Is God OKAY with our Anger?

Is your anger a divine directive or a destructive force? Join me, James Long Jr., as we navigate the complex emotions that rage within us and explore whether God sees merit in our moments of fury. In a world where anger bubbles up from our newsfeeds to our dinner tables, understanding its rightful place in our hearts is more crucial than ever. We will dissect the dual nature of anger, learning to distinguish when it serves a righteous cause versus when it skews into sin, using biblical examples like Jesus's righteous zeal and scriptural caution from the Book of James.

From personal betrayals to global injustices, anger is a reaction many of us know too well. Yet, how often do we pause to reflect on what fuels it or where it leads us? Together, we'll uncover the nuances of anger that align with God's justice or stray into vengeful territory, examining its potential to either build bridges or burn them. Equip yourself with biblical wisdom to not only understand your anger but to harness it in a way that brings glory to God and fosters genuine reconciliation and peace.

ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE

Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 30 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are in search of freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:26

Hello everyone, my name is James Long Jr. I'm a pastor, counselor and university professor. I want to welcome you to Lessons for Life. Today, I am tackling a question that is not just a theological question. It's personal, it's practical, it's pressing. And here's the question is God ever okay with our anger? In a world where anger seems to be at an all-time high, from social media outbursts to conflicts within the home or the workplace, it's a question that has never been more relevant. We've seen how unchecked anger can tear apart relationships, erode trust and make it impossible to solve problems, even to hear each other out. But is there a time when our anger is not only understandable but justified in God's eyes? Does the Bible provide room for righteous anger or is all anger inherently evil? Today, we're going to dig deep into these questions and to explore what the scriptures say about our anger. So stay tuned, because understanding this could not only transform not just how you feel, but how you live. So let's dive in Now.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that your anger was not just appropriate, but it was also even necessary? Perhaps you were there. Maybe there was some outrage that you had experienced or some blatant act of injustice, or you felt betrayed by somebody close to you, or you witnessed evil that was done against somebody and it demanded a response. It's in moments like these where our anger can feel not only justified, but it also can feel like it was a moral obligation. Yet the question still remains here is this how do we know when our anger is truly righteous or when it is simply a mask for our own self-righteousness or our own resentment? And that's the question that we're going to explore today.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Righteous anger is a topic that generates a lot of debate. Very honestly, we often hear about people justifying their anger, claiming it to be righteous, yet we rarely pause to consider what it really means. Does calling anger righteous mean that it is automatically good and justified? If so, why does scripture so often caution us against letting our anger control us? If you remember, in James, chapter 1, verse 20, it tells us that the anger of a man does not produce the righteousness of God, and if that's the case, it suggests that even if our anger feels justified, it may be leading us away from things that God wills for our lives. So in today's discussion, we're going to dive deep into understanding what the Bible says about anger righteous anger. We'll explore the risk, we'll explore the potentials, we'll explore, more importantly, how to discern whether our anger aligns with God's purposes. Ultimately, we aim to equip you with the biblical principles that are there that will help you to navigate these situations in a way that glorifies God and promotes true justice and reconciliation.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Let's discuss the main problem with anger. It's the dual nature, it's the double-edged nature of anger. On one side of it, anger can feel legitimate. It can feel like a legitimate response to wrongdoing. It can motivate us to stand up against evil, it can help us to seek justice, and we see examples of that throughout scripture. We see Jesus's anger at the money changers. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But on the other side, we see that anger can be an emotional response that can be often twisted by our own sin nature, and what it does is. It then leads to bitterness, it leads to resentment, it leads to unforgiveness, it may even lead to vengeful actions, and this duality is what presents the problem for us.

Speaker 1: 4:19

How do we differentiate between righteous anger and sinful anger? This challenge is even more complicated because anger is often a reaction against something personal. Someone is hurting us or violating our values, and we're tempted to call it righteous anger because we feel justified, but if it's mainly about defending ourselves or getting revenge, then, very honestly, it may not align with God's will, because if it's only about us, it doesn't align with God's will. Now, understanding the different is so important. It requires us to do some careful reflection on what is fueling our anger and understanding what is it leading us to? Where is it leading us to? So what's fueling it and where is it leading us to? Is it pointing us to God's justice or pulling us away from God's peace? And now, today we're going to explore that criteria that will help us to discern it, and I'll give you a heads up. Here's the criteria that there has to be a godly standard, there has to be a godly motive and we have to display it in godly ways. But let's talk a little bit more about injustice.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Throughout history, movements have been driven by anger over injustice that have led to positive and also negative outcomes. For example, anger at moral wrongs fueled significant positive changes in many cases. However, other movements began with righteous anger and then quickly descended into chaos, and this shows that even our justified anger can produce different results depending on how it is directed or how it is managed. Now, if you think about anger behind the abolition of slavery or the civil rights movement that was driven by a desire for justice, there was something evil that was happening and there was anger that was built up inside of people and they wanted to deal with that. Now, these movements arose from an outrage over these deeply immoral practices. Yet that same kind of anger, when misdirected and misapplied and uncontrolled, can lead to violence and upheaval. That happened in the French Revolution.

Speaker 1: 6:22

The difference lies in whether that anger is expressed in a constructive or a destructive manner, which is always why our focus today will be understanding how to channel righteous anger biblically. Now, from a psychological perspective, anger can often arise from perceived threats, because we are making a perception of what this threat is. Now, that threat may be to our values, whether it's physical, whether it's emotional, whether it's moral, and this emotional response that we have can push us to take action to protect ourselves and the things that we cherish. Now, while anger can be a catalyst for positive change, it also has the potential to become habitual, misdirected or even destructive if it's left unchecked. The key is to recognize the root cause of our anger and to determine whether it aligns with biblical principles and values.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Now, from a philosophical viewpoint, philosophical discussions on anger often include the concept of what we'll call virtuous anger, where anger is seen as justifiable if it is controlled and directed at a real injustice. Aristotle, for instance, spoke of anger as a virtue when it was felt for the right reasons, when it was in the right amount and it was at the right time. However, while those ideas are intriguing, it falls short of providing us a complete framework for righteous anger. The Bible gives us a more holistic viewpoint and we'll see that in the following moments here. So there are three key points I want you to consider as we consider righteous anger. Number one is it aligns with God's standards.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Righteous anger must be rooted at a violation of God's standard, not merely a personal preference or cultural values. It should arise for a response to clear sin or moral wrongdoing, according to scripture. Now the Bible frequently speaks of God's righteous anger towards sin, injustice or idolatry. In fact, in Psalm, chapter 7, verse 11, it describes God as a righteous judge who feels indignation every day at wickedness. Or, as we talked about earlier, jesus showed his anger when he cleansed the temple in Matthew 21. That was not because of a personal offense. It was because he was defending the sanctity of God's house. He was protecting those that were worshiping there, and other people were profaning God's house and offending other people. See, when our anger is rooted in a clear biblical principle, such as defending the oppressed, or standing up against corruption or confronting false teaching, it aligns with God's standards.

Speaker 1: 9:01

It's crucial to ensure that the object of our anger is something that truly grieves God's heart, rather than something that merely irritates us or is an inconvenience to us. That moves us to step number two. So if step number one is it has to have a righteous standard, step number two is that it needs to be for God's glory and others' good. For anger to be righteous, the motivation behind it must be to honor God and to seek the well-being of others, rather than just to serve our own personal interest. Righteous anger is fueled by a desire for God's glory that has to be upheld and for justice to be done and for people to be protected and restored. See, in the life of Jesus, what we do is we see him rebuking the Pharisees.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Now, was his anger directed for wrong reasons? No, his anger was directed at their hypocrisy, and their hypocrisy was keeping people away from the truth of God's word. His aim was always to correct and call people back to God, not merely to express his frustration or his irritation. Now, old Testament prophets also did the same thing. They expressed their anger at the sins that Israel was committing. They did so at a desire to protect the nation and to call them back to turn back to God, and the message was to call for repentance and that desire to turn back to God and away from sin. That was for the good of the nation. That was for the good of the people.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Now, when our anger aims to correct wrongs and to bring about justice and to seek reconciliation, then it aligns with God's purposes. However, if it's about proving ourselves right or punishing others out of spite, it has crossed the line into sinful anger. That leads us to number three displaying anger in godly ways and reflecting the fruit of the spirit. Even when our anger is based on God's standard and seeks his glory and the good of others, it still must be expressed in a way that reflects Christ. This means demonstrating the fruit of the spirit, like in Galatians, chapter 5, where it talks about love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Righteous anger should never lead to outbursts of anger or harsh words or vengeful actions. It must be controlled, it must be measured, it must be expressed in a way that builds people up rather than tears them down. Jesus, for example, did not lose control when he was angry. He didn't express himself out of sheer emotional impulses. He controlled himself and he expressed his anger in righteous ways. His actions were deliberate, they were targeted at a specific sin and it was aiming to bring people back to God and back into a right relationship with God. And when we display our anger in godly ways, it can be a constructive thing, it can be a healing thing. But if our response leads to shouting hostility or damaging the relationship, it ceases to be righteous and it becomes destructive. So let's try to wrap this up and it becomes destructive. So let's try to wrap this up. Righteous anger can indeed be justified when it is grounded in God's standard, seeking God's glory and for the good of others, and when it is expressed in a way that reflects God's glory, when it reflects the fruit of the Spirit. However, if any of these elements is missing, what began as righteous anger now has become sinful. The challenge is not only to identify when our anger is justified, but to assure that it's expressed in a way that honors God and brings about true reconciliation.

Speaker 1: 12:29

I encourage you to reflect on your own experiences of anger. Think about moments when you felt justified in your anger. Did it align with God's standards? Was it motivated by a desire for honor of God's name or the benefit of others, and did it produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life in the way you thought, the way you spoke or the way you acted? So if you struggled with these questions, I encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences. Let's keep this conversation going and let's try to grow in our understanding together. For additional guidance, feel free to explore our resources and coaching program at jameslongjrorg. If you found this presentation helpful, do me a favor. Leave a comment below. Like this video, subscribe to the channel. Click the bell notification as well, then you'll be notified when we post new content. Remember, true change is possible when you walk in God's grace and for His glory. Until next time, may you find peace, hope and joy in Christ alone. Blessings.