DO NOT SIN WITH YOUR ANGER
By Dr. Don Dunlap

God forgives us when we repent of our anger, but we must live with the consequences of our choices.

Examples abound in the Bible, of people who handled their anger and bitterness in a sinful way. We will consider a few of them and examine the consequences that they suffered as a result of their sinful choices.

We find many scriptural examples of people who sinned with their anger.

Cain killed his brother in anger and thereafter, became a vagrant and a wanderer. Simeon and Levi were willful men whose cruel anger drove them to murder people. God scattered their families as a penalty for their sin. In a fit of rage, King Saul tried to kill his oldest son. He also tried to murder David. Naaman was furious and indignant at God's prophet. He refused, at first, to follow a simple command in order to be healed of leprosy, but was healed when he finally obeyed.
When the priests confronted Uzziah because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord, he became enraged. God struck him with leprosy until the day he died. Jonah was greatly displeased and angry when the Lord showed compassion to Nineveh. God subsequently chastised and humbled him. Simon, a man bound up in bitterness, tried to purchase God's authority and Peter openly rebuked him.

God forgives us when we repent of our sinful anger, but we must bear the consequences of our choices.

The writer of Proverbs 19:19 informs us,

"A man of great of great wrath shall suffer punishment: For if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again."

When we fail to deal biblically with anger, we inevitably grow increasingly disobedient to God's Word. God, however, offers us abundant resources with which to successfully conquer the problem of anger. We should consider the promise of Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." We find a similar promise in 1 John 3:22,

"And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

We learn in God's Word that He is slow to anger. God is merciful, gracious, compassionate, forgiving and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. He alone is holy and without sin. He assures us in Psalm 30:5 that His favor endures for a lifetime, but His anger lasts but a moment. God always directs His anger toward rebellion or disobedience to His commands.

Jesus was angry at the hypocrisy and legalism of the religious leaders, but He grieved over their hardness of heart. When Jesus cleansed the Temple, a divine jealousy and zeal for His Father's house motivated Him-not anger.

In the Bible, God instructs us to express our feelings of anger in a godly manner-not to deny them.

Christians ought to be careful to communicate the truth about anger. All of our emotions are God-given, but we can sinfully misuse them. The truth is that we become angry in certain situations. God does not instruct us not to feel angry. He commands us instead, to "be angry and sin not."

If God tells us that it is possible to be angry and yet not sin with our anger, we should believe that it is possible to do so. In order to accomplish this we must be willing to obey God's Word without exceptions, and we must wholeheartedly seek to follow the examples of the Lord Jesus Christ.