Boy was I wrong! The bible doesn't tel us not to get angry. It just reminds us to be slow to anger. (Proverbs 14:29) Quite Frankly, there are some things that ought to get us angry. The injustices in the world, children being killed, women being gang raped in India (if you don't know what I'm talking about Google it). These things should get our blooding bubbling. Make us feel queasy at society because if you haven't noticed, society is on a highway to Hell with no turning back!
No my friends, getting angry is a natural feeling. But let me offer some advice here: we need to watch HOW quickly we get angry and WHAT makes us angry. If every little offense gets you whipped up ready to fight someone then you might have what we call an anger problem.
I'm going to make a premise here, that the Holy Spirit actually can convict us to get angry. It can convict us to feel some type of way about an injustice and spring into action. Martin Luther King Jr was angry at the injustices that was happening to black people. All of those passionate speeches wouldn't have come if there wasn't some righteous anger. The Holy Spirit also gives us the ability to discern the difference between righteous anger. I'm under the full belief that if you angry because of an offense to yourself, then it's probably not righteous anger. However, if you are angry on behalf of other people, your chances improve. Jesus tells us in John 15:13 that, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." (NLT)
But it goes beyond that! The difference between righteous anger and worldly anger can be summed up to one word: reason. When we allow the worldly hate penetrate our hearts we tend to lose reason. See with righteous anger, you won't lose reasoning. With righteous anger, you see the offense, and you want to do everything possible to remedy said offense. But here's the kicker: within reason. MLK knew that he would probably have to die in order for true freedom to be accomplished. So it was reasonable for him to not be afraid to go into Birmingham (which was affectionately known as Bomingham), Alabama to fight for those he loved.
The second way you know whether you are righteously angry can be boiled down to a second word: hate. 1 John 4:20 is very clear when it says : "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." (NIV) When you get to the point where you hate someone for what they did, you need to take a stepback. You can dislike the sin that they are committing, but my friends, you cannot hate the person. Righteous Anger tells someone or a group of people, "I love you but what you are doing is wrong, it's hurting other people, and I can't let you do that anymore."
What better example of righteous anger than Jesus' anger. All throughout the Synoptic Gospels the same story (in slightly different ways) is told of Jesus' Anger. Let's take it from Mark 11: 15-17 (no particular reasoning in just choosing Mark)
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’" (NIV)
I'm going to end the blog with this. Lets look at it this way. Jesus went into the temple saw how various people were defacing it. So he stopped all the activity and turned over the tables. Why? Because they turned the temple into something that it wasn't supposed to be. You can't go into a house of prayer when there are marketers and livestock selling their goods. He was righteously angry at what was going on. But did you notice, he didn't tell the people that he hated them nor did he do anything beyond reason. He didn't see red to steal an idea from Kevin Hart. He did what he had to do and then moved on.
That right there is righteous anger. It's not the most popular thing in the world because even with righteous anger you will be scrutinized in the world. However, you won't have any hate in your soul therefore you didn't sin. Remember be slow to anger. The world will always judge you. So just remember to Do You Boo-Boo (sorry, another Kevin Hart reference. haha). Be yourself and keep your head on your shoulders.
--MJA
--MJA
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