at the temple, the religious leaders pretended to be promoting proper religious activity, while actually it was a front for gouging the public and enriching themselves.
Note that in each of these examples, Jesus’ anger was not in response to being personally offended or hurt. On the occasion of man’s greatest personal offenses against Him, when they wrongfully condemned Him to death by crucifixion, consider His responses:”He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7; see also 1 Pet. 2:23). “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He was angry, rather, because of the way they misrepresented God by their pretended love for God’s law and lack of love for God’s people.
The Bible describes others who had righteous anger. Potiphar’s anger toward Joseph (Gen. 39:19) was righteous based on his wife’s testimony; sadly, her testimony was false. (See Assignment 1)
There is a place in our lives for righteous anger. Christ is our example. We do well to respond with anger when we hear or read of men or women who bring reproach upon God or Christ or the Holy Scriptures or God’s people, or who grossly misrepresent the Bible or God.
But what are we to do with our righteous anger? Just vent it and go on to something else? No! God created us with the capacity for anger for a reason. Anger spurs us to action, to defense, or to attack. There is a physiological response in anger that gives us heightened clarity of mind and increased strength. It is given to us to use to deal with the sin against God or against a fellow human being that we have just observed. So, as with any other problem, we first take it to the Lord in prayer (if even for a split-second). Then we act upon the Lord’s direction and strength in seeking to rescue a person from a verbal or physical attack, or in speaking or writing strongly to the sinning person.
Our anger stirs us to action. That does not mean that we attack the person, using nasty language and the like. We use anger to attack the problem rather than the person. So we try to get them to see how they have reproached or misrepresented God by what they have said or done. (See Assignment 2)
Before any of us is qualified to express righteous anger, we must be certain that we can properly, scripturally, differentiate between righteous anger and sinful anger. This will be considered in the next issue.
Running the Race
Assignment 1: Why was Moses angry in Exodus 32, and why was Elihu angry in Job 32?
Assignment 2: Describe a situation in your life in which you expressed righteous anger.