Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

This article reminded me that many people including “Christians” deal with anger issues every day. Some, like mine are brought on by past military duties, some by abuse, and some for other unnamed reasons. We must first recognize that anger is real an issue, that we can not fix it alone, and having anger issues does not mean someone is a “bad” person. It just means they are a person in need of help or maybe a person in need of Christ. – Mike

Christian Reflections on Anger

by David Qaoud

Recently, I preached a sermon on anger (Matthew 5:21-26). As a result, I’ve been thinking more about this emotion. I want to share some of my imperfect reflections. This list is not exhaustive, but are just some things that came to mind. You can find them below.

In no particular order:

1. There’s a difference between righteous anger and unrighteous anger.

Is anger always a sin? No. The Bible never says, “Thou shall not get angry.” In fact, the Apostle Paul says, “Be angry, and do not sin. . . ” (Eph. 4:26). So anger can be bad, but it is not always bad. That means we must differentiate between righteous anger and unrighteous anger.

Righteous anger is when you get angry toward sin, injustice, and oppression in the world. Take, for example, something like high school bullying or sex trafficking. The thought of these two makes me angry. I don’t think my anger here is sinful because my anger is aligned with the heart of God who himself hates sin, injustice, and oppression.

Unrighteous anger is all other forms of anger. The context of Matthew 5:21-24 is personal anger toward your brother or sister in Christ. Getting angry at petty offenses and slight snubs are not valid forms of anger. We must seek to steward our emotions and channel our anger toward injustice in the world. The heart of the Christian is to pray, “Lord, help me to love what you love, and hate what you hate.”

Continued at link above