It’s not a sin to be angry in response to some things. It might be a sin NOT to be angry.
And because people know that, anger is a powerful trap for the unwary.
Anyone who takes the Bible seriously knows that God gets angry. I won’t even bother to cite all the texts. Dip into the Bible almost anywhere.
But the Bible covers a lot of history. While reading about God’s anger in its pages, you can forget that you are covering generations of time. Or that the prophets are giving warnings about what would happen and pleading with people to repent because there is still time to avoid God’s anger, or at least avoid the worst of it.
Because, when it comes to anger, God boasts about being a slacker. He can do it, but he is rather hesitant about it.
I use the term “slacker” because of the King James Version of the Bible on First Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Peter says Jesus is not a slacker when it comes to judging the wicked and delivering the righteous. Why not? Because he is a slacker about destroying sinners; he would prefer repentance.
This is how He identifies himself when he shows His glory to Moses:
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Exodus 34:5–7 ESV
Slow to anger. Hesitant to get angry. Waits to see if something can be done to alter his anger. That’s what God mentions when he is declaring who he is. That’s what he wants Moses to remember about his glory.
ANGER AS ADDICTION
The Bible warns against anger as a self-destructive habit that spreads by example and causes both personal and social harm:
- “A man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again” (Proverbs 19:19 ESV).
- “Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare” (Proverbs 22:24–25 ESV).
- “A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression” (Proverbs 29:22 ESV).
This description is comparable to wine: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1 ESV).
Anger is an emotion. It impels action. It can help you do the right thing when it is called for. If you are angry, you don’t have to get motivated. You are already motivated.
A person who takes a drink, initially thinking he will only have one, might find the drink impairs his judgment and causes him to lack restraint to resist that second drink and so on from there. And a person who is angry, can be motivated to find reasons to get angry and stay angry. He is much like a person who, because he is depressed, tends to choose behaviors that lengthen and deepen his depression.
ANGER OVERWHELMS
And anger, if not directed carefully, can make a situation unnecessarily worse. “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1 ESV). But people who are angry often don’t think ahead. They want to give full vent to their frustration. That, in turn, provokes the other person to still more anger. This anger leads to more anger whether within a single individual or in any interaction between two or more. “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back” (Proverbs 29:11 ESV).
Instead of responding to a situation, you end up responding to you’re own outrage which you deliberately grow and nurture. Thus, the general rules are to avoid it, refuse to feed it, and be careful what you do with it: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19–20 ESV).
(In my book, Solomon Says (Athanasius) I compare the Bible warnings about speaking in anger to modern “Don’t drink and drive” messaging.)
Anger gives one the feeling of power. But controlling anger and making it serve a purpose shows real power: “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Proverbs 16:32 ESV). Excuses for anger are plentiful. Learn to distrust them.
People who drink too much often think they are being clever or authentic when they are really just acting like idiots. Anger can have a similar effect. It feels authentic, but it actually can make you a shadow of your true self.