Did you know that the scriptures exhort believers to get angry sometimes? Not all anger is ungodly, you know. The apostle Peter warned us, in writing, that his fellow apostle Paul wrote some things in his epistles that are not that easily understood. (See 2 Peter 3:15-16). Here is a very good example: In Ephesians 4: 31, Paul says, “Let ALL bitterness, and wrath, AND ANGER, and clamor, and evil speaking, BE PUT AWAY FROM YOU, with all malice.” Yet just five verses before that Paul had written, ” BE YE ANGRY, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath!” (verse 26, Ephesians 4).
So, which is it, Paul, is it OK to get mad about some things sometimes or are we to avoid all anger at all times in all matters? Let’s look a bit closer at that 26th verse. We will then examine several other Bible texts that throw even more light on this subject. Note well that Paul says clearlly, “Be ye angry, AND SIN NOT!” When a believer’s anger is stirred, or awakened, he is to keep his spirit and emotions in check and not allow this anger to lead to bitterness, evil speech or malice. And he is not to allow his anger to continue very long: “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,” Paul writes. And Paul’s very next words are, “Neither give place to the devil.” If a believer holds on to his anger, even godly anger, he risks having Satan inspire him to sin in that anger.
Jesus said that “whosoever is angry with his brother WITHOUT A CAUSE shall be in danger of the judgment” clearly implying that believers can have cause sometimes to be angry with a fellow believer, a fellow human being, or even a blood brother. The word “brother” in that text can mean any of those. (See Matthew 5:22). And, note well, Jesus says if we get angry at someone without a just cause we are in danger of being judged by God ourselves! If a believer learns that the choir leader has been leaving notes in his wife’s hymn book to meet him after church as he already has a motel room booked for them, well, friend, I don’t care what kind of convoluted reasoning you use, that believer has every right to get angry even allowing that anger to be evident in the tone of his voice and facial expression. But he is to keep that anger under control. He is not supposed to assault the offender, curse at him, or say something ungodly, or say something he will later regret.
In the 11th chapter of I Samuel, we read of how King Saul had received word that the enemy Ammonites had surrounded a small Jewish village and threatened to put out the right eyes of all the inhabitants of that village. The 6th verse of that same chapter then says, “Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, AND HIS ANGER WAS GREATLY AROUSED.”
Notice well that it is the Spirit of God that arouses this anger in Saul. God inspired Saul to get so mad that he raised an army of many thousands to go and rescue his fellow countrymen.
Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me” (See Matthew 11:29). We are to allow Jesus to show us how to conduct our lives. And He became greatly angry more than once during His earthly sojourn. (See Mark 3:1-5 and John 2:13-17). Followers of Jesus Christ are to get angry themselves from time to time when confronted with sin, unfairness or rank human behavior. But such anger is to be short lived and must be kept in check so as not to lead one into some manner of sin.
Folks, I could go on and on quoting scripture passage after scripture passage, making this a ten-page article. But the above is more than sufficient to show that anger in and of itself is not ungodly. Wise king Solomon said that there was a time to love, and a time to hate” (See Ecclesiastes 3:8). And there is a time to be calm and complacent, and there is a time to be angry, also.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley