Anger
This is the second part of a three part series on Love, Anger, and Forgiveness
There are two types of anger; righteous anger and fleshly anger. I will attempt in this writing to discuss both.
Fleshly anger:
James 1:20, For the wrath of man does not produce the Righteousness of God.
Have you ever been around someone that was angry all the time? Some people seem to thrive on anger. They can’t seem to go through life without clinging to anger as if anger somehow protects them or gives them some false sense of power or control and they take solace in their state of being angry all the time. I’ve known people like this in my life; I grew up with it.
These people have a commonality… that being that any little thing will set them off and then they will do everything in their power to stay in their state of rage.
I liken fleshly anger to sitting in the middle of a large plain surrounded by tall dead grass and starting a fire to keep warm. As soon as the first flame appears, the wind starts to blow, and this is going to get out of control… and quickly! What I should have done is to dig the warm coat out of my pack for my comfort.
What I’m referring to is, if I fail to realize my anger (the flame) and let it ignite, it will rapidly consume everything around me. But if I realize my anger and immediately contemplate the scriptures (the coat from my pack) then I will find comfort and everything will be well. (Easier said than done, I know.)
Fleshly anger is emotion and this particular emotion is self-feeding. If not controlled and conquered quickly, it will become hatred. Hatred is a fire that dominates logic and compassion.
In some, anger turns to rage and rage often turns to violent actions. I saw this example from the time I was very young. My grandfather would say that you measure the level of a man’s maturity by his ability of self-control. (A very wise statement!) There are some folks that have compassionate personalities. They tend to have a firm control on anger, and being compassionate leaves no room for anger to manifest.
Ephesians 4:26, Be angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down on your wrath. In this verse we can know that there are things that will anger us, but we should not dwell on them nor should we let the sun set without resolving the issue in our hearts and minds.
If we sleep on our anger, we will often wake up more angry than when we went to sleep, plus we are never glad in anger (at least those of us that are sane), so if we go to bed angry we are bringing yesterday’s ugliness into a new day. Every new day is a gift of wonderful opportunities.
Psalm 118:24, This is a day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
We cannot be glad in the new day if we carry the anger from yesterday into it. I could provide a long list of things that make folks angry and discuss typical reactions, but to restrict my writing to less than 5 pages, I won’t.
Something to cover here is that we are experiencing a phenomenon in the world right now - a generation that have no ability to cope with emotion of any type.
It seems when they encounter any strong emotion event they fall apart, mentally lose their ability to cope and, far too often, become non-functioning adults. Sadly, this seems to be spilling over to the previous generation in certain parts of the country, it’s like a disease of sorts. Why? Because of a lack of Godly teaching and understanding of the scriptures.
Here are a few more scripture references on anger that will be very helpful.
Proverbs 14:29, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
Psalm 37:8, Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
James 1:19, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Ecclesiastes 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
Righteous Anger
We must be very careful, even in our righteous anger, to not let it become fleshly anger.
There are a lot of Christian folks that cannot seem to discern the difference, and some who would claim that Jesus Himself being in the temple, fashioning a whip, and then running the money-changers out, was wrong in doing so.
Oh, they would never say Christ was wrong, but if you told that story and said a preacher went to Church and members were selling their goods outside the Church, and he braided a whip in the sanctuary then went out and started yelling and kicking tables over, and ran them all off some would be appalled and condemn the preacher and the act.
Righteous anger is justified, and even action in righteousness is justified at times, but this would need serious control. Righteous anger must be under full control with thought, and it must be scripturally valid.
Kenneth Kellar
A Man Called by God to Teach and Disciple