“Wise anger is like the fire from the flint. There is a great ado to bring it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately”
– Matthew Henry (Leaves of Gold, pg. 24)
For many years now, I have found the inclusion of anger (more precisely wrath) in the list of seven deadly sins to be a curious thing. Not that I believe anger is necessarily a good thing. To me, anger just doesn’t seem to categorically fit with other things you would find in the list, things like hubris and gluttony. When I think of sin, and in particular a list of what we consider “high-ranking sins,” I think of things that are contradictory to the will and nature of God. I’m not sure anger fits that list.
Why would I say that? Simply put, the Bible obviously includes wrath among the attributes of God. Scripture references are too numerous to give. Old and New Testaments describe God’s reaction to unrighteousness as wrath. And consider Jesus, who made a whip and drove money changers from the Temple, overturning their tables (John 2). I have been told regarding this incident, “the Bible doesn’t say that Jesus was angry.” My question would be, then how would YOU describe the temperament of someone behaving this way? My point simply is that wrath is clearly an attribute of God.
What makes anger problematic for you and me is that we commonly do harm when acting upon it. Allow me to offer an analogy from the old TV show M.A.S.H. There was an episode where a tank was intentionally parked at the 4077th. Major Frank Burns, whose confidence always outpaced his competence, believed he could drive the tank. He got in and took it for a spin around the camp. For a moment all was well, but pretty soon he began running over jeeps and plowing down tents. It was obvious that he shouldn’t have been driving the tank. In a humorous way, this might be a picture of why we are discouraged from expressing anger. We usually don’t know how to “drive” it.
In rebuttal to my point, one might reference texts of scripture that instruct us to put aside anger (Colossians 3:8; Ephesians 4:31). I agree with these texts. We should purge ourselves of unrighteous anger. James 1:20 says, “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” I believe this perfectly expresses the problem. God’s righteousness is accomplished by the convergence of His attributes, including wrath, all of which are always perfect. You and I are prone to fall short of that perfection.
We live in a world where incredible harm is done every day. Some of that is inspired by pride, some by greed, and some by misdirected anger. Anger is a powerful motivator. In our human condition, it can easily drive us down the wrong path. Wisdom encourages us to be slow to anger, and quick to put it out when it does spark.
See you along the Winding Path.
The Winding Path 