Subscribe
Above Reproach
Book List
Apr
15
By Peggy Lively
Having four children and being a parent now for almost thirteen years, I have often found myself losing my patience and becoming angry with my children over their behavior or attitudes. In my frustration, I would “lose it” and then feel guilty and ashamed for getting upset with them for whatever they had done. This usually led to the “I am such a horrible parent” syndrome. In these emotions, I came to believe that all anger was sin. But there was one story in the Bible that made me stumble over my perception of anger and question this thinking. It is the story of Jesus in the temple with the money changers. Because of my personal experience, I couldn’t wrap my mind around that idea that Jesus was really angry in the temple, angry enough to crack a whip and throw tables, yet He didn’t sin. (John 2:13-16)
This led me to begin studying the word anger in the Bible, and I found that most of the verses I read were referring to God’s anger. (Once again challenging my belief that all anger is sin.) There are countless verses in the Old Testament that speak of how God’s people provoked Him to anger and how His anger burned against them. Here are just a few: I Kings 16:2, 7, 13, 26, 33. These verses refer to God’s response to their evil behavior and worship of other gods.
The one verse that surprised me the most was when God became angry at Moses for asking Him to send someone else to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt: Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?” (Exodus 4:13-14) Now I don’t claim to know the Greek word for anger or any other interpretation of the word. But this definitely made me think about how I respond to the Lord when He asks me to serve Him in some capacity.
Since it is impossible for God the Father or Jesus His Son to sin, I had to come to the conclusion and accept the fact that anger itself is not sin. It is an emotion that both God and Jesus expressed. But because it is a negative emotion, I had always assumed it was a sin.
Even though the emotion of anger itself is not sin, it can often lead us to sin. Proverbs 29:22 says, “An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression.” (NKJV) This is why we are cautioned in Scripture to be slow to become angry. Again, it doesn’t say, “Do not become angry” but “be slow to become angry.” “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” (James 1:19)
So it is possible to be angry and not sin. The Bible says, “In your anger do not sin.” (Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26, NIV) Another version says, “Don’t sin by letting anger control you.” (NLT) This is the difficult part for us. It is easy for us to become angry, but it takes the Holy Spirit helping us so we don’t sin in our anger. Matthew Henry says, “Be you angry. This we are apt enough to be, God knows: but we find it difficult enough to observe the restriction, and sin not. If you have a just occasion to be angry at any time, see that it be without sin; and therefore take heed of excess in your anger.’’ [1]
Anger is a natural emotion that God both created and expressed. As you experience it though, keep it in check, making sure that He is the author and controller of it.
[1]Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody : Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. Eph 4:17
Leave a Reply
