[_혁신주의] Anger Part 1: Understanding Anger

Anger Part 1:

Understanding Anger

by David Powlison

Every human being deals with anger. In a world ofdisappointments, imperfections, miseries, and sins(our own and others’), anger is a given. You get angry.I get angry. Those you counsel get angry. No doubtthat’s why the Bible comes packed with stories, teach-ings, and comments about anger: God intends us tounderstand anger and to know how anger problemscan be resolved.

This article has three parts. “UnderstandingAnger” will focus on how we think about anger. Thesecond and third parts, which will appear in futureissues, will look at implications and how we counselangry people.

What is anger? How do we make sense of it? Let’sbegin with five general statements about somethingwe often experience but seldom stop to understand.

1. The Bible is About Anger

The Bible is about anger. Who is the angriest per-son in the Bible? God. When God looks at evil, “Hisanger does not turn away,” as Isaiah repeated overand over. In Romans, Paul mentions God’s anger andits effects more than fifty times, beginning with, “Thewrath of God is revealed from heaven against allungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans1:18). John says that the wrath of God “abides” onwhoever will not believe in the Son of God for mercy:anger was, is, and will remain on their heads.1

That God is angry tells us something very impor-tant. Anger can be utterly right, good, appropriate,beautiful, the only fair response to something evil,and the loving response on behalf of evil’s victims. Infact, “it would be impossible for a moral being tostand in the presence of perceived wrong indifferentand unmoved.”2 It is no surprise that Jesus Christ wasfilled with anger when He encountered people whoperverted the worship of God and contributed to orwere calloused to the sufferings of others.3

God’s anger is never capricious or ill-humored. Heresponds justly to what is wrong and offensive. ButHe “takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked,rather that he should turn from his ways and live”(Ezekiel 18:23). Human beings were intended to lovethe one who made and sustains them, whose “richesof kindness, forbearance, and patience” all have expe-rienced (Romans 2:4). But “their adulterous heartsturned away...and their eyes played the harlot aftertheir idols” (Ezekiel 6:9). Is God’s anger unfair? Whenchallenged, God’s response is straightforward: “AreMy ways not right? Is it not your ways that are not

right?...I shall judge you according to your ways andaccording to your deeds.”4

The crimes that arouse God’s wrath are capitalcrimes: betrayal, rebellion, deceit, blasphemousbeliefs. The human heart is treacherous; we desire tobelieve anything but what is really true about God.The feelings aroused in us when we hear someonedescribed by the word “traitor” give a hint of the rea-soning within God’s wrath. Human beings wereintended to listen to God’s life-giving voice and totreat one another with love. But we have hearts ofstone. We are headstrong: “You are each one walkingaccording to the stubbornness of his own evil heart,without listening to Me”; “Everyone did what wasright in his own eyes.”5 God would be less than goodif He did not hate such evils.

God, of course, is also the most loving person inthe Bible, and the Son of God expresses the fullness ofHis love. We often fail to see that God’s anger and loveare entirely consistent with each other as differentexpressions of His goodness and glory. The two worktogether: “Jesus burned with anger against thewrongs He met with in His journey through humanlife, as truly as He melted with pity at the sight of the

You can’t understand God’s loveif you don’t understand His anger.

3See, e.g., Mark 3:5 and 10:14; Matthew 18:6f and 23:2-36;John 2:14-17.
4Ezekiel 18:29 and 24:14.
5Jeremiah 16:12; Judges 21:25.

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world’s misery: and it was out of these two emotionsthat His actual mercy proceeded.”6 You can’t under-stand God’s love if you don’t understand His anger.Because He loves, He’s angry at what harms.

But notice the way God’s children experience Hisanger: His anger is expressed on their behalf assupremely tender love! As we will see, the Bible isconsistent about this truth. Yet anger is by definitionagainst things, with an intent to destroy, so how canGod’s wrath become something God’s children loveand trust rather than something they fear or dislike?In what way is God’s anger an expression of how Heis for us, rather than the expression of how He isagainst us? The Good News is always presented interms of how love and anger come to be resolved. Godexpresses His love for His people by each of the three waysHe expresses His anger at wrong. He promises to freebelievers from three things.

First, in love, the anger your sin deserves fell on Jesus.

God’s anger at sin was expressed—but for your well-being. Once and for all in the past, God set you freefrom ever experiencing His wrath against your sins. Insteadfast love, He freely offered His innocent Son tobear the wrath deserved by the guilty. God’s angerpunishes and destroys, giving our sin its due—but itwas taken by Jesus, the Beloved Lamb, the Savior ofsinners. Because He loves us, He offers Himself tobear the fire of anger; the way of our deliverance isHis glory and our joy. God’s loving anger, expressedin a way that brings us blessing, is the basis of lifefrom the dead: it assures us of true forgiveness. Justi-fication by faith and adoption as the children of Godrest upon that form of love called substitutionaryatonement. What we deserve, another bore becauseHe chose to love us. In this supreme act of self-givinglove, we experience God’s anger acting FOR us. Inresponse, we confidently repent and believe.

Second, in love, God’s anger works to disarm the powerof your sin. His anger at sin is again expressed for yourwell-being. In the present, He deals continually withindwelling sinfulness itself.7 The Holy Spirit, whopours out God’s love within you, is a burning fire ofanger against evil, not to destroy you but to make younew. In steadfast love, He remakes us, not by tolerat-ing our sin, but by hating our sin in a way that welearn to love! The process is not always pleasantbecause suffering, reproof, guilt, and owning up don’tfeel good. But deliverance, mercy, encouragement,

and a clearing conscience do feel good. God remakesus progressively into love, joy, peace, and wisdom—His own image. God’s anger remedies and destroysongoing sin. Because He loves us, He’s angry at ourself-destructive sinfulness; our growing faith and obe-dience is His glory and our joy. God’s loving anger onour behalf nourishes and encourages faith: it assuresus that He will keep working both inside us andaround us to set us free of indwelling evil.8 In the newbirth and sanctification, God’s destructive powerworks within us against what is wrong with us. He isfor us, making us new, teaching us to listen, remakingus like Jesus. In the daily outworking of love, we expe-rience God’s anger working FOR us. In response, weenergetically cooperate and obey.

Third, in love, God’s anger will deliver you from the painof others’ sins. His anger at sin will be expressed againfor your well-being. In the future He promises to endall suffering from others’ sinfulness.9 God hates theway people hurt other people. In steadfast love, He willdeliver us from our enemies; on the last day all causesof pain will be destroyed forever. At the same time, theBible is clear that those who oppose God and hurt Hispeople exist for a purpose: they are God’s unwittingagents in the sanctification task. They act for their ownsinful reasons, but also accomplish God’s purposes forgood as He tests and transforms us through suffering.They are agents of God’s loving discipline towards Hispeople that we might learn patience, faith, love for ene-mies, courage, and every good fruit that can only belearned in tough times. Yet they are under wrath for themalice with which they do what they do.10 God’s anger

6Warfield, p. 122.
7A work that will be completed when we see Jesus return onthe day of wrath. See, for example, Philippians 1:6; 1 Thes-salonians 5:23; 1 John 3:2.

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will punish and destroy His enemies—because Heloves His children and is glorified in our deliverancefrom suffering. So we groan in pain, because thepainful is still painful; but we groan in hope, too,because we know what will come.11 Because He lovesus, He’s angry at people who seek to hurt us: ourblessedness is His glory and our joy. God’s lovinganger on our behalf nourishes and encourages our

us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
It’s important to make proper distinctions. God’swrath has become the hope of His children though itis the despair of His enemies. But those enemies whoare willing to believe the staggering message of howwrath is converted into grace through Jesus Christwill be changed into friends. The truth is that youcan’t understand God’s love if you don’t understandHis anger. This is simply the message of the book ofPsalms, that royal road into the heart of redeemedhumankind, with its otherwise inexplicable inter-weaving of joy and sorrow, hope and anguish, confi-dence and fear, contentment and anger. You can’tunderstand God’s love if you don’t understand Hisanger. This is simply the message of the book ofRomans, that royal road into the mind of God: “Oh,the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowl-edge of God! How unsearchable are His judgmentsand unfathomable His ways.... To Him be the glory

forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33, 36).
Come at the opening question from a different

angle. Who is the angriest person in the Bible? Satan.His anger, also, does not turn away. He has “greatwrath,” being a “murderer from the beginning” evenuntil now.14 Satan’s anger springs from malice andthe desire to hurt people. His anger, the paradigm ofall sinful anger, is the antithesis of God’s. Satan’s hos-tility aims to make things wrong, in service to his owncravings. This also tells us something very important.Anger can be utterly wrong, bad, inappropriate, ugly,a completely destructive response. Such anger sum-marizes the very essence of evil: “I want my way andnot God’s, and because I can’t have my way, I rage.”

It is a curious and often confusing thing that thesame word, “anger,” speaks of both the finest and thefoulest feelings and acts. Maintain proper distinctions,because those you counsel will usually be as confusedabout anger as they are about love.15 Sinful anger

faith. God’s beloved children hope and trust that at thereturn of Christ, His anger will make things right.12 Inanticipation, we groan and eagerly wait.

God expresses His love for His people by each of thethree ways He expresses His anger at wrong. God’s lovinganger resolves the entire problem of evil in a way thatbrings Him inexpressible glory and brings us inex-pressible blessing: justly condemning evil, severingthe power of remnant evil, and bringing relief fromsuffering. Numerous psalms connect the steadfastlove and mercies of the Lord to this loving wrath bywhich He delivers His children both from their ownsins and from those who harm them.13 “If God is for

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usurps God and does harm; godly anger loves,enthroning God and doing good to people.

The Bible is about anger. In the very first exchangeafter the fall into sin, Adam blamed both Eve and Godfor what he had done. Blameshifting can feel nearlyemotionless, but the themes of sinful anger readilyappear: accusation of others, the stance of presumedsuperiority and innocence. And it’s only a chapterlater that anger first breaks out into emotion and vio-lence. “Cain became very angry”; his countenancebecame grim and unhappy; he killed his brother (Gen-esis 4:5). The logical result of sinful anger is recordedthereafter in the story of Noah: “The earth was filledwith violence” (Genesis 6:11).

Scripture portrays many things about anger. Forexample, anger can be falsely aroused. In Genesis 39,Potiphar’s anger burned at the thought that Josephhad been dallying with his wife. And anger can maskitself in innocence. Potiphar’s wife was angry, too:cool, sneaky, manipulative, vengeful. She played thevictim in order to destroy an innocent man who hadrebuffed her cravings. The same person can expressboth righteous and sinful anger. When Moses’ angerburned at those worshiping the golden calf, he burnedin the image of God.16 Anger energized him to redressthe problem. But when Moses cursed the people andstruck the rock, he burned in the image of sin. Angerenergized him to dishonor the God of grace.17

God often speaks His thoughts on anger in propo-sitional form. He devotes the sixth commandment,“You shall not commit murder,” to the family of judg-mental reactions that includes sinful anger. Jesus’scommentary on this commandment (Matthew 5:21f)expanded the scope of its implications to include atti-tudes and words. The Lord first spoke the commandto “love your neighbor as yourself” in a context(Leviticus 19:14-18) that contrasts love with matterspertinent to sinful anger: intentionally hurting help-less people, unjust judgment, character defamation,physical harm, inner hatred, vengeance, holding agrudge. Interestingly, that same passage positivelydefines love in terms that relate to righteous anger:clear, loving reproof arises from caring about the wel-fare of others. Wisdom, the patiently acquired gift

from God, frequently comments on anger: the wiseand foolish are distinguishable by how they getangry.18 And Jesus’ messengers frequently carriedwords about anger. Variations on the theme constitutehalf of Paul’s list of representative deeds of the sinfulflesh: “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger,disputes, dissensions, factions.” Every aspect of theSpirit’s fruit is the explicit opposite of sinful anger.19

Both by precept and example, the Bible continual-ly enlightens us about anger, intending to change us.

The motivations for sinful anger are exposed withinScripture: specific longings and unbelief. Why did theIsraelites grumble repeatedly in the wilderness? TheBible doesn’t leave us in doubt. They didn’t get whatthey wanted and they didn’t believe that God wasgood, powerful, and wise. Those grumbling passagesin Exodus and Numbers also register how specificanger’s motives are, and how motives of the heartattach to details of the situation. When the food wasboring, the people craved cucumbers, melons, leeks,onions, and garlic. When Moses acted as God’sspokesman, Miriam and Aaron craved to share themicrophone. When enemies threatened, the peoplefeared death, not believing God would help them.When water was not forthcoming, the people cravedirrigated grain, figs, grapes, pomegranates, andwater.20 Anger can be grim and murderous like Cain;anger can burn with emotion like Potiphar; anger canplan with cool malice like his wife; anger can rumbleand grumble, running on in complaints, unhappiness,and bickering, like the wilderness wanderers. But inall cases the cause of sinful anger boils down to spe-cific lies and lusts that rule the human heart. You andthose you counsel are no different.

Anger also brings devastating consequences. Godis justly angry at our sinful anger. For example,Moses’ tantrum against the people (another typicalpattern, getting angry at angry people, grumbling

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Every aspect of the Spirit’s fruit is theexplicit opposite of sinful anger.

15Like “anger,” the word “love,” as used both in the Bibleand in everyday speech, does duty for absolutely contradic-tory things. We must press behind a word to get to thefreight of meanings it bears When definitions of terms getjumbled, mischief results. Both “anger” and “love” havebeen much abused by failing to consistently discern the linebetween good and evil that runs through their middle. The

about grumblers) cost him the promised land. Ofcourse other people tend to react in kind to an angryperson which multiplies the general unpleasantness:“An angry man stirs up strife” (Proverbs 29:22).Angry people are divisive; divisive people are angry.You will often witness immediate consequences in thelives of those you counsel: frightened children, anembittered spouse, spoiled friendships, health prob-lems, difficulties in the workplace, estrangements atchurch. Troubles dog the steps of an angry person: “Aman of great anger shall bear the penalty, for if yourescue him, you will only have to do it again”(Proverbs 19:19).

Anger feeds on itself and grows. Saul was a habit-ually self-willed man. His brooding temper seethedjust below the surface. David’s sweet harp and amaz-ing acts of merciful restraint soothed Saul temporari-ly, but then he would explode again. Scripture is fullof examples of anger, with its many forms, causes, andvaried effects. Jonah, Jezebel, Nabal, and the Phariseesare only a few of the lives gripped by this powerfuland most typical evil. In every list of typical sins—andthere is no temptation that is not common to all—anger is prominent.

Thanks be to God, the Bible is also about thegospel that forgives and changes angry people.Proverbs, Ephesians, and James are only a few of thebooks that dissect anger in order to redeem and trans-form it. God never holds up a mirror without holdingout a lamp. He speaks fully and frequently about Hismercy to angry people. He speaks fully and frequent-ly about the alternatives to sinful anger: trust, forgive-ness, patience, contentment, the pursuit of justice,godly confrontation, all the varied strategies and atti-tudes of peacemaking, self-control, self-knowledge.Righteous anger is an excellent and constructivething. Moses, Samson, David, and Paul, like Jesus, onoccasion burned with this most rare righteousness.

God in His grace pours out kindness on peoplewho were “enslaved to various lusts and pleasures,spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hatingone another” (Titus 3:3). What does grace intend toaccomplish? Grace creates wise, self-controlled, lov-ing people who are able to stand up and do somegood in this world of hostility (Titus 2:11-3:8). Everyelement in the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13 isthe explicit opposite of sinful anger. To understandyour anger is to understand something that lies at theheart of darkness. To change, learning both mercy andrighteous anger, is to enter the heart of light. We are bynature all warmakers; blessed are the peacemakers,for they shall be called the children of God.

Anger provides a tremendous counseling opportu-

nity. The issues are so clear. When angry, the humanheart is laid out on the table with nowhere to hide.Often counselees’ lives are confusing; issue compli-cates issue; problem piles on problem. Where do youbegin? Many times anger is a good place to start. Thebehaviors are often plain to all: the tone of voice, thecutting edge in the words, the glitter in the eyes, themask of disgust. Its presence is easy to see: grumbling,whining, hostility, judgmentalism, bitterness, rancor,negativism, hatred, bickering, disgruntlement, manip-

ulation, coercion. The motives are usually not difficultto uncover: a mosaic of very specific desires, fears,false beliefs, demands. The effects are patently bad:broken relationships, health problems, misery. TheWord of God applies so immediately and in so manyways: bringing self-knowledge, conviction, mercy,hope, constructive alternatives, tangible help. Nowonder the Bible spends so much time talking aboutanger and the alternatives!

And no wonder it’s so important that we under-stand the Bible’s messages about anger. Big things areat stake. On the one hand, the discontent-anger-hate-violence family features some of the most characteris-tic human sins. We all experience sinful anger, and weall need help. On the other hand, God expresses Hisglory and mercy through righteous anger. What weneed, He gives freely in revealing Himself for ourwell-being.

2. Anger is Something You Do

Anger is something that you DO with ALL thatyou are as a person. Getting this straight will help yousee through the half-truths by which our culture lies tous about anger.21 Every part of human nature isinvolved. Anger involves your body. It has a markedphysiological component: the flushed face, the adren-aline surge, the clenched muscles, the churning stom-

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Righteous anger is an excellentand constructive thing.

ach, the nervous tension. Interestingly, most of thewords Scripture uses for anger communicate throughvivid, bodily metaphors. The two chief Old Testamentwords for anger describe “nostrils” and “burning.” Ifyou’ve ever seen a really angry person you’ve proba-bly noticed how nostrils flare, breathing becomes loudand irregular, blood floods the capillaries and heatsthe skin. Similarly, the main Greek words for angercommunicate the sense of “steaming or smoking” and“swollen,” reflecting the sensation of heat and the evi-dent swelling of face and eyes. It is no accident thatmany of our idioms for anger work off the physiolog-ical effects: “hot under the collar,” “steamed,”“breathing fire,” “volcanic,” “seeing red,” “hot-blood-ed,” “slow burn.” That anger is unmistakably physio-logical lends plausibility to those medicalistic theoriesthat view it as basically physiological, hence some-thing to be soothed through medications. Of courseour hormones, blood flow, muscles, and grimaces reg-ister anger. But that’s not all there is to it. Biblically, thewhole person does anger.

When someone says, “I’m angry,” we usuallythink of emotions first. And anger is a “passion.” Peo-ple feel angry. Their emotional equilibrium is “upset.”Intensity levels vary tremendously, of course. Theemotional Richter scale can range from mild irritabili-ty to blind rage. You don’t need to rant and rave tohave a problem with sinful anger. Grumpiness, thecutting remark, sulky self-pity, and the critical attitudeall qualify. Curiously, some of the most frighteningforms of anger seem almost beyond emotion. They areicy rather than hot. I will never forget a conversation Ihad many years ago with a sixteen-year-old girl. Sheseemed angry at her parents. When I asked her aboutit she looked at me with the cold eyes that you see inmug shots of professional killers. She responded in aflat voice, “I don’t get angry, I get even.” A wide rangeof emotional colors expresses discontent and hostility,and you’ll encounter them all in counseling. But manypeople want to think of anger only as an emotion, andperhaps as a neutral, God-given emotion at that. Yetwhy limit anger to physiology or feeling when it isclearly more?

Anger also consists in thoughts, mental words andpictures, attitudes, judgments. It involves reason,imagination, memory, conscience, every inner faculty.Even if no words or actions come forth, the angry per-son thinks intensely. “You are stupid. This is not fair. Ican’t believe she did that to me.” The internal videocamera replays clips from what happened, or mayscript and rehearse imaginary scenarios of violent ret-ribution. The entire criminal justice system—except adefense attorney for the accused!—plays out in the

courtroom of the mind: investigator, prosecutingattorney, witnesses, judge, jury, jailer, and hangman.This judicial attitude is written into the nature ofanger. It is an attitude of judgment, condemnation,and displeasure at persons or things. Words andactions get thought and planned, whether or not theyever get said or done.

Anger occurs not only in the mind, it breaks outinto behavior. I knew a couple who culminated oneparticularly violent argument with a gunfight, himupstairs and her downstairs. I’ve never done that. ButI coolly communicated my irritation with my wife

when I buried my nose one inch further into a maga-zine after she made a comment that I didn’t like.Anger does things. It shows up in accusatory or sar-castic words, curses, exaggerations, gestures, hitting,disgusted sighs, walking out of the room, rising deci-bel level, threats, glowering. You do anger, with allthat you are.

And the plot thickens. Anger, like other sins, rarelystands alone. It is often woven deeply into other per-sonal problems. Often anger and fear are closecousins. I’ve witnessed a mother scream in rage at heryoung child who lay on the ground crying after aplayground accident. She’s afraid; she yells instead ofcomforts. Some theories of anger try to make angersecondary to fear, but this is surely mistaken. Whenthings don’t go right, all sinners feel like the raccooncornered in the garage: fight or flight depending onthe odds, anger and fear coexisting.

Anger complicates many other problems. Sub-stance abuse can connect with anger in a variety ofways. A family friend once said of her husband, “Hedrinks to maintain control of himself against hisrage.” When he didn’t drink, he’d get increasinglyhostile towards her, his boss, and the world. Decades-old grudges would haunt him. When he drank he gotmellow and felt better. Alcohol served as medicationagainst rage. Here’s a different pattern. A womandrank to express her anger at straightlaced parents.Embarrassing everybody and ending up in the gutterserved as a form of revenge.

Sexual immorality can connect to anger. A singleman spoke of his use of pornography as a “tempertantrum at God for not giving me a wife.” Many adul-teries occur as a way to get even. Suicide can expressthe same thing: “You’ve hurt me so badly, and I have

Anger rarely stands alone.

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no other way to get back, but you’ll sure feel bad afterI kill myself and you’ll have to live with what you didto me.” Anger at oneself is a common phenomenon: “Ican’t believe I did something so stupid. If only I wasmore beautiful, rich, intelligent, and scintillating inconversation, but I’m just an ugly, poor, stupid bore.”Self-recrimination, self-accusations, even self-torture(cigarette burns, banging one’s head against the wall,and so forth) can manifest hopeless, self-hating rage ata sense of failure.

So far, we’ve chiefly described sinful anger as apersonal problem. But anger is usually an interper-sonal event. Anger has an object, a target.22 Obviously,anger is a central feature of interpersonal conflictswherever they occur: marriages, families, churches,workplaces, neighborhoods, nations. It is an interper-

sonal strategy, a social and political event. War hasboth its offensive and defensive strategies. Like pettybarons squaring off, people shoot arrows of maliciousaccusation and build castle walls of aggrieved self-righteousness, fear, and hurt. Here, anger adopts themilitary role as well as the judicial role. It is an idealweapon for getting what you want. Anger coerces,intimidates, and manipulates. You will counsel fami-lies that “walk on eggshells” or “duck into foxholes atincoming fire” in relation to one explosive member.

It is no surprise that anger also plays out in themost basic interpersonal relationship: with God.Many people are angry at God. People treat God thesame way they treat others—that observation willcarry you a long way in counseling. The Israelitesgrumbled indiscriminately, accusing both Moses andthe Lord. People frequently target God with mockery,curses, bitterness, and willful misrepresentation.When the Son of God walked the earth, people wereout to get Him. You will often counsel people whoview God through the lens of accusatory anger: as ifGod were in fact the devil, a kill-joy whose nature ismalicious, legalistic, cruel, remote, and uncaring. Thisis no surprise. If I believe that God exists to give me

what I want, I will burn when He doesn’t deliver. Infact, when considered from the standpoint of whatmotivates the human heart, all sinful anger has imme-diate reference to God. If I curse the heat and humidi-ty, I assail God in three ways. First, I forsake Him, thefountain of life, acting as if He did not exist. Second, Iact as if I were God instead, elevating my will for com-fort to supreme status in my universe. Third, I grum-ble against Him, implicitly criticizing the real Authorof “bad” weather for displeasing me.

Anger is bodily, emotional, mental, behavioral. Itweaves in among many other problems. It is decided-ly interpersonal, both with respect to people and God.In short, you DO anger, with ALL that you are. Butwhere does it come from?

3. Anger is Natural

Anger is a given; it is natural to human beings intwo very different ways. It is natural because we werecreated in God’s image; it is natural because we fellinto sin. God created us, in His image no less, with thecapacity for anger. He called it very good. In fact,Adam and Eve should have gotten lethally angrywhen the serpent lied to them about life and death,God, and wisdom. They should have reacted withstrong emotions, clear arguments, and violent action.They should have challenged those lies, picked upstones, and killed the serpent. Anger is a good thingbuilt into human nature.

As human beings made and remade in the imageof a holy God, we are hardwired with the capacity foranger at wrong, as an expression of love both for Godand for those harmed by wrong. And, as sinners whohave ourselves received mercy instead of wrath, wehave the otherwise inexplicable capability simultane-ously to hate wrong and to give love to those who dowrong: “on some have mercy with fear, hating eventhe garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 23). When incounseling you encounter adultery, or violencetowards the weak, or cruel words, you will feel painand loathing at the deeds and their effect on others.And yet you will simultaneously have mercy to givegenerously to the perpetrators of such evils.

Other counseling implications abound. For exam-ple, we need to remember that God’s creation isdiverse; all people are not alike. We should not be sur-prised that some people are born more attuned to jus-tice or more forceful emotionally than others. Amongmy three children differences in temperament showedup almost from the day of birth: different capacitiesfor emotional reaction, for reacting to injustice, for rea-soning about events. God’s dealings with anger (andother issues) don’t cancel human diversity; He works

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Anger is natural, by creation. But sincethe Fall, sinful anger is also a given.

within it.
So anger is natural, by creation. But since the Fall,

sinful anger is also a given. As human beings corrupt-ed into the image of an unholy accuser, we are alsohardwired for resentment and hatred. And in a fallenworld, human anger is so disordered that James canmake a sweeping indictment: “Be slow to anger, forthe anger of man does not achieve the righteousnessof God” (James 1:20). Only a fool would not thinktwice before getting angry, but we easily play the fool.Even righteously aroused anger easily degenerates

into self-righteousness, gossip, self-pity, vengeance,cynicism, and merciless accusation.

Our capacity for sinful anger shows up early:nobody has to teach a child to throw a tantrum. Thefirst time one of my daughters threw herself on thefloor, kicked her feet, and screamed bloody murder,my wife and I looked at each other in amazement. Ourdaughter had never seen anyone act that way, at leastnot to our knowledge. She was young, and hadn’tbeen exposed to many other children. In fact she’dnever been out of our presence except for brief stintswith babysitters, none of whom we thought likely tohave demonstrated what we were now witnessing.But there she was, mad as a wet hen because her willhad been crossed! It was an act of creative, unlearnediniquity. We need to remember that total depravityincludes our anger no less and no more than anythingelse distinctively human.

4. Anger is Learned

Anger is learned, also in two different ways. First,anger is taught and modeled to us. We pick it up fromother people, for good or ill. We learn what to getupset about, and how to show our displeasure.23

Habits, styles, and tendencies to sinful anger areeasily acquired from others. Many children who hadnever thought of letting fly an angry curse—they hadnever even heard all the bad words—are surprisedwhen one slips out a week after first riding on theschool bus. Parental shock perhaps quickly nips habitformation. But later, when they live in a college dormor land their first job on a construction crew, in a fac-tory, or in the military, the four letter words creep in asall-purpose modifiers: “Pass the %$#@! butter” isn’tusually learned at home.

By modeling, angry and hostile curses becomeroutine ways to respond to the mildest frustration.With good reason the Bible says, “Do not make friendswith a hot-tempered man, do not associate with oneeasily angered, or you may learn his ways and getyourself ensnared” (Proverbs 22:24f). Counselors willlook for companions from whom angry counseleeshave learned how to be angry and what to be angry at.A parent who routinely damns the weather, the traffic,or his spouse disciples his children to do likewise.

Godly, constructive anger is also learned, thoughhabits, styles, and tendencies to righteous anger arenot easily acquired from others. Nonetheless, “he whowalks with wise men will be wise” (Proverbs 13:20).And if we walk with the wisest man who ever lived,we will learn to “walk in the same manner as Hewalked” (1 John 2:6).

Many of the details of a person’s style of angermay be influenced by parents, peers, or ethnic group.Cultural differences in expressing both sinful andrighteous emotions can be marked. Italian anger andNorwegian anger typically differ drastically in modesof expression.24 Sinful anger always comes “out of theheart” (Mark 7:20-23), but the exact form anger takesoften is nurtured. Counselors should expect that bothrighteous and sinful anger will look different, depend-ing on individual and cultural differences, and shouldnot impose their own personality style on those theycounsel.

Anger is learned in a second way. It is practiced,and can become “second nature,” a habitual mannerof life. Our patterns of anger become characteristic.Some people hit the roof and then get over it; othersgo into their shell; others go on the rampage for days.Some people raise their voices, others get quiet; some

Anger evaluates andanger is itself evaluated.

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24Woody Allen fans will remember the famous split-screenscene in the movie Annie Hall. The tight-lipped civility ofupper class, Westchester Anglo-Saxons contrasted with thevolatile emotional roller-coaster of working class, BrooklynJews. The habits of the former should not form our image ofbiblical self-control. The habits of the latter should not formour image of biblical emotional expression.

people give plenty of signals that they are angry, oth-ers make guerrilla strikes out of nowhere; some useanger to intimidate and control people, others useanger to sulk and avoid people. Counselors mustbecome familiar with the characteristic flesh of theirsheep.25

5. Anger is a Moral Matter

Anger is an intrinsically moral matter. I mean thisstatement in two ways. Anger evaluates and anger isitself evaluated. This has been implicit in the previousdiscussion, but is worth holding up for inspection.First, anger evaluates; that is, it weighs something orsomeone, finds it lacking, wrong, or displeasing, andthen moves into action. Anger arouses us to attack ordiscredit what we find displeasing. Anger has onoccasion been well-described as the “moral emotion.”It is a self-contained judicial system, reacting to per-ceived wrong with energy. Throughout this article Ihave typically broadened our definition of “anger” toinclude judgmentalism, grousing, blameshifting,hatred, violence, and the like. All of these things arejudgments against perceived evil. What we typicallythink of as “anger”—a raised voice, accusatory words,emotional heat, hostile attitude—is probably bestdefined as “the emotionally aroused form of judg-ment against perceived evil.”

In this article we are concerned with the essentialnature of anger, not with discriminating degrees andnuances. And that essential nature is to pass a moraljudgment against something that we think bothwrong and important. I care enough about somethingto be moved: the “motion” in emotion, the “motive” in“motivation.” I am moved both to feel strongly and todo something. Anger by its very nature takes a moralposition; it judges.

Second, anger is evaluated. God judges our judg-ing; He morally evaluates every single instance ofanger. Did I perceive good and evil accurately? Did Ireact to perceived evil in a godly way? If I becomepeevish when the phone rings and breaks my concen-tration, muttering a string of expletives, my angerproclaims, “This phone call is bad and deserves to bedamned.” God evaluates both my criterion for judg-ment and my way of reacting, and finds both wrong.If I curse out an adulterer and gossip about him, myanger proclaims, “Adultery is wrong, and should be

met with cursing and gossip.” God evaluates my cri-terion for judgment and finds it right; He evaluatesmy way of reacting and finds it wrong. If I becomeangry when my child mocks his mother, and respondto him with vigorous, loving reproof, my anger pro-claims, “Disrespect is wrong, and should be met ener-getically with respect, challenge, and mercy.” Godevaluates my anger, both my criterion for judgmentand my way of reacting, and finds them right. Suchanger expresses love for both my wife and child. Theemotional force of such loving anger does many goodthings. It motivates me to intervene; it protects mywife; it drives home to my child the significance of thewrong; it models the right way to respond to anoth-er’s sin.

Christianity is not about stoic apathy, being“above” emotional reaction.26 Many people, in thename of “being self-controlled,” actually prove them-selves to be uncaring or obtuse. They sin by omission;they are aloof, failing to help, where godliness wouldget upset and look for ways to make an impact. Butneither is Christianity about unleashing emotions.“He who is slow to anger has great understanding,but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly” (Proverbs14:29). Anger is not neutral. A line between wisdomand foolishness runs through the center of everyinstance of “anger”; it is either godly or devilish.

Here biblical thinking goes directly against ourculture. Our culture typically says, “Anger is neithergood nor bad, it just is.” The theory that emotions areneutral has become a refrain of the therapeutic cul-ture. But it’s not true that anger “just is.” Many peo-ple, in the name of “just being honest” or “getting itoff my chest,” prove themselves to be recklessly self-centered. They sin by commission; they are impulsive,causing harm, where godliness would consider theimpact of words. Learning to discern the differencebetween righteous and sinful anger is extremelyimportant, and not always easy.

We must fine-tune our moral judgment—“have

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our senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews5:14)—to tell the difference between righteous andsinful anger. God and the devil are both angry all thetime; on whose side is your anger? Scripture givesmany criteria by which God trains us to discern. Wewill consider seven.

Test #1: Do you get angry about the right things?

Anger addresses perceived wrong. Did you per-ceive rightly? This is the first great divide. A personmay become angry at things he has no business beingangry about. People generate their own set of expec-tations, their own “laws,” their own criteria of goodand bad, and react angrily when these “laws” are bro-ken. Jonah is the classic case; twice he burned withanger, and twice God challenged him, “Do you havegood reason to be angry?” (Jonah 4). He had perceivedGod’s compassion on people and the withering of ashade plant as serious wrongs. Much sinful anger aris-es from similar misperceptions. For example, I mayexpect to eat roast beef for dinner. When I sit down todinner, macaroni and cheese is served. If I grouse irri-tably, is my anger neutral? No, it’s sinful, because Ihave perceived as bad something that is good andmeant to be received with thanks. Much anger arisesfrom perceptions distorted by the beliefs, cravings,and expectations that substitute for God’s rule in ourhearts.

A friend once came up to me after church and said,“I want to ask your forgiveness for something. I’vebeen angry at you for eight months, and have justheld it in trying to forgive you. But God has convictedme, and I want to get things solved between us.” I wasgrateful that she wanted to get things straight and thatshe’d had the courage and humility to raise a prob-lem. But as she tried to describe an incident in the hall-way at church where I had ignored and snubbed her,she lost me. What was she talking about? I couldn’tremember ever doing anything against her. Finally wepieced it together. During the worship service onemorning I had started to feel nauseous. While headingfor the men’s room I had passed her in the hall withthe barest acknowledgment, no hello or conversation,and an unhappy look on my face. She had interpretedall this as directed at her. Eight months of anger result-ed from perceiving evil where evil was not present.Her desire for acceptance had ruled. Or perhaps itwould be better to say, her craving for acceptance hadconflicted with the desires of the Spirit in her. To beseemingly ignored and frowned at by a presumedfriend is no fun. Where God rules, hurt and anger willmove us to resolve things in a godly way, checking outour perceptions. This in fact she finally did, to thepraise of His grace, and we were heartily reconciled.

But where false beliefs and cravings rule, our percep-tions stay twisted; we get stuck in hurt and anger. Toa degree this had happened, delaying reconciliationby many months. Anger always reflect a person’smoral standards, his definitions of good and bad,right and wrong. Check them out!27

You may very well be angry at something youshould hate. You may accurately perceive a wrong. Thewrong may be against you: harshness from yourspouse or parent, disrespect from your child, lying byan employee, fraud by a salesman, rape by a relative.You may observe evil done publicly or to anotherindividual: child molestation, verbal cruelty, homo-sexualist and abortionist propaganda, lies and manip-ulation by a televangelist, wartime atrocities. Anger isthe appropriate Christian response. You would be astone, a sentimentalist, or a stoic if you didn’t feelsome degree of anger. But at this point we face anoth-er divide.
Test #2: Do you express anger in the right way?

It’s possible to see the wrong in another’s life accu-rately, and yet to express anger in a sinful way. Jesus’

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parable about “the log and the speck” turns on thisissue.28 Righteously aroused anger (passing Test #1) isoften the hardest to get a grip on at this point. Thething that happened “out there” seems so wrong thatI go blind to the wrong that is “in here.” The sins ofself-righteousness are notably self-deceiving.

The clearest gauge of whether anger is right orwrong in its expression is whether it acts to condemnor to offer help. We are called to put our faith in thefact that “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I willrepay” (Romans 12:19). Our anger is not meant to bepunitive, to get even. It is meant to do good first, andobviously, to the victims or potential victims of evil.And it is meant to do good second, sometimes not soobviously, to the perpetrators of evil. Anger motivatesus to intervene to stop wrong, to protect the weak, tochallenge tyrants (some of whom may sit before us incounseling offices), to reprove, to warn the unruly, toalert people to danger. But the dynamic of grace-giv-ing and peacemaking must finally permeate ouranger. Otherwise we are guilty of merciless judgment,of swiping at specks with boards lodged in our eyes.

Ephesians 4:29 is always true: “Let NO unwhole-some word come out of your mouth, but ONLY sucha word as is good for edification, according to theneed of the moment, that it may give grace to thosewho hear.” The perception of wrongdoing and theenergies of anger do not entitle setting aside an injunc-tion specifically written to help people dealing withdispleasure at each other’s wrongdoings!29 Evenwhen (especially when!) dealing with gross sin orheresy, 2 Timothy 2:24-25 always applies: “The Lord’sbond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind toall, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentle-ness correcting those in opposition.”

Jesus addressed His fiercest diatribe against thereligious leaders in Jerusalem (Matthew 23). Angergave His words focus, a sharp point, a cumulativeimpact. But He was not destroying people; He washelping. Jesus spoke to rescue those whom the leadersmisled into legalistic self-righteousness and unbeliefin the Christ who stood among them. And Jesus spoketo appeal to those leaders, warning them that theyfaced wrath, “Woe to you.” Even in this extremeinstance of anger, Jesus did not inflict punishment. Hewas not being quarrelsome, unkind, false, impatient,fractious. When He bled on the cross, many leaders—Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Paul the apostle,and others—were included in His intercession,

“Father, forgive them,” and came under the blood ofthe Lamb who loved them.

There is a good reason why the limited punitivefunction God gives to man—the “sword”—is held intrust by the state for the general well-being. When the“king,” the office of the magistrate, punishes fairly,justice results. The greater the wrong, the more neces-

sary punishment becomes and the less individualanger should play a part. When individual anger aimsfor punishment, vigilante justice results, injustice fol-lows, and God is displeased. Let this question searchyou. Assuming your anger is appropriately aroused,are you expressing it constructively, to the glory ofGod? Or is your anger full of the peevishness, self-righteousness, and punitiveness of sinful anger?

I can think of one dramatic occasion when myanger was both intense and—as far as I knowmyself—simply righteous. This incident happenedwhen I was a brand new Christian working in a men-tal hospital. One of the patients was a brooding hulkof a man, 6’ 4”, 260 pounds, with a history of violence.“John” waited until all the staff had gone off to lunchexcept me (hardly the Incredible Hulk) and a nursewho went about 4’10” and 95 pounds. He chose thattime to go on a rampage. I heard the noise of furniturebeing broken up in the day room. As I came out of thenurse’s station, I beheld John trotting down the hall ona crash course with me, holding a huge television setover his head.

I became angry. Intensely angry. Maybe it wascrazy to be angry and not afraid, but anger was whatI was aware of. I don’t know where the booming voicecame from, but suddenly I heard myself saying,“JOHN, PUT THAT DOWN AND GO TO YOURROOM!” My words were intense and forceful. I wasdealing with wrong, and my response had energy init, it had command, it had authority. The righteousanger produced amazing effects. John stopped in histracks, put down the TV set, and meekly trotted downthe hall to his room.

The next moment, still breathing heavily, I thoughtto myself, “Where did that come from? Thank you,God.” Once I calmed my heartbeat, I followed Johndown the hall to talk to him. We had a good talk. I did-n’t nag him or moralize at him. He, in fact, proved

28Matthew 7:1-5 and Luke 6:39-45.
29This is the emphasis both in the immediate context (4:25-5:2) and the larger context (from the beginning of chapter 4).

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God and the devil are both angry all thetime; on whose side is your anger?

remorseful. As I’ve thought about that incident subse-quently, the nature of righteous anger has come clear-er. I didn’t hate John. In fact it would be fairest to sayI loved him, though I obviously “felt” no warm affec-tion for him at the moment. I did him true good, eventhough I burned against his wrong. I wasn’t out to gethim. I didn’t hold a grudge against him. My wordsweren’t vindictive. Aggressive as they were, theyaimed to solve the problem, to make peace. I didn’tdemean John. I wasn’t holier-than-thou. No residue ofbitterness remained. In fact, our relationship wasstrengthened. The anger was not inappropriate. It wasappropriately aroused, based on accurate perception.It was appropriately expressed, intended to bringabout the well-being of humans and the glory of God.

God doesn’t often deal us heroic moments. But inthe unheroic moments the same issues face us in alower key. The stubborn teen? The sullen husband?The coworker running off at the mouth? The trafficjam? The committee veering off in a fruitless direc-tion? The interruptions that never happen at the righttime? “Something wrong is happening. How will Ilove? Will I return evil for evil or will my words beconstructive? Whether forceful or mild, will myresponse give grace to those who hear?”
Test #3: How long does your anger last?

How else can you tell if anger is godly? One gaugeis its duration. When anger lasts a day, a week, adecade, a lifetime, something has gone wrong. Whenanger settles into bitterness and hostility, the devilwins the game. We become like our oppressors,returning evil for evil. Ephesians states the principlememorably: “Don’t let the sun go down on youranger” (4:26). To do so is to sin, as the first half of theverse bluntly informs us.

Anger can be clean and right. But God meansgrace to triumph in those whom He is remaking in Hisimage. It doesn’t mean we won’t hate evil. It doesmean we take seriously the daily prayer that statesour need: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgivethose who trespass against us.” Do you get over youranger? Or does it fester? Do your attitudes towardspeople become poisoned with malice, disdain, con-demnation? Where you keep short accounts on yourown sins—including the manifold sins of anger—mercy will continually flow into your own life, mak-ing you merciful to others.
Test #4: How controlled is your anger?

Godly anger is emotion controlled by a purposeimposed on us by the Lord God. It is consistent withthose fruits of the Spirit termed self-control, gentle-ness, and patience. Ungodly anger is emotion con-trolled by the impulses of our own hearts, and runs

out of control, harsh, easily provoked. Jay Adams putit well: “Anger is the emotion that has been given byGod to attack problems.... The energies of anger[must be] productively released under control towarda problem. [Anger] must be directed toward destroy-ing the problem, not toward destroying the person....Anger, like a good horse, must be bridled.”30 Is youranger controlled by a godly agenda, by confidence inGod’s sovereignty, by submission to His purposes? Oris it out of God’s control, unpredictable, vigilante,either abusive or brooding? Is your anger grace-giv-ing or judgmental?

God’s purposes through us are to give grace. Isyour anger laced with mercy? You will be provoked.You can’t avoid it: “Stumbling blocks are sure tocome” (Luke 17:1). When your child mocks or defiesyou as a parent, you don’t simply observe in adetached way, “Oh, that’s interesting. Now, I believeI’m hearing and seeing something that perhaps fitsthe category of ‘sin’. Why, yes indeed, as I think aboutit, that pattern of words seems inconsistent with obe-dient respect. Hmm, I wonder how I ought to handleit?” Oh no! You are made to react emotionally. A childis not supposed to mock his parents! The offense right-ly pushes a button and arouses something in you.31Now, that anger easily becomes sinful, but it needn’t.It can be bridled: “Let’s deal with this.” The anger pro-vides energy to name clearly what was wrong, to dis-cipline the child, to talk with him, comfort him, andgive love to him. Anger is sinful and destructive ifpunitive, righteous and loving if disciplinary.

Does such self-control mean that your anger willnot be as intense? This is a difficult question becausethe Bible does not make intensity a criterion. Cool dis-dain or mild disgust can express profoundly evilforms of “judgments against perceived evil.” Geno-cide—literal or attitudinal—can occur without muchemotion, rather like exterminating vermin or takingout the garbage. Such intense forms of hatred may bedevoid of emotional heat, but are deeply evil. Thealoofness of such “superior beings” simply dismissesthose displeasing persons or points of view that fail

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their test of significant existence. In contrast, Jesuswas “consumed” with anger when He drove the mon-eychangers out of His temple (John 2:17). Both then,and when condemning the Pharisees, Jesus seems toregister up at about 10 on the Richter scale of emo-tional force. Yet His anger was always mastered byHis devotion to God’s glory and the well-being of thepeople of God, just as it will be on the day when the“wrath of the Lamb” is revealed (Revelation 6:16f).

Perhaps it is fair to say that much of the intensity ofanger will be greatly diminished when it is controlledby the Spirit, because so much anger is reckless,vengeful, and misguided. Merciful, patient, wise peo-ple simply don’t explode, while fools give full vent totheir wrath (Proverbs 29:11). The wise maintain ahumble self-suspicion regarding the validity of theiranger: does it pass God’s tests? Similarly, many of theoccasions of anger will disappear, because we won’tbe aroused by the many things that trigger irritableanger. But all that said, there will always be someoccasions for anger, and some of those occasions maycall for strong feelings.
Test #5: What motivates your anger?

The sinfulness or godliness of anger arises fromthe motive. People motivated by desire for God’sglory, for personal conformity to Jesus’ model andwill, and for the well-being of others will be angry inone way. People motivated by the “desires of bodyand mind” (Ephesians 2:3), by pride and false beliefs,will be angry in a different way. The simplest questionto ask about what underlies anger is, “What do I real-ly want?” If you are honest, with God’s help, you canrecognize if you really crave to get even, or to hurtsomeone, or not to be inconvenienced, or to provesomeone wrong, or to score points, or to be recog-nized and appreciated, or to humiliate, or to win, or toget your way. You are ruled by what the Bible terms“self.” And, with God’s help, you can also recognize ifyou really want the Lord of life to be honored in word,deed, attitude, and intention. The counsel of brothersand sisters can help us sort things through when weare blind to something and can’t figure it out. Counselcan help us when we deceive ourselves about ourmotives, dressing up something unsavory as though itwere God’s will.

One of the delightful things about counselingangry people—and sorting out your own anger—isthat the link between root and fruit is so accessible.For instance, how would you respond if, after youasked a reasonable question, I derided your questionas stupid, slapped you across the face, and called youa dirty name? You would feel pain, shock, dismay,humiliation, anger, perhaps fear. Where would it go?Glory be to God if the sense of being wronged moti-vated you to confront me frankly, with a gentle spirit,intent on checking my folly and bringing me to mysenses, confident that first I needed the grace of Godand then your specific forgiveness. There is every like-lihood that you were motivated by Christ Jesus aboveall else. If instead you grew bitter and brooded onschemes for revenge, there is every likelihood thatyou hunger and thirst for justice and respect morethan for righteousness. What if you “struggled with”temptation to the latter response? Glory be to God ifyou struggled your way from the second responsetowards the first. God is honored and gives grace in thestruggle towards righteousness just as in the accom-plishment of righteousness.
#6: Is your anger “primed and ready” to respond toanother person’s habitual sins?

Our brothers and sisters (let alone our enemies!)often repeat their sins over and over. Jesus spoke of“seventy times seven” and “seven times a day.”32 Isyour anger reaction equally repetitive? Repeatedarguments—in which the verbal volleys follow thesame scripted pattern time after time—reveal thatsomething is wrong with your anger.

When issues get dealt with daily, my anger isn’twaiting to happen. The pump is not primed to react.A wrong done today does not lead me to drag outyour criminal record of former transgressions. I won’tsay, “How many times have I told you....If I’ve toldyou once I’ve told you a thousand times....Youalways....You never....Here we go again....I can’tbelieve that you did it again.” Godly anger is part ofgrace and peacemaking. Grace breaks the cycle ofprovocation-and-reaction so characteristic of life in asinful world. Sins, including sinful anger, are usuallyrepetitive. But godly anger starts fresh, because itkeeps no record of wrongs. It keeps looking for howGod is at work in the other person and in the situa-tion, just as He is at work in me.
#7: What is the effect of your anger?

A final way to distinguish righteous anger fromsinful anger is by the effects. Sinful anger creates moreproblems. It complicates matters. It hurts people, puts

32Matthew 18:22 and Luke 17:4.

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The sinfulness or godliness ofanger arises from the motive.

them on the defensive. The way you come acrosstempts them to duck or retaliate. Your words are “rot-ten words”(Ephesians 4:29). That adjective was usedfor rotten fruit or rotten fish. If somebody were to eatyour words—their condemning and belittling content,their tone of voice—they would gag. Rotten words arehard to stomach. Sinful anger creates vicious circles.Evil triggers evil triggers evil.

People may still duck or retaliate when faced withthe just, accurate, and merciful words of godly anger.But you aren’t the occasion of stumbling; they aretempted simply by the sinfulness of their own hearts.Gracious words are sweet to the taste. Even when theycontain tough truths, they breathe helpful intent.Godly anger is part of solving problems. Generally,righteous anger creates gracious circles. Evil triggersgood triggers... what? You never know. Sometimesthe insanity of sin is such that people actually doreturn evil for your good. But in the long run goodovercomes evil. People often respond amazingly wellto the truth spoken in love. Even when a personrebuffs you at first, the way you did things lodges inhis mind. He can’t deny the simple good sense ofwhat you said. He can’t deny the humility and lack ofcondemnation in your manner. You frustrate hisattempt to defend himself by hurling accusations backat you. You didn’t treat him the way he treated you.That is the most powerful force on the planet.

Look at Jesus. Evil came at Him. Yes, His reproofscould be blunt and intense on occasion. He needed tobe that way to show wrong for what it is, to protectGod’s honor, and to serve the well-being of those poorin spirit who set their hopes on the Messiah. Yes,many people returned evil for His good. But Heunmistakably loved His enemies. While we were ene-mies, Christ died for us. Christ, even in His anger, didnot come to condemn the world but to save it. Hecame to turn offenders into friends. Evil triggers goodtriggers good.

Godly anger does not need to “win.” It does nothave to succeed in bringing malefactors to justice. Itspurposes are more modest on the surface, but moreextravagant under the surface: the glory of God andthe eternal well-being of God’s people. Godly anger

has good effects for all concerned. So when you areconfronted with unrepented evil, when your bestefforts seem to have had no good or lasting effect, youdon’t have to become angrier. You can instead becomemore objective and matter-of-fact. On the inside,mercy works to soften your heart. Jesus would haveyou pray for their well-being, which includes theirrepentance unto life (Luke 6:28). On the outside, youare called to persistent, straightforward acts of unmer-ited kindness: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him, andif he is thirsty, give him a drink” (Romans 12:20). Also,on the outside, you may be called to join with othersin those corporate activities that impose objective con-sequences on wrong behavior: church discipline,withholding financial aid, severance from a job, aneviction notice, calling the police, criminal proceed-ings, enacting better laws, voting in new leaders, andthe like. Such good activities are also “judgmentsagainst perceived evil,” but they operate in a moredispassionate mode. They are objective, sober necessi-ties. They set limits on our more personal labors tohelp people. As such, they are a great comfort andgood. It is often a great relief for a person facing per-sistent evil to know that others are also taking respon-sibility for making it right. It reduces the temptationtowards vigilante action.

Anger is a moral matter. By its very nature it eval-uates and seeks to destroy perceived wrong. By God’svery nature, our anger is always being evaluated.

These general statements about anger anchor ourthinking. The Bible treats anger in rich detail throughboth examples and propositions. Anger is bodily,emotional, mental, and behavioral. It is decidedlyinterpersonal, always having to do with God andoften having to do with other people. It is both natur-al and learned, for good and ill. It is a moral matter.God gives us a worldview from which to think aboutanger, and to wrestle with the diverse anger phenom-ena we encounter. Counseling applications have beenscattered through the previous pages, and readers willlikely draw many other applications. In the next issuewe will consider some of the most important applica-tions in greater detail.

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