Christship - Be angry and do not sin

 

BE ANGRY AND DO NOT SIN

 Let’s be honest, how many of us have pondered on this verse and how many of us wondered why this verse was even included in the Bible? And finally, how many of us really tried understanding the meaning?

Well, I have done all three; first pondered, then wondered and finally understood the meaning. You may ask how and that’s exactly what I am sharing with you this week. We all know our understanding of the word of God comes from the Holy Spirit or the Helper who was sent to us to remind us of all the things. We will talk about the Helper another day and today let us focus on anger and sin in the same context.

What if I say, this verse is misapplied in many instances by giving importance to the last part of the verse ‘do not let the sun go down on your anger’ which is making anger an acceptable form of feeling or reaction. You may not agree with me fully, well till you reach the end, let’s agree to disagree. Coming back, Paul in this verse was trying to differentiate between good anger and anger arising from evil ways that causes us to sin. So, is there something called good anger?  Well I hate to break your bubble but there is and we see it in Mark 3:5 through Jesus who was angry once but did not hurt anyone and his anger was good, towards a righteous cause.

In the process of understanding this verse, my next question was how often do we get angry for such righteous things or what are righteous things? And for that I did little bit of digging and research and through experience came to an understanding that we as a human being, become selfish sometimes and especially when we get angry. Let’s examine why do we get angry or when do we get angry, and the most common reply is we do when things are not as per our standards or as per our liking or just when we feel threatened or attacked; frustrated or powerless or treated unfairly. This also means anger is personal most of the time which makes it a selfish emotion. The point we need to calmly understand here is that when something is against our will, we get angry. And what do we do when we get angry or what is our immediate reaction? - we shout, we scream, we exchange ill-mannered words and, in some case, we would want to take revenge to hurt that person. In other words, we want to retaliate so that we are not projected as weak or a coward and because we are scared of what will happen next.

But this is when we are completely weak and furious and the best time for Satan to come into our life and mess it up. You must remember that God does not create situations like these, it’s the owner of this earth the Satan who wants us to seek his aide so that we may sin. In other words, getting angry is not sin but when we turn to evil ways because of that anger, we may sin. Therefore, if we believe if we are from God (see 1 Corinthians 8:6, 1 John4:6 and 1 John 5:19) then we need to walk in His ways only as His ways are pure and blameless!

We are going to see how we can overcome anger and help ourselves from sin or sinning against God.

  

Is it worthy to get angry:

One needs to understand that what gets us worked up could be classified as irritants, which are time-wasting, ego-bruising nuisances that threaten to make us lose control. And it causes stress, which is cumulative, meaning when we pile up the irritants, at some point it will explode. This is when we must turn to God who counsels patience toward these aggravations.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:7). Echoing this Psalm is a Proverb, ‘Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.’ (Proverbs 20:22). While pondering on these, we must also look know that only the meek will inherit the land and evildoers be cut off (Psalms 37:9,11)

 Another thing we must remember when we get angry, is it worth compared to what God can do for us or is it worth compared to the glory that will be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). If the answer is a no, then you need to know, believe that “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent ~ Exodus 14:14.”

How to overcome anger?

The answer to this question is that we don’t need overcome anger, we need to resist it. Yes as anger is an outburst of destructive emotions that pushes us to be nasty and we must turn to God to help us to resist that evil force that causes us to sin.

Proverbs 14:17 says, "A quick-tempered man does foolish things." Proverbs 16:32 follows with this encouragement: "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." Summing these up is James 1:19-20: "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."

We must know that evil is a strong force in our world, but we cannot stand by and do nothing. God wants us to use our anger constructively, to combat wrongdoing. You may ask how are we to respond to personal attacks, to the betrayals, accusations that hurt us so deeply? And this is the answer: "But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Mathew 5:39).

 

Jesus may have been speaking in hyperbole, but he also told his followers to be as "shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16). We must protect ourselves without stooping to the level of our attackers as an angry outburst accomplishes only a little. Besides satisfying our emotions, it also gratifies those who believe all Christians are hypocrites. Therefore, we need to think a little bit here and pause the emotion and while we seek our answer, we must try to follow these simple principles:

1. Pray – a prayer can move mountains, so when are pushed to get angry, best way to over- come this temptation to sin when angry is to pray (Psalms 34:17)

2. Practice – practice in relying on God and His words, and how powerful they are as the word is God (John 1:1, Jeremiah 17:7–8, Proverbs 18:10, Psalms 27:1 and many more).

3. Praise – praising and exalting the greatness of the Lord is one of the main duty of man & woman, so in all circumstances lets give thanks and praise Him (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

 

Finally remember, getting angry is only a natural human emotion but that need not lead us into sin—if we remember that God is  a God of justice and we use our anger in a way that honors him we can resist anger and not sin!