After last week’s thrilling message on the Christian sin of worry, I decided to take another step into dark side. Let’s think about the common sins of anger. In addition to its evils, let’s try to consider, at least in part, some of the benefits of anger. Is there anyone here this evening who has been angry sometime this week? No admissions? All right, let me turn that around: is there anyone where who has not been angry this week? Just to help you, I will admit that I crossed the line the other day, although I tried really hard to deal with it. Perhaps two more revealing questions might be: Did you have a good reason to be angry? And what did you do about it?
There are some worldly philosophies which teach that we should never be angry. The Bible knows of no such foolishness. Certainly anger is a part of our old, Adamic nature. But it is also a part of our new nature as well. How do I know? Because our Saviour displayed anger from time to time. Even the thrice holy God-head is said to be angry at sin. Of course, we can build that doctrine on parables, but the men in charge of the feasts in Jesus’ parables were furious with certain people. If Christians are supposed to be like their Redeemer, then from time to time we should be angry. For us the questions are: which kind of anger did we have this week? And how long did it last?
I have given this message the title: “Ethical Anger.” It is not about logical anger, in fact this message may not be completely logical. The words “ethics” and “ethical” come from the Greek language, but neither the Greek nor the English are to be found in our Bibles. While they aren’t Biblical words, their meaning is most definitely Biblical. Something that is “ethical” is moral; it is right; it is proper – depending on the context. And as I use the word tonight it is employed in the light of the holy God. Our theme this evening is “godly,” or “Christian anger,” as opposed to sinful or evil anger.
Let’s start with some examples, letting you judge whether or not the anger in the situation is ethical or evil. You have an appointment. You are a bit late, but you have stopped at the bank anyway. Since there are long lines at the two drive-up windows, you park the car and go inside. Inside, you find that the line is long there too, because there is only one teller at her post. Why aren’t there two or even three? And there is an elderly lady with questions about her account, but she can’t understand what she is being told. It is taking more and more time. The bank manager should see how her mismanagement is disrupting people’s schedules. You are getting more angry with each passing minute. Do you have a right to be angry? Unable to wait any longer, you stomp out and get back into your car, knowing you’ll have to return later. A few minutes later, as you are hurrying as quickly as the snowy roads permit, a car cuts in front of you, forcing slam on your breaks, coming within inches of his bumper. That numbskull put your life in danger. If you had swerved there would have been an inescapable crash. Once again, or still, you were angry. Now, 12 hours later, as you are getting ready for bed, you are still fuming, plus you never got to the bank. Should you be angry now this late in the day? Was any of this ethical or acceptable anger? If I had to venture a guess I’d say that we’d be divided on our opinions of these cases.
Looking for illustrations, I read an account of a Brooklyn pastor, named Spencer – a man with a loving, amiable spirit. One day one of his church members saw him with nastiest face he had ever seen him wear. “What is the matter” he was asked. The pastor replied, “I am angry, really, really angry. I just visited a woman – a widow, with a very sick son – who has been evicted from her flat. That poor lady is two months behind on her rent, tending to her dying son. The man who owns that apartment is a member of our church. I’m going to see him to give him a piece of my mind.” Was Spencer’s anger evil or ethical?
John Audubon, the ornithologist, before publication of his book on North American birds, had put two hundred of his paintings into a wooden crate, asking a friend to keep them as he continued his research. Six month’s later he returned to collect them and take them to the printer, but found that a pair of Norway rats had gotten into the crate and had eaten nearly all of them. Years of work was destroyed, and he was angry. At whom could he justly angry? The friend, the rats, the God who created rats, or himself for trusting God and his friend to take care of his hard work?
I have read that Sir Isaac Newton had been working for a long time on a series of important experiments. He had a little dog, named “Diamond,” who was always at his side. One day, Diamond knocked over a candle and set Newton’s notes on fire. He, too, was furious. But at whom or at what could he be angry? Perhaps we have the answer to that question in his words to the little dog, “Oh, Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done.”
Finally, as you might remember, my computer’s printer quit and needs some repairs. You might not know that things have deteriorated during the week. The printer’s little screen told me to call a service technician, so I did. “No problem,” I was told. I came to realize that I had created the problem, because Epson hadn’t properly instructed me. Several days after I agreed to let the local technician service it, he said that he was in California for a week. Then he told me the cost of the replacement part, which would be in addition to his service fee. And he said that I’d have to pay for the part in advance or he wouldn’t order it. Don’t ask me about my printer. I don’t want to talk about my printer problem, because it tends to make me a little warm under my collar. But with whom am I angry? The printer? Its manufacturer? The technician? God or myself?
Why are some of these instances of anger sinful and others are not? What are characteristics of ethical anger? If we took a poll even in this small crowd, I’m not sure we’d be all be agreed. What is ethical anger?
It may sound contradictory without some background, but ethical anger is free from sin.
Why did we get angry at the bank that morning? We may justify ourselves by saying that the bank management was at fault, or the woman was stupid and inconsiderate. These may, or may not, be true. But actually, wasn’t the cause of our anger the high opinion we had of ourselves and our time? What if the teller-shortage was due to one person being sick and another had a death in the family? And why were we running late in the first place? Wasn’t it because we were on Facebook for an hour? How often do we get angry simply because we didn’t get our way in some matter? If that is the case, then we are sinning in our anger. That is evil, not ethical, sin.
Even if there is good reason to loose our cool, there are sins which have the ability to transform good anger into evil. I have to mention, first, the king of all sins: PRIDE. More often than we are willing to admit, when we do something foolish we react with anger, either at ourselves or at innocent bystanders. “If they are mean enough to laugh at me in my foolishness, then I right to be angry at them.” Oh, is that right? How often do we get angry because of our lack of FAITH or our denial of GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY? Back we go to the bank, hurrying to make our deposit and get to our appointment. Is God unaware that it snowed last night, and we had to scrape the windshield before driving off? Doesn’t God know that the cars are just creeping along on the icy roads, and that there would be chunk of ice which caused that car to swerve in front of us? The stress builds with each microscopic catastrophe, and we just can’t trust God, or concede to Him the right to control the weather. More often than we care to admit, our anger is really directed toward Jehovah. Another anger transformer is HATRED. Are we upset about what that man did to us, or is it that we’ve never really liked him in the first place? Anger based upon hatred is clearly sin. And it will not go to bed before we do. It will linger.
One characteristic of Ethical Anger is the speed with which it passes.
Sometimes we say that a man who gets angry easily has a “short temper” or he has a “short fuse.” But his temper is not necessarily evil. And depending on our point of view a short temper may be better than a longer temper. To have a long temper goes contrary to God’s command in this verse. Get over it!
And again, if the cause is just, what is wrong a quick, but short, explosion? The problem is that the cause may NOT be just. Usually the fella with the short fuse doesn’t give himself time to judge the character of the combustible. Maybe we should hold our breath, or count to ten, giving us a few moments to consider what to do next. Some explosions can be very productive, clearing the way for real progress. But other explosions just blow off finger and hands, making it impossible to serve the Lord in the future.
Ethical anger is aware of the danger that is native to it. Paul advises us: “See to it that you don’t give place to the Devil.” Don’t leave that wicked one any room to get his foot in the door. Remember that Satan has taken upon himself two offices. His first is that of tempter – not “temper” but “tempter.” He would love to see you heap sin upon sin, or squeeze in a bit of sin when it wasn’t there before. It is not necessary to look too far to find a variety of sins following anger, good or bad. For example, how many people have gotten angry over something and then killed the person? Cain was furious before he killed his brother. Forgetting all the other sin involved, what if he had curbed his anger for a while? Angry people are exposed to very dangerous situations.
Satan has another office as well, He is the accuser of the brethren. Not that the Lord needs to be informed about our sins. But you can be sure that Satan is ready, willing and able to remind God about your anger and all its related sins.
But what are some of the characteristics of ETHICAL ANGER?
This kind of anger yearns for the glory of God, while evil anger wants its own way. When Jesus made a scourge and beat upon the money changers in the Temple, what was His reason? He said, “This is place supposed to be an house of prayer, but you’ve made in den thieves.” That temple was supposed to belong to the Lord, but it had been stolen by the greedy priesthood. Oh, and by the way you, Christian – your body, your spirit and soul – are supposed to belong to the Lord in the same way as that temple. Does the Lord Jesus ever get angry with us for our abuse of His property?
Ethical anger has love for others within it, but evil anger usually only contains self-love. When Pastor Spencer was so angry with his slum-lord church member, it was out of love. I suppose that his first thought was with the grief-stricken mother. But, as a pastor, I know that he could have been angry out of love for his sinful church member. When Isaac Newton was furious with Diamond, he overcame it through his love.
Related to that, ethical anger also contains a certain degree of grief. Can a parent justifiably get angry at his children? Absolutely. And why? Is it only because his parental will has been denied? If that is the case then that anger is evil. Parents know what childish actions can produce. They know how quickly foolish deeds can become unbreakable habits. They know what long-term results can flow out of a few minutes of sin. So they hurt, knowing what harm their offspring may be doing to themselves. Yes, they may express their pain in anger, but it is justifiable, when tempered with love. Of course, it needs to be controlled and many times actually hidden from that child. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
How can we deal with our anger? What might be a plan of attack?
Without professing to be an expert, I do think I can see some answers to that question in the Word of God. It probably begins with waking up to a daily surrender to the Lord; submission to the Holy Spirit. The man or woman who is filled with the Spirit will be incapable of sinning through anger. Our wicked deceitful hearts are not capable of controlling important parts of our lives, and we are incapable of controlling those hearts. We need the Lord in these things. Acknowledging that, is one of the first steps to victory in this area.
In other words, if we are one of those with anger issues, it needs to be made a matter of prayer. Some people’s temperament is naturally explosive. That Christian needs to willingly and directly give it to the Lord for His control. That is, pray for victory. And while we are at it, perhaps our problem need to be shared with a trusted prayer partner – an accountability partner. Over the years, I have had several people ask to make them accountable to their pornography addiction. But no one has asked me to participate with them in their fight against anger. Why is that?
A third ingredient in this particular fight, as is often the case, we need to substitute bad habits with good habits. We need to substitute righteousness for sinfulness. For example, in this case, pray for, and practice, love towards those people who rub you the wrong way. Just as love overcomes our temporary anger against our children, it can be used positively toward others.
I know that this is a relatively short message, but I will close with two straight-forward scriptures: Ecclesiastes 7:9 – “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” And, “he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” – Proverbs 16:32.