Tag: anger

Respectable Sins: Anger | Part 2

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, Respectable Sins4 Comments

Angry Birds

In the last post in this series, I defined anger, talked about one form of anger, which is righteous anger, and gave an example. Today we move on to sinful anger, discussing its cause.

What is the Cause of Sinful Anger?

Is should be said first that others are not the cause of our anger. No one causes us to be angry. The actions or words of others are just an occasion for anger to surface. The cause of anger is our own pride, selfishness, or desire to be in control.

Examples

It may be helpful to look at a few examples. As we do, help me pick out the underlying cause of anger in each.

Example #1

You agree to come and speak at a gathering at my house this Friday. I have told all my friends you are going to be there, but then when Friday rolls around, the appointment slips your mind and you don’t show up. The next day you call to apologize, and I jump all over you.

What is the cause of my anger? 

The cause of my anger is pride because you made me look bad in front of my friends.

Example #2 

You hear that someone in the church gossiping about you. When you find out whom, you approach them, but instead of approaching them lovingly, you blow up and start yelling.

What is the cause of your anger?

Again, the cause of your anger is pride, which results from your character and reputation being questioned.

Example #3 

At church, there is vote on whether to move the Sunday service time from 11am to 10:30am. When the vote is tallied, you lose, and the service is moved to 10:30am despite your objection. When you realize you lost, you become angry.

What is the cause of your anger?

Your anger could be caused by a number of underlying sins: a desire to be in control, your selfishness, or your pride.

What Does this Tell Us?

This simple exercise tells us our anger, while provoked by others, is not ultimately caused by them. It is caused by our own sinfulness. As well as we learn there are underlying sins – control, selfishness, and pride. It is appropriate to restrain ourselves when provoked, but if we want to kill the sin of anger, we must deal with these other sins as well.

Question for Reflection

  1. What often causes you to become angry? Is it a desire to be in control, selfishness, or pride?

Looking Forward

In the next post in this series, I will provide a way we can respond when others sin against us.

Resources

Post adapted from Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, 121-28

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Respectable Sins: Anger | Part 1

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, Respectable Sins1 Comment

Angry Birds

This week we continue working through Jerry Bridges’ book Respectable Sins. The respectable sin for this week is anger. Let’s get started by defining anger.

Anger Defined

Anger is defined as:

A strong feeling of displeasure and usually antagonism often accompanied by sinful emotions, words, and actions hurtful to those who are the object of our anger.

Righteous Anger

One form of anger is righteous anger. We would like to think this is the form of anger we often exercise, but most of the time it’s not. How do we know? We can employ two tests to see if our anger is righteous.

Two Tests

First, do we perceive the action of another as true evil that is a violation of God’s moral law?

If we do see it as a violation of God’s moral law, we should be concerned about God and His will, not concerned about ourselves and our will. In other words, is our focus on God and His will or on me and my will?

Second, are you in control when you are angry?

Those who are angry for righteous reasons are not out of control. They do not lose their temper, nor do they seek vengeance.

Conclusion of Two Tests

I believe when we employ these two tests, we find our anger is not as righteous as we first thought. Even if we are “reacting to another person’s real sin that does not necessarily make our anger righteous. We are likely more concerned with the negative impact of the sinful actions on us than we are that it is a violation of God’s law. Or we may even use the fact that it is a violation of God’s law to justify our own sinful angry response.”[1] If either of these cases are true, then our anger is not righteous anger, but sinful.

An Example of Righteous Anger

Jesus cleansing the temple is an example of righteous anger. Look with me at the following two verses.

John 2:13-17

“The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”” 

Mark 11:15-17

“And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

When we apply the test above to Jesus’ actions, we see that: 

  • Jesus had a valid concern for the Lord’s will – He did not want the temple to be a den of robbers, but a house of prayer.
  • Jesus did not retaliate in a vengeful way.
  • Jesus is self-controlled.
  • Jesus did not lose His temper.

We can conclude that Jesus’ actions were done in righteous anger.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Can you think of sins others commit that would cause us to be more concerned with the negative impact on us than on God?
  2. Have you ever used others violation of God’s law as a way to justify your own sinful anger?

Looking Forward

The next post in this series will deal with sinful anger and its causes.

Resources

[1] Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, 122.

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Respectable Sins: Self-Control | Part 2

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, Respectable Sins2 Comments

This week, I am focusing on the Respectable Sin of Self-Control. In my last post, I dealt with self-control with our eating and drinking. In this post, temper will be the main subject.

Temper

Let’s start by painting a quick picture of a person with a hot temper:

A person with a hot temper tends to be one who has quick but intense bursts of anger often followed by a calm disposition. They tend to become easily angry or irritable, and they exercise little or no control over their emotions.

What is often the cause of these outbursts of anger and who are they directed towards? 

Outbursts of anger are usually directed against anyone who displeases us. A driver on the highway who cuts us off. An umpire who makes a bad call. A family member who challenges us. A dog who constantly play bites when play time is over. These all can cause outbursts of anger, as well as they are the ones’ the anger is typically directed towards.

What does Scripture have to say?

Scripture has a number of warnings about those who are quick tempered. Let’s look at some of those:

“A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.” (Pr 14:17)

“Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” (Pr 16:32)

“A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered.” (Pr 17:27)

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (Jas 1:19-21)

So we see that a quick tempered person is quick to speak. His words are not carefully consider. Rather he speaks foolishly. He is not wise. And he does not produce the righteousness of God. Not a great list of qualities.

How do we rid ourselves of our temper?

We have to put away all filthiness (moral uncleanliness) and rampant (something spreading unchecked) wickedness. We do that by allowing the word of the gospel implanted in us to convict and teach us. After which we must exercise self-control with our temper, which we can only do through the power of the gospel.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Can you think of a time when you spoke too quickly because of your quick temper? What was the result?
  2. Can you think of any Scripture you would point others to who are dealing with a lack of self-control in regard to temper?
  3. When do you notice your temper flaring?

Resources

[1] Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, 112

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