Godsloveandlaw's Blog

I remember reading (for the first time in my life) the Old Testament from front to back, completely. One of the main things that struck me, was the Lord’s fury and anger. Often and repeatedly,  His anger was seen throughout the OT. But as we shall see God’s anger is NEVER a bad thing, and likewise our anger, when right, is also not a bad thing.  Let’s study and learn about this often overlooked and under reported trait of our King.

The first and most memorable example of our Lord’s anger is in (John 2:15-16) “When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves “Take these things away!” Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

What we can see from the above is the absolute “pure motive” of our Lord. His anger was aroused because he saw utter contempt for the HOLY house of God. Now what do you think the FATHER was thinking as He saw our Lord do this?  Was He thinking, “Oh no this is bad my Son, you should have been more tactful, not been so upset with these people” ? No.  He saw the Son’s motive, and it was to UPHOLD RIGHTEOUSNESS.

 How many are saying today to those who get mad at sin, “Oh that’s wrong, be nice” ?   The lesson here is that we should HATE sin, even if we have to get mad at it. Now, does that mean we go around looking for people to yell at? God forbid. But there does come times when righteous anger is correct before the Lord.

Let me give you a personal example. In my line of work, I often do service calls. I have many times corrected a person who breaks the 3rd Commandment in my hearing. I am very polite about it, and say in a loving manner, “You know it’s better to say gosh darn”. But let’s say, even after I warned them, they continue to say GD this and GD that (hasn’t happened yet). I continue to hear it as I work, I slowly begin to get steamed about it. Finally I turn and say “Hey,Please knock it off!”  Am I wrong in this case? Absolutely not. For I am doing EXACTLY what our Lord did– I am showing righteous anger.

Let’s be clear about anger, the greater problem comes from unrighteous anger. This amounts to spiritual breaking of the 6th Commandment– Thou Shal Not Murder. Our Lord warned about that in (Matt 5:22) “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother WITHOUT CAUSE (meaning righteous cause) shall be in danger of the judgement…”  So Please be very careful in your anger, lest you fall into the all to common trap of unrighteous anger. 

The truth is that when we grow spiritually and we get holier (as we throw away our sins by the Holy Spirit) we discern situations where we get more indignation. The reason is that the purer you get the clearer you see sin, and since sin becomes more abhorent to you, you find more righteous anger within. But thank God, the Holy Spirit guides us in this regard. We can control it, and use it ONLY SPARINGLY, as our Lord did while he walked among us.

In these last days, our church is called the “Laodicean Church” and what is  most often thought of when mentioning this church?   Yes, LUKEWARMNESS. Now, as was just shown , righteous anger is NOT a lukewarm symtom. But if our Lord describes us as neither hot or cold, we’d better get off the fence and stop being mellow about sin, wouldn’t you say?

So let us remember that , though we don’t want to be angry with our fellow servants and friends, should a situation arise that calls for us to stick up for the Lord and His righteousness, we will do the right thing and admonish firmly if we must.

Next week, we’ll look at the humor of God and His servants.

In Christ,  Rob

This entry was posted on August 20, 2011 at 4:22 am and is filed under Righteous Anger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.