Be Angry but Do Not Sin

There’s much to be angry about in this dysfunctional and sinful world. Anger is a God-given emotional response to injustice, true injustice, the injustice when God is not getting His way, rather than the injustice I feel when I am not getting my own way. I suggest that recognition of injustice is a human trait which separates us from all other creatures, because we alone are made in the image of God, who is without injustice. We intrinsically carry His sense of what is right, even if we fall short in our own thoughts and actions.

We need to give one another permission to be angry when there is true injustice, issues such as abusive control, defiling corruption, unwarranted violence, false testimony, and so the list goes on. However, to be fully right with God, we need to express that anger in the right way, and at the right time. In fact, Ephesians 4:26-27, partly quoted in the title of this thought for today, reminds us that suppressing anger only allows it to fester and become an opportunity for empowerment by the enemy.

Jesus was angry at the unjust way His Father’s house was being used as a place of business rather than a place of prayer. He responded with urgency, passion and clarity, directing His physical anger towards the tables, which He saw as the platforms of spiritual authority that had been handed to the enemy by those who were trading. We need to confront human injustice and sin as and when appropriate, while remembering that our struggle is essentially with the powers of darkness that have been given licence through that sin.

So, when there is true injustice, we need to be angry, but we need always to seek God’s way of bringing justice, rather than exercising our own human reactions, which can often be inappropriate.