Is It OK to Get Angry—Or Is It Sin?
Someone recently asked, “Is it OK to get angry?” The question behind the question came out when they rephrased it, asking, “Is it sinful to get angry?”
That’s an excellent question. We’ve all seen anger lead to behavior that is clearly sinful.
On the other hand, I’d say all of us have gotten anger without meaning to. It just suddenly appeared. Was it sinful? Especially if I didn’t “act out” in anger?
And then, there are those that say anger is good—or is sometimes good—and others speak of righteous anger.
Is anger ok? Or is it sinful?
The simple answer is that anger is not, in itself, a sin. In the Bible, about half the times anger is mentioned, it refers to God getting angry. God is without sin. If He gets angry, anger is not a sin.
Furthermore, we are made in God’s image. We were created capable of the same emotions that He experiences. It is natural that we get angry as a normal response in life. You might say we’re wired to sometimes get angry.
However, if that’s the case, why does the Bible say numerous times that we are to get rid of anger, to put it away, and to not let the sun go down on it? That sounds like anger is bad, even sinful.
The problem isn’t with the anger, the problem is the vessel that holds it.
We are sinful vessels. Unlike God, our hearts are polluted with sin. Since Adam, we’re also wired to sin.
If you drop some arsenic in a mug, then pour some coffee in it, is the coffee bad? No, not in itself. But mixed with arsenic, coffee can be deadly. The more arsenic added, the more deadly the coffee.
Even as Christians, we carry poison within. Anger may not be bad, but if it comes out of us, it’s coming out of a contaminated vessel. In Ephesians 4, Paul aptly calls it the old self.
We’re told to put off the old self and put on the new, but we all have traces of the old hiding in the corners of our hearts. The old self, or the flesh, wants to protect Self, to promote Self, and get what Self wants. It holds on to rights, has expectations, and likes to be in control.
The problem with our anger is that it is always mixed with Self. God never tells us that anger is always bad—or that it’s bad at all. But, neither does He tell us to “Do away with anger except when . . ..”
Neither does He ever mention “righteous anger.” Instead, the Lord categorically tells us to get rid of anger.
It seems that if we want to follow Christ, the best thing to do is spend our energy on getting rid of anger rather than trying to determine when it’s “good enough” to hold on to.
For my answer to, “But Jesus got angry!” check out “Jesus Made a Scourge,” from Uprooting Anger: Destroying the Monster Within. (Scroll down about half way to “Jesus Made a Scourge.”)
James tells us that the anger of man does not reap the righteousness of God. If our anger is righteous, it should reap righteous results. Have you seen anger reap righteous results—while the person is still angry?
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