Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 27 views

    Doubt Your Own Anger

    Uploaded by

    sean griffin
    This article discusses anger and how to address sinful anger. It notes that anger is often overlooked despite being identified by Paul as a work of the flesh. Anger blinds us and makes us feel righteous in our anger, though we underestimate its frequency and impact. Jesus got angry but his anger was not mixed with selfish motives like human anger. The best biblical passage on anger is James 4:1-10, which discusses how anger stems from desires and passions within us. The article urges readers to turn away from self-fueled anger and toward Christ, living humbly under him rather than fueling anger with a sense of being right.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Doubt Your Own Anger

    Uploaded by

    sean griffin
    27 views3 pages
    This article discusses anger and how to address sinful anger. It notes that anger is often overlooked despite being identified by Paul as a work of the flesh. Anger blinds us and makes us feel righteous in our anger, though we underestimate its frequency and impact. Jesus got angry but his anger was not mixed with selfish motives like human anger. The best biblical passage on anger is James 4:1-10, which discusses how anger stems from desires and passions within us. The article urges readers to turn away from self-fueled anger and toward Christ, living humbly under him rather than fueling anger with a sense of being right.

    Original Description:

    Doubt Your Own Anger

    Original Title

    Doubt Your Own Anger

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This article discusses anger and how to address sinful anger. It notes that anger is often overlooked despite being identified by Paul as a work of the flesh. Anger blinds us and makes us feel righteous in our anger, though we underestimate its frequency and impact. Jesus got angry but his anger was not mixed with selfish motives like human anger. The best biblical passage on anger is James 4:1-10, which discusses how anger stems from desires and passions within us. The article urges readers to turn away from self-fueled anger and toward Christ, living humbly under him rather than fueling anger with a sense of being right.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    27 views3 pages

    Doubt Your Own Anger

    Uploaded by

    sean griffin
    This article discusses anger and how to address sinful anger. It notes that anger is often overlooked despite being identified by Paul as a work of the flesh. Anger blinds us and makes us feel righteous in our anger, though we underestimate its frequency and impact. Jesus got angry but his anger was not mixed with selfish motives like human anger. The best biblical passage on anger is James 4:1-10, which discusses how anger stems from desires and passions within us. The article urges readers to turn away from self-fueled anger and toward Christ, living humbly under him rather than fueling anger with a sense of being right.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Doubt Your Own Anger

    How to Kill a Quiet Killer


    Article by
    Ed Welch

    Counselor, CCEF

    Anger is not receiving its due attention. Often, sexual sin captures our attention;
    anger less so. But when the apostle Paul lists sins, he especially identifies out-of-
    control desires that express themselves in sensuality and anger, with idolatry as a
    common thread between the two.

    Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
    idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
    divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies. (Galatians 5:19–21)

    With the seriousness of anger in mind, here are a few basic standards that can
    improve our anger literacy.

    We All Become Sinfully Angry


    No exceptions. Today, in your church, anger is a destroyer — separating friends,
    breaking marital bonds, crushing children. It can take different forms. Look for
    anger in murderous rages, but also look for it in grumbling and complaining
    (Numbers 14:2, 11), or in a cold shoulder or silence. Sometimes it turns away
    rather than rages against, but it is in us all.

    We want peace, health, respect, love, control, influence, safety, and much more.
    Sinful anger appears when these desires and expectations quietly become more
    important to us than loving God and loving neighbor (James 4:1–2).

    Anger Blinds Us
    We underestimate our own anger’s frequency and its impact on others. Other
    people underestimate the impact of their anger on us. Our anger feels like, “I am
    right.” It actually says, “I hate you” and “I am above you.” The more extreme our
    anger, the more confident we are that we are right. As a result, angry people are the
    last to know that they are sinfully angry.

    Anger can also say, “I am hurt and don’t want to be hurt again” or “I am afraid and
    feel powerless,” but even then it remains a way that we manage our world in our
    own way and on our own terms.

    Angry Jesus?
    Jesus was never angry when he was tested, mocked, or rejected. He did, indeed,
    become angry. The money-changer incident is among the best-known New
    Testament stories (John 2:13–17). But his anger was not mixed with selfish and
    prideful motivations like ours. His intense passion was for his Father’s glory.

    In other words, anger is not always sinful, but given the few times we actually
    stumble upon righteous anger, we would do well not to give our own anger the
    benefit of the doubt.

    The Best Text on Anger


    James 4:1–10 is a passage that crams in most everything we need to know about
    our anger:

    What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your
    passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You
    covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do
    not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your
    passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world
    is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes
    himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture
    says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he
    gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the
    humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
    from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,
    you sinners, and 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
    yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

    There are passages and stories about anger throughout Scripture, and none is
    complete in itself, but James gives us quite a bit. Our desires, our fights, our
    relationship with God, and the influence of Satan — they are all brought together
    in James’s words to us about anger.

    He doesn’t go into detail about the Lord’s patience and how he is quick to forgive
    — these gems are embedded in his comment about God’s jealousy on our behalf
    and how the Lord gives more and more grace. What the passage does is open our
    blind eyes to see how anger is against other people and against the Lord. We would
    all benefit from mastering and being mastered by these verses.

    Where Do We Turn?
    When we turn from one thing, we want to know what we are turning to. We turn
    away from our self-fueled anger. We turn to Christ and live under him. We turn
    from how we authorize our anger because we are “right” (and we might actually
    have evidence that would stand in court). We turn to humility and love. And this
    turn will have more longevity when done with mourning and weeping (James 4:9).

    We are busy people, and it is not easy to find a place for those matters that are on
    the heart of God, but our sinful anger is temporary sympathy with the devil’s
    murderous ways. It opposes the unity that is at the heart of Christ’s kingdom.

    We must not overlook this sin or excuse it away.

    Ed Welch is a counselor and faculty member at The Christian Counseling and


    Education Foundation. He has been counseling for more than thirty years and has
    written extensively on the topics of depression, fear, and addictions. His most
    recent book is Caring for One Another: 8 Ways to Cultivate Meaningful
    Relationships.

    You might also like