MWUTT 52: You Don't Have to Kill Someone to Have a Wrath Problem

Christians should be angry when they see evil, but sounding angry doesn't make us faithful, and an angry post doesn't become righteous just because we think we're defending the truth. Sometimes the thing we're angry about really is wrong, but if we're not careful, that anger can start running our lives. So how do we confront evil without letting righteous anger turn into sinful wrath? Welcome to Men Who Understood the Times.

Today we're talking about the second of the deadly sins. We're gonna be discussing anger. So Zach, what is anger? And how can it lead to wrath, and why is it so deadly for us as Christians?

Well, to your first question, I would just, uh, go to a dictionary to define anger here. Anger is a strong emotional state of displeasure, annoyance, or hostility triggered by a perceived threat, injustice, or frustration. So this morning, uh, at my, uh, children's devotion recording on a Sunday afternoon, I asked them what forgiven- if they knew what forgiveness was, and they all raised their hand, and I asked them to define it, and none of them could. And there's a lot of words like that, right, where we, we just know what it means, but when we actually are asked to put it into words, uh, it's a little bit harder. I think anger's maybe one of those words to define it, so that's why I used a dictionary there. But anger, it's just, it's displeasure, it's hostility at, at something that has, has slighted you, basically. And, you know, today we're gonna be talking about why anger is deadly, and why is it sinful or, or when is it sinful? And there's an important distinction to make there because not all anger is sinful. How we handle our anger matters. Any kind of anger, no matter what it's directed at, can turn sinful, and so we need to be guarded a- against that. Uh, we must not let anger lead us. We must not let it, uh, you know, take control over us or, or give it room to grow. Last week, Josh was here. He mentioned when Jesus forced people out of the temple with a whip. That's a good example of righteous anger. Uh, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, "In your anger, do not sin." So that's kind of the main thing we're looking at. Anger becomes sinful when it is, is controlling you and, and leading you into other sins.

Phil, if you wanna build on that, what is anger and how does that lead into sin?

Yeah, so I, I like the image of, uh, as Joshua... I was gonna bring that one up, too. Joshua's, uh, you know, crafting the whip to drive out the temple. It was not a spur of the moment wrath. It was a premeditated, intentional driving out in the temple. You know, he, he saw that and it, it so abhorred him he had to deal with it, right? So, uh, I think the other aspect of this is, you know, anger strictly speaking isn't necessarily a defect, right? When you look at the seven deadly sins, the other six could be seen as a perversion of something good, right? So, you know, gluttony is a perversion of healthy feasting. Um, but anger in itself is not evil, right? God is angry. God exhibits wrath. He exhibits it perfectly, right? And so we can exhibit it as He does righteously or not as He does unrighteously, but it's not necessarily a perversion of something good.