How Righteous Is Your Anger?

One of my first expressions of anger that I can recall was when I was quite small. Three or four years old, perhaps. My brothers and I, and possibly a few cousins, were all playing together. There was a bunk bed, which I think were my brothers’, and we were all having good, innocent enough fun … until someone threw me off the top bunk. I either truly sprained my leg or rallied and won a copious amount of sympathy, because old pictures show me not long after the incident with big brown eyes filled with tears and a leg wrapped in an ACE bandage. I was either milkin’ it or genuinely hurt. 

From then on, I decided it was perfectly fine to stand up for myself, at least verbally. When someone did something I didn’t like, I’d furrow my brow and say, “Top it, Tupid.”

In my mind, anyone who inflicted harm or annoyances deserved to be told to stop, and to be called stupid. I was a mixture of both righteous and unrighteous anger. They should have stopped inflicting harm, but I shouldn’t have called them stupid. It is right to be angry at inflicted harm, but to be angry at annoyances is slightly less righteous, depending on what is deemed as “annoying.” Inflicting harm on someone did annoy me. But then, so did two older brothers running around the house like hungry monkeys in search of bananas when all I wanted was some peace and quiet with my Holly Hobbie doll.

My struggle with anger, the human struggle with anger begs the question:

What qualifies as righteous anger?

The answer takes us back to another question:

Where does one get their standards? How does one determine what is right or wrong, what is moral or immoral?

I can’t answer that for the reader, but for the writer, the answer is: God’s Word. As a Christian, the Word is a light unto my path. It tells me wrong from right, bad from good, and it untangles my emotions in a way that centers and anchors me to the One who is perfect in all His judgments.

I am a very emotional person. I struggle to keep my emotions under control on a good day, and as I deal with chronic illness, on the plentiful bad days, the struggle intensifies. Anger, to me, has always seemed sinful. Until I was well into adulthood, I felt that all anger was sin.

But it’s not.

Be ye angry, and do not sin it says in Ephesians 4, so clearly, one can be angry and not sin. That takes us back to the question above, as to what qualifies as righteous anger. Since Jesus is our example, and since Jesus was angered, we can study what made Him angry and how He dealt with it. A short blog is insufficient space to do so, but suffice it to say, if our anger is directed toward what angers God, our anger is righteous.

The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:19-21 that 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, and things like these.

He then goes on to say that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In Proverbs 6:16-19, we are given another list of six things the Lord hates:

These are six things the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him:

Haughty eyes

A lying tongue

Hands that shed innocent blood

A heart that devises wicked plans

Feet that make haste to run to evil

A false witness who breathes out lies

And one who sows discord among brothers

No wonder we as a nation are so angry lately. The injustices and sins that anger God are what very often anger us, whether we are Christian or not. I suspect that’s because we are all made in His image, and to be subject to wrong (as defined by the Lord) is an inherited trait. We long for justice, for righteousness, for good rulers who do the right thing at the right time. Problem is, we are also sinful, know-it-all Judgey McJudgersons. We don’t take the time to sit down and hear a testimony, evaluate evidence, and then come to a conclusion. We make a haste judgment the moment a wishy-washy headline is published, and regardless of what comes out in a hearing, we believe what we want.

And what we want is for our party to win. Our righteous anger develops into slander, hate, a lying tongue, sowing discord, enmity, strife … and other wrongdoings God hates. In short, we allow our righteous anger to lead us to unrighteous behavior.

Be ye angry and sin not.

It takes very little effort to be angry. Much effort to be angry and sin not. But that’s what I’m encouraging us to do today. I don’t care what side you rally for or against. All of us have forgiving to do, all of us have anger to cast at the feet of Jesus, who will come again one day and rule the earth as the Perfect Judge and make everything right. Until then, may we in our anger, righteous or unrighteous, do no wrong toward our neighbor.

May we be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, even toward those who do not share our views; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20)

**Photo by Oliver Ragfelt on Unsplash