Skip to main content

Anger and Righteousness


My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.(James 1:19-21)
 

            This passage is one we all need to hear in this time when so many are out for the blood of this political candidate, or that terrorist, or the police, or some baker of cakes or photographer  who declines to participate in something he/she believes sinful. The road rage that is sometimes treated as humorous has become social rage. This social rage - social self-righteousness - does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. This isn't saying you can't argue someone into Heaven. The righteous life that God desires is a righteous life in the one who is raging. It is the one who is raging to whom God says to get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. It is to the one who is raging that God says to humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
           This doesn't mean that we are never to feel anger. Such is an unrealistic idea and God is not unrealistic. It does not mean that we should never confront evil strongly, or that we should never  argue. It does mean that we need to deal with our anger better than we want to. To be controlled by our anger is no better than to be controlled by alcohol, or heroin. 
            Anger can give us strength, or it can weaken us. I made my own struggle with anger worse. For years while working at the library, I deliberately got angry because anger gave me more energy with which to do the work at hand. There was a time when I made a game out of what would probably have been considered minor road rage - something along the line of armchair quarterbacking other drivers who clearly didn't even have a clue what a football is. In comparison, I'm "tame" today, but this is one of the reasons I ask people to pray about my attitude, because I know how easy it is to fall into bad anger habits, and I know how much harm anger can do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more