Anger of Man - Examined
Anger is a lot like love, because it is very near to the heart and grows out of the passions. It is likewise so basic an emotion that even children can empathize with it. Small infants love their mommys, and small infants get angry when they are hungry. It is that basic to who we are (at least, post-fall). And so we are going to take a minute or two and think about anger, and look at it more closely. It might strike my readers as odd to offer up a seemingly rational and sober examination of an emotion that seems so irrational and uncontrolled, but I kind of like the poetry in that.
First, let us note that there are at least two kinds of anger. The first is a righteous anger that stems from the fear of the Lord, and the second is what the Bible calls the “anger of man” (James 1:20). The Bible sometimes details to us that God is angry (Judges 2:14), but it also describes God as slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). It is important to make a distinction here because at first glance the Bible might seem to be contradictory when it on the one hand seems to portray anger as an appropriate and necessary emotion (like Moses with the golden calf, Exodus 32:19-20; Jesus cleansing the temple, John 2:13-17; or the numerous instances in which the Holy Triune God is described as being angry with sinners, such as Psalm 7:11) and yet admonishes us against anger (see below). This is what we call righteous anger when we are angry with sin and those who perpetrate it. And so, Romans 12:9 exhorts us to “abhor what is evil”. This kind of anger can only be properly apprehended by the Christian, because he has a real understanding of God’s Law and man’s sin. But even the unbeliever can display something akin to this (Romans 2:14-15) when they are angry with those who do evil, or try to harm others.
But the specific kind of anger we want to look at here is what the Bible calls the anger of man, which does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Although because it is another kind of anger, it can look and feel and awful lot like the same kind of emotion we just talked about, it is ironically a totally opposite thing. For while the other kind of anger stems from the righteousness of God manifesting in our lives, this anger is diametrically opposed to God’s righteousness. The other kind of anger is good and godly, this kind is sinful and of the flesh.
That there is a sinful kind of anger is almost so obvious that it needs no demonstration, nevertheless, numerous Scripture references will prove that this is the case:
Psalm 37:8 (ESV) 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
Proverbs 15:18 (ESV) 18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.
Ecclesiastes 7:9 (ESV) 9 Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
Ephesians 4:31 (ESV) 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Colossians 3:8 (ESV) 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
It is this sinful anger that the Bible tells us to put away and resist. But in order to do this, we need to understand it to see where it comes from.
The first thing we should note is that the anger of man is a kind of ‘perversion’ of a good thing. We have already noted that sometimes anger is the appropriate thing to feel. And so, when anger is sinful, it is the flesh corrupting that which God initially made for good. You see, the good kind of anger stems from rightly ordered desires, passions, and affections. When we desire righteousness, when we love God and His Law, righteous indignation will be our response to evil. And to put it conversely, the sinful anger of man stems from wrongly ordered desires, passions, and affections.
So, when we are covetous and desire that which does not belong to us (Exodus 20:17) anger will follow when we do not get what we want. It could be anything, big or small. The child displays this when his brother has candy and he doesn’t. The young man feels this when he can’t have the girl. The old man feels this when he looks at the wealth and possessions others have which he knows he’ll never obtain.
We will begin to see the bigger picture when we connect this to an inherent selfishness which all sinners possess. People tend to think so very highly of themselves. Oftentimes, we think we deserve things we don’t, or we think we are entitled to something when really we are not. While closely connected to covetousness, the thing behind it is this inflated sense of self-worth. The Scriptures tell us to be humble (Proverbs 15:33) and to count others more worthy than ourselves (Philippians 2:3).
To the Christian heart, this should make sense. We understand the depths of our depravity, we know things about ourselves that no other mortal knows. We have broken God’s Law and trampled His holy commandments under our feet. And yet, in an amazing display of mercy, God saw fit to redeem us. Not because we deserve it, but because He wanted to. We are totally and 100% saved by grace. We are nothing, and we deserve nothing. Actually, that is not entirely true because we do deserve death and wrath. We deserve the unmitigated fury of God which burns against sin. We deserve in eternity what is called the second death. Yet, we live. More than live, we have life eternal. To top it all off, we have the example of Jesus Christ who is the perfect display of humility (Philippians 2:5-8).
But oh, how easy it is to forget this. If we could just see more clearly who we really are, and who God is, we would not be given to the anger of man. We would weep.
One more thing needs to be said about the cause of our anger before the final exhortation. The dirty little secret about anger that I am convinced the unbelieving world cannot really understand is the reason why men get angry is because they like it. If you understand the Biblical doctrine of the will, you know that men act according to their strongest desires. To put it simply, we never do something we don’t want to do. And the reason why we get angry is because we like the way that it feels.
This might seem absurd, because anger is usually seen as the opposite of happiness. Clearly, someone who is angry is not enjoying themselves. They are frustrated or in a bad mood. But do we ever stop and think that maybe, whatever situation it is that is causing this anger is nothing more than in excuse to indulge in total selfishness? Just a total sense of “me, myself, and I”, I do not care what anyone else says, thinks, or feels. Anger is just total self-absorption into how much we really love ourselves. You see, if you miss this close connection to selfishness that anger has I really think you are going to miss the whole picture. Rather than thinking others more than us, when we are angry we are thinking others less than us. This is why there is a great temptation for an angry man to try and make others feel bad. Someone upsets you, or hurts you, and all you can think about is how badly you want to hurt them. God very much hates this kind of thing because it is nothing more than a very stupid pride and haughtiness (Proverbs 16:18).
What then is the solution to all of this? We have already seen pieces of it in the Biblical admonishments towards humility. If we have a proper evaluation of ourselves next to the mirror of God’s Law, and the amazing grace with which we have been redeemed, many of the root causes of anger (covetousness and a love of self) will be dealt with. But in addition to humility, we must also learn contentment if we are to fight off anger.
Philippians 4:11–13 (ESV) 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
If we understand that the Good Lord is with us, that He knows our each and every need, and that He knows what will ultimately prove to work out for our best, then we will learn this divine art of contentment. If we are Christians, we already know how much we have been blessed with redemption, we just need to remember that God has not abandoned us. We have exactly what He says we should, and we are utter fools to think we know better than God.