Lessons for Life with James Long, Jr.
Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join James, 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 on a search for freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!
Lessons for Life with James Long, Jr.
Is Your Anger "REALLY" Righteous?
Can you distinguish between anger that serves justice and anger that serves self? Today, we uncover the complex layers of anger, using insights from Robert D. Jones's "Uprooting Anger" to guide our journey. We promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of how anger functions as a full-body response to perceived wrongs and how our perceptions can mislead us into sinful reactions. By referencing scripture from James chapters 1 and 3, we explore how internal temptations and desires can mold our anger, and how seeking godly wisdom can help us manage it more effectively.
Join us as we delve into the biblical criteria for identifying righteous anger. We consider the writings of James 4:1-12, Jeremiah 17, and Ephesians 4, emphasizing humility and submission to God while challenging ourselves to evaluate the true motives behind our anger. Through biblical narratives such as Jonah, we reflect on whether our anger aligns with divine justice or our personal pride. This transformative discussion inspires a pivot from self-centered anger towards a focus on God's kingdom, urging us to assess our emotions through a lens of faith and righteousness.
The path to peaceful relationships and emotional healing becomes clearer as we examine how to respond to anger through a spiritual framework. We explore crucial questions about anger's targets, expressions, and duration, while unpacking the dangers of suppressing or exploding in anger. The episode culminates in a hopeful message: the transformative power of grace and reliance on the Holy Spirit can guide us to overcome unrighteous anger. By the end of our conversation, you’ll be equipped with the tools to start uprooting unhealthy anger and nurturing peace and love in your life. Stay tuned as we prepare for next week's session, where practical solutions await.
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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Hello everyone, it's James Long and welcome back to our Lunch and Learn. Today we're going to be tackling the topic of is your anger really righteous? Anger is one of those major issues that so many of us struggle with. So many of us are dealing with it, either dealing with other people's anger or our own anger, and the principles that we talked about last week really help us to understand how we could work through this process. So, if you remember, last week we had talked about that.
Speaker 1:The top is this book Uprooting Anger, by Robert D Jones. It's a great book. If you haven't gotten a chance to pick it up yet, I would encourage you to do so. When you pick up the book, what you'll learn are some of the key topics that are in there. He begins the lesson with what is anger and he lays out for you a standard of what anger is.
Speaker 1:Now, if you remember, last week we had talked about that anger is found throughout Scripture. There are so many passages in Scripture that speak of anger, and mostly anger talks about the sinful tendencies that we have towards anger. Anger is one of those sins which war against our soul and we gave you this definition by Jones and, if you remember, the definition was our whole person active response of a negative moral judgment against perceived evil. And you remember we broke it down into the key components. We had talked about anger as a response against something. It's reacting against some provocation that is there in life, and so I want you to think about what are some of the common provocations, what are some of the things that provoke you time after time, and why do they provoke you? Understanding those two key concepts is so important. And then what we did was we moved from that piece of the definition to the next piece. Where was? Anger is an active response. It's something that we do, it's not something that we have. You know, so many times what we find is that people will say that you're making me angry or something is happening around me that's making me angry, and therefore it's almost like we're passive in this, that we're not doing anything. It's somebody else doing it to us. And this definition makes it very clear that anger is an active response. It's something that we do. It's not just something that we have, it's not just genetics and it's not just what's happening around us. It's about things that are happening within us as well. Then he talked about that anger is a whole person active response. It's about your whole person.
Speaker 1:Now, so many of us tend to think of anger as a feeling, and it it is, but it's also driven by beliefs. It's driven by actions. It comes out in your desires. So when you think about anger, it's not enough just to say it's a feeling. It is important to be able to acknowledge that anger is also about the way we but what we believe and how we feel and how we act and how we decide on the desires that we have of our heart. We feel and how we act and the desires that we have of our heart. So anger is something that we're responding against. It's a response against something. It is an active response. It is a whole person active response.
Speaker 1:But then we also talked last week it is involving a negative moral judgment. So we view something or someone as wrong. We object to a wrong that has been committed. It pits us against what we believe to be unjust or evil. And so what are the things that you feel are just so wrong and you were so upset over Now? Maybe things that are happening around you. Maybe the political climate that we're going through right now. Maybe there are things that are happening within your church or your family, at work or whatever it may be. We have a tendency to make a judgment about those things and we see those things as wrong. Now I would say this, and we're going to get into that today, that it's not always sinful, as we will see today, that some of these judgments are actually right, and we are right in having these judgments and having the problems with the anger or the situation. Okay, so anger is also a negative moral judgment, but then it is against a perceived evil, and if you remember, last week we had talked about that your anger arises out of your personal perception. It's something that we dislike or oppose. Now, our perceptions may or may not be accurate and our responses may or may not be godly, and so what happens is it arises out of our value system, and not all people are always angry for the same reason. So it is so important to recognize that just because you're feeling angry doesn't mean that your perception may be accurate. Recognize that just because you're feeling angry doesn't mean that your perception may be accurate, and just because you're feeling angry doesn't mean that your response may be godly, and so that's where we're going to get into today.
Speaker 1:Now, last week we spent some time looking at passages from James chapter one and James chapter 3. Now, if you remember in James chapter 1, we had talked about these tests, or these temptations, and the temptations that happen underneath the surface, and the evil desires the passage talked about. Let no one say, when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. Each one is tempted when he is dragged away and enticed by his own evil desires. So there is something that is happening in us that is causing to produce the things that were happening around us and outside of us. So what James is arguing is the fact that we can't blame God, we can't blame Satan, we can't blame other people for the evil desires that we have. The reason why we struggle, the evil desires that we have, the reason why we struggle with the things that we struggle with, are because the desires that are happening within our own heart. And then we looked at the passage in James chapter three.
Speaker 1:In James chapter three, james was talking about the type of wisdom that you can have, either godly wisdom or wisdom that is from earth, and he had talked about that wisdom is almost satanic, if you remember the passage said in verse 13,. Who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in meekness or wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy or selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom that is from above is first of all purer than peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. A harvest of righteousness is shown in peace by those who make peace. And so what James is arguing there is that there are two different types of wisdom that we can lean on A wisdom that is from above, from God, that is granted to us, that is going to produce a greater level of peace and gentleness and openness. Or there could be a wisdom that is coming from within and it's actually demonic and it's worldly and it's going to crave these evil things.
Speaker 1:And then he went into James, chapter 4 and verses 1 through 12, he talks about worldliness and he talks about conflicts, and if you remember we talked about. Conflicts can happen around you, but it really is what's happening within you. It's covening, it's desiring what you can't have. It is prayerlessness, it's an adulterous heart, it is a heart that is driven by our own desires rather than desires for God. It's driven by pride, he said, and you remember it said that God opposes pride but gives grace to the humble. So what he wants you to see is that if you humble yourself, god wants to give you the grace to deal with it. And if you remember last week we had talked about the steps out of that he says in verse 7, submit yourself, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and what will happen? He will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, your sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. He said. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you.
Speaker 1:And so when you're thinking about anger, remember that he had talked about the fact that our anger is this whole person active response of a negative moral judgment against perceived evil. So you have to really do some work internally to try to understand where your anger is coming from. So let's do this today. Let's move towards the next part of the puzzle, and we're going to start with is your anger righteous? So I want to welcome you back to our second lesson in the study, and now we're going to tackle this question, because this question is so important Is your anger really righteous?
Speaker 1:Now, we often deceive ourselves into thinking that our anger is justified or righteous, but the Bible challenges us to be cautious about making such assumptions, and so there are passages in scripture that talk about this tendency that we have Now. If you see the first one here, in Jeremiah, chapter 17, it says the heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? And so the writer, and, greater than that, the Holy Spirit, is asking you to be considering the fact that your heart is deceitful. It has this tendency, the deceitfulness of anger. That is there.
Speaker 1:Scripture tells us the human anger is sinful. A lot of the time, actually most of the time, human anger is sinful, and that word for anger in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word, is used 47 times in the Old Testament and it denotes human anger, and at least 42 times of those 47, it's sinful anger. It's easy to deceive ourselves into believing that our anger is righteous, but the Bible is calling us to a higher level of discernment. In Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 22 and following. It also talks about putting off these things, and in verse 26, it says be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil.
Speaker 1:I want you to examine yourself. I want you to reflect on the moment. When was the last time that you felt angry? When was the last time that you were struggling with this anger and bitterness or resentment that was happening? Maybe it was just even earlier today, and I wonder if you feel like you were justified in your anger. Do you believe that you were right in what you were feeling?
Speaker 1:I want to give you a criteria that is going to help us to understand whether our anger is right or not, and so that's what we're going to try to do today. What we're going to do is we're going to introduce the concept of righteous anger. We'll examine the three criteria that determine if anger is righteous or not, and then we'll try to discuss how we can apply that criteria to evaluating our personal anger, and we'll even look at some biblical examples of righteous anger in the life of Christ. So let's start by looking at the criteria first. How can we know if our anger is really righteous? So this is a really big question. And so righteous anger reacts against actual sin. So there are going to be three criteria we're going to talk about. The first criteria is that it is reacting against an actual sin.
Speaker 1:Righteous anger is a response to real sin, not just a personal inconvenience or an unmet desire. Anger is real. Righteous anger actually reacts against sin. So I want you to think about this. The last time you were angry once again, it could have been this morning were you angry over an actual sin or was it somebody doing something that inconvenienced you or violated your preferences? And so a lot of times, what we find is that so many of us get angry over things that deal with self-interest.
Speaker 1:In the book of Jonah, we find the classic example of self-deception and anger. Twice God asked Jonah if he had the right to be angry, and twice Jonah claimed that he did. If you look in Jonah, chapter 4, verses 4 and 9. But God was clearly showing Jonah's anger was unrighteous, stemming from the self-interest rather than from true injustice. And I will tell you, sad to say, a lot of times our anger is coming out of our own self-interest, our own desires. So think about the last time you felt justified in your anger, only to realize that the root of it was bitterness or the root of it was selfishness. What did that reveal about your heart? What did it reveal about what's really happening underneath the surface?
Speaker 1:Well, let's continue with the criteria. So we have criteria number one that it has to react against actual sin. Criteria number two is that it focuses on God and his kingdom rights and concerns, not me and my kingdom rights and concerns. It focuses on how people offend God, not me. Now, this is such an important piece of the puzzle because so many of us, once again, if it's about my self-interest, about what I want, what I prefer, versus what God wants, what God prefers, am I really getting offended over God's glory being diminished? Am I really getting upset over the fact that God's kingdom is being violated and that his concerns are being not addressed, or is it about me?
Speaker 1:And once again, I have to say, a lot of us make our anger and our angry situations about what's happening within us. So once again, I want you to think about a recent situation where you've been angry. What was the cause of your anger? Was there an actual sin that was happening underneath it? So, once again, I want you to think about a recent situation where you've been angry. What was the cause of your anger? Was there an actual sin that was happening underneath it? Did your anger focus more on the glory of God or your personal rights and concerns? And then I want you to think about how could you adjust your perspective to align more with God's will. Now, if you remember from when we talked about last week, sometimes our perceptions are wrong and a lot of times when we're at this point, we think we're doing the godly thing and the reality is we're not, because we're focusing more on ourselves rather than God and his glory. Okay, so principle number one is that it reacts against actual sin. Principle number two it focuses on God and his kingdom, not me and my kingdom. It's not about personal slights, but it's actually about offending God, and if it's more about personal slights, I know that I'm off track.
Speaker 1:The third criteria is also important. Righteous anger is accompanied by other godly qualities and it expresses itself in godly ways, so it is a self-controlled anger. You remember the fruit of the spirit. It goes love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And it says unless, if you don't have those, you are not walking in the spirit, but if you do have those, so every person that is in Christ has those qualities that are there. And so what Paul was arguing is that the quality of self-control, to be able to control the way I think, the way I speak and the way I act, is one of the key components in understanding whether their anger is righteous or not. So righteous anger remains self-controlled. You don't get overwhelmed by the emotion. You master the emotion.
Speaker 1:Last week I alluded to a passage in Genesis, chapter 4. You remember the story of Cain and Abel. Now, in that story of Cain and Abel, what we have is that God was saying that sin is crouching at your door, cain. It desires to master you. You must rule over it. And so what God was arguing with Cain is the fact that anger and bitterness and jealousy, these sinful things were happening underneath the surface. It was leading to his frustration, his anger, his bitterness towards his brother, and if he didn't control it, it was going to come out of him and affect others. That's what sin does. It starts within us, it starts within our hearts and then it has an impact on other people's lives. So righteous anger remains self-controlled. It shows concern for the well-being of others, which is so important, and it seeks justice for the oppressed. It's not about me and my kingdom. It is about God and his kingdom.
Speaker 1:Identify situations where you might become angry, and I use these three criteria. Maybe you may even want to sit down and write on a plan of how you've been struggling with this anger and how you responded to it. Did you respond in a way? Was your anger first driven about something that was actual sin? That's number one, and then number two. If it was driven by actual sin, was I really focused on the glory of God and his kingdom or was it about me?
Speaker 1:And then step number three is I want you to think about whether you actually acted in godly ways. Was it controlled anger? And, very honestly, you get through number one and sometimes you'll be able to get through mile marker one, or warning number one that there was sin that was there, that the action that the person did was sinful. So you've got that one checked off. But the dilemma is number two, that oftentimes we make it about us because that's us, we're selfish, prideful people, and so we make it about us because that's us. We're selfish, prideful people, and so we make it about us. And even though that person may have acted in a wrong way, we still make it about us rather than God.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure that you could fail on number three without missing on number two that failing on how you control your anger, versus number two, the root of it, what's the heart of your anger. I'm not sure that you can do number three and fail on number three if you also failed on number two, and I'm not sure that if you failed on number that, you would accomplish number three. So you need all three. You need to have the right standard the word sin. You need to have the right motive it's about God and his glory and then you have to have the right response Number three how you respond to your anger. Each one of those is so important.
Speaker 1:So now I'm going to give you seven questions. I want you to consider each one of these seven questions and I want you to perhaps even think about taking a journal and using these prompts, these seven questions, as prompts this week, and so, once again, we don't want to focus so much on how bad we are without recognizing how good Christ is. You know, newton I believe it was said I am a great sinner, but he is a great savior. You know, some of us struggle with not being able to see our sin. So there are some people that don't see that they sin at all and they think they accomplish everything and they do everything great, and that's a problem. There are some people, on the other hand, that only see their sin and they live in constant condemnation and guilt. And I guess there's a third group of people that will find themselves living in both extremes, where they have a good day, they feel great, they have a bad day, they feel terrible, and so I don't want you to go to any one of those extremes, but we do have to admit that our greatest problem is sin, and we do have to admit that the only answer to our sin is Christ. Problem is sin, and we do have to admit that the only answer to our sin is Christ. And so now, taking his word by his Holy Spirit and going into looking at these areas of our lives, help us to go through a level of self-examination. So do me a favor and let's try to examine ourselves right now. Let's examine ourselves in light of these seven questions.
Speaker 1:The first question is really so important Do you get angry about the right things? A lot of times what you'll find is, if you look at those three criteria and you'll have to be honest and say, no, you know, sometimes I really am not getting angry about the right things. It's not about sin, it is about me. For some of us, it's a good place to be able to recognize that that is a problem for us. The second question is also so important Do you express that anger in right ways that, even if there was sin that's behind it? Am I responding to other people's sin in godly ways? Am I representing God in the way I should be acting in these ways? A lot of times we find ourselves not doing that.
Speaker 1:The third question how long does your anger last? Does your anger fester? Does it kind of stay there, or do you find yourself getting angry for a short period of time and then it's gone? How controlled is your anger? When you find yourself getting angry, are you able to master yourself, kind of like God was saying to Cain, and are you able to take control of the way you think and take control of the way you speak, take control of the way you act in a way that's going to honor him? What motivates your anger? That goes back to that second criteria. Is it God in his glory or is it me in my glory? Is it God in his kingdom or me in my kingdom? Is it about God's name or my name? Is it about respect for God or is it about respect for me? What's the motivating factor?
Speaker 1:The sixth question is a great question as well. Is your anger primed and ready to respond to another person's habitual sin? For some of us, we haven't dealt with our anger well. We stuff it. You know, one author said that we have a tendency to either stuff our anger or spew our anger rather than study our anger. And I'm hoping over these weeks we're going to learn to study our anger. Because if you are a stuffer of your anger, I will tell you eventually it's got to come out. And it's going to come out in hurting and spewing to others. And if you're a spewer of your anger, you're still hurting other people, you're hurting yourself as well and you're harming your relationship with God. So if you're constantly ready and you're in that conversation, you're ready to jump down that other person's throat, there is something that is there that needs to change in your heart and life.
Speaker 1:And then the seventh question is what is the effect of your anger? Does it really accomplish what God wants? Now, once again, this is going to tell you whether it's about you and your kingdom or God and his kingdom. See, if you want somebody to do something, if you want to kind of manipulate or control a situation to get somebody to do something that you want, you use your anger. And you use your anger to try to control a situation, you may get the very thing that you want temporarily, but you're really not changing hearts, you're not developing a deep relationship with them. You're hindering your relationship with God. So the question is the effect of my anger? Is it really having an effect to bring glory to God and for the good of others, or is it really about me?
Speaker 1:In Proverbs 4, verse 23,. It says this In order to change heart, you must recognize that you need to uproot sinful desires. He talks deeply in Proverbs about what is happening in your heart has an impact on your life. So it's not enough just to try to cease the angry behavior. You need to replace it with godly fruit in your heart and life. So please be mindful of the fact that it is not just enough to say I'm going to stop a behavior. You know scripture talks about that. Oftentimes it's not just enough just to stop a bad thing. You need to actually start to do something in a God-honoring way.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for this week I want you to consider these three principles. Number one do I have a standard for my anger? Number two is my anger motivated for the glory of God? And if it's not, what is motivating it? And then, number three I want you to consider am I displaying my anger in godly ways? A lot of us fail on all three. Some of us fail on one or two of those things. So what I want you to do this week is I want you to consider the ways that you've gotten angry and I want you to do an evaluation of your heart, like this Proverbs says.
Speaker 1:I want you to think about not just changing the angry behavior. I want you to replace it with what's happening inside, from the inside out. I pray that God would do a work in you and through you, because that is such an important place to be Okay. Last thing I want you to answer how deep is my anger? How many times has my anger had an impact on my relationships with others? I want you to take time to work through your journal this week. I want you to pray through this.
Speaker 1:I want you to recognize this as well, that if you're in Christ, all of your sin past, present and future has been atoned for. It's done. I want you to know that when God looks at you, he looks at you as though you lived a perfect and righteous life of Christ. He says that there's no condemnation. Nothing will ever separate you from my love.
Speaker 1:In Romans 8, he doesn't just begin by saying no condemnation. He says at the end of Romans 8 that nothing will ever separate you from his love. So, as you deal with the sin Romans 7, paul was talking about the sin in his life he says the things I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I do. What a wretched man that I am. And he says who will separate me from this body of sin and death? He says thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. He recognized that it is Jesus Christ that separates him from this sin.
Speaker 1:Romans 8 tells you no condemnation and ends with no separation from his love, but right in the middle he talks about the Holy Spirit's work in your life. So let the Holy Spirit work in your life this week. Surrender to him, listen to him, yield to him, let him, through his word, talk to you and expose some of these areas where the criteria have been broken down, and let's look and determine whether your anger has been righteous or not. And if it hasn't been, don't lose hope, because there is an answer to get out of this and we'll be talking about that in the weeks to come. Look forward to picking up with you, lord willing, next week. Same time, same station, and we will be looking forward to dealing with the next lesson in our lessons on uprooting anger. All right, be blessed everyone. Take care.
