Our Response To Anger

We live in an angry world. If you don’t believe me—watch the evening news. Spouses are angry at each other. Employees are angry at bosses. Teens are angry at their parents. Citizens are angry at their government. And our elected leaders are venomously angry at each other.

As a woman in the process of sanctification (becoming more like Jesus) I need to find a way to deal with anger—mine as well as that of the people around me. It’s hard. Anger is rarely about the circumstance at hand. It’s almost always about the people who have hurt us in the past, people who failed to protect us, and our often irrational fear that we will be hurt again.  

Anger pits us against the person, place, or situation that triggered our upsetting emotion. If used carelessly and selfishly it is the opposite of love. Love draws us toward others; anger sets us against them.

If I was going to choose a fundamental Christian teaching that is difficult for people to believe, it is that God loves us. He always has and He always will. That’s why He gets mad. The word “anger” is found 455 times in the Old Testament; 375 of these refer to God’s anger.

Do you know what makes God angry? Everything that is unjust, unrighteous, and sinful. Why do these make Him angry? Because they are the things that hurt us.

Unhealed wounds fuel our rage. Other people’s sins burn hot in our memories. So do the times when they failed to see good in us, and when their decisions adversely affected our lives because they lacked gentleness, forgiveness, kindness, and grace.

As I look back at my life, I now realize that the people who hurt me infuriated God. He saw my woundings. Anger is always His righteous response to injustice.

So, what is the cause of our anger? Author Gary Chapman says, “I believe that human anger is designed by God to motivate us to take constructive action in the face of wrongdoing or faced with injustice.”

The most frequently quoted example of Jesus’ anger occurred in the Jerusalem temple. He saw the merchants selling animals inside the temple gates… oxen, sheep, goats, doves. Imagine the mess! The smell! Angrily he said that the temple was to be a house of prayer; the greedy merchants had turned it into a filthy marketplace. (Matthew 21:13)

It is recorded that Jesus made a whip of cords and drove the merchants from the temple area, scattering coins on the ground and over-turning their tables.

But wait! Isn’t Jesus supposed to be all about love and forgiveness? Yes and no. True forgiveness is only in response to man’s heartfelt repentance. If the merchants had repented, Jesus would have forgiven them.

On another occasion, Jesus was in a synagogue on the Sabbath when a man came to see him with a paralyzed hand. The Pharisees were looking for an occasion to accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath Law. Our Great Physician was infuriated by the fact that the Pharisees placed laws above human need.

Our suffering is always more important to God than man-made rules. An opportunity for healing consistently comes first.

I think the divine model is clear. God’s response is to take loving action, to stop evil, and when the evil-doer is repentant, to redeem them.

What does that mean for you and me when our deep wounds are triggered and we respond with wrath? God sets the example. Anger should be our motivator, propelling us to take positive, healing action in the war against injustice.