Guide To
The Article
Introduction
The Context
What Jesus Is
Saying About Anger
Conclusion
Contact The
Author
|
Introduction
People with angry dispositions destroy their careers, marriages
and relationships. They end up in one of three places - the morgue, the
jail or the hospital.
(Matthew 5:21-26
NKJV) "You have heard that it was said to those of
old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be
in danger of the judgment.' {22} "But I say to you
that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause
shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to
his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council.
But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell
fire. {23} "Therefore if you bring your gift to the
altar, and there remember that your brother has something
against you, {24} "leave your gift there before the
altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your
brother, and then come and offer your gift. {25}
"Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on
the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the
judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be
thrown into prison. {26} "Assuredly, I say to you,
you will by no means get out of there till you have paid
the last penny.
Yet anger is a common part of life and
even an emotion that God experiences(Psalms 7:11 NIV) God is a righteous
judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.
Jesus displayed anger at the scribes and Pharisees and
their merciless attitude to life.(Mark
3:5 NIV) He looked around at them in anger and, deeply
distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,
"Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out,
and his hand was completely restored.Later on
Paul says (Ephesians 4:26 NKJV)
"Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun
go down on your wrath,thus indicating that
sometimes anger may be acceptable for the Christian.
There are two things about acceptable anger. Firstly it
is slow to be aroused, secondly it is short-lived and
always willing to be reconciled. On the first of these
God is "slow to anger" (Exodus 34:6,7) and
James says(James 1:19-20 NKJV) So
then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; {20} for the wrath of
man does not produce the righteousness of God.On
the second it is clear throughout the New Testament that
we are "not to let the sun go down on our
anger" and to reconcile speedily any disputes that
arise.
The Context
These verses, when taken out of context,
seem to flatly contradict the rest of the Bible's
teaching on anger. It seems that here anger has moved
from being an emotion that needs to be controlled to a
perilous sin that brings us under stern and final
judgement. Therefore we need to look at these verses very
closely and in their context to see what Jesus was saying
and what Jesus was not saying.
The context is Jesus affirming the Law
and His upholding of it. His gospel of grace and
acceptance of sinners was in danger of being interpreted
wrongly so He first of all shows that Kingdom standards
are not lower than those in the Law. In fact they are
stricter! Jesus is saying that unjustified anger "in
the Kingdom" is equivalent to the sin of murder
"under the Law". We are dealing with two
parallel but different standards of holiness. In one code
unjustified anger and name calling were not even
offences, in the other it places you in danger of jail or
of Hell. Thus Jesus is not adding to the Law but rather
using the Law as a "launching pad" for
discussing the Kingdom. It is an argument from the lesser
(the Law) to the greater (the Kingdom). If x is the
standard of holiness under the Mosaic code which is for
an national kingdom then y will be the standard of
holiness in the Kingdom which is "of Heaven".
Jesus is not saying that the Law should
be changed to have severe penalties for unjustified anger
or name calling. He is not putting another chapter or
verse on the Mosaic code. Neither is He saying that
"this is what the Law really means". No-one
could get that interpreatation from the Law. No-one would
buy that explanation. What He is saying is that the
standards of holiness under the Law are less than the
standards for holiness in the Kingdom but along the same
lines. This is the thrust of the preceding verse.(Matthew 5:20 NIV) For I tell you that
unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter
the kingdom of heaven.
What Is Jesus
Saying About Anger?
With this perspective in mind lets look
at what Jesus is telling us about anger:
Unjustified anger brings us into
judgement. In the Kingdom unjustified anger is
something that removes us from a state of
blessedness and places us under scrutiny and
possibly under penalty.
Jesus strongly implies that we
will have to justify our anger to God. This is
shown in two ways. Firstly in the concept of a
court trying someone for their anger - in such a
court a defence could be offered. The court
implies accountability. Secondly in the direct
use of the term "without a cause" which
is found in most manuscripts but not in some
others. However John Stott says that the phrase
"correctly interprets what Jesus must have
meant". Jesus himself became angry and even
once used the term "You fool" (Matt
23:17) which He says puts someone in danger of
Hell. Yet He did so without sin. Therfore there
is justifiable and unjustifiable anger. Caution:
We do not justify our anger to ourselves however
- every hot-headed person does that! We have to
justify it to an impartial higher authority.
As a logical corollary from the
above: If your life seems not to be functioning
as well as it ought then look at your level of
hostility towards others and the anger you are
expressing in your relationships. You may be
constantly bringing yourself into judgement
before God!
That even minor expressions of
contempt for others can have serious spiritual
consequences. The terms "Raca" and
"fool" are the sort of things ordinary
people would say in traffic jams today. They are
terms of annoyance and impatience.
"Raca" means "empty-head"
probably "blockhead" would be todays
equivalent and "fool" is literally
"moron". Some insultsneverchange.
These are words Jesus could use as illustrations
in his sermon without offending anyone or
committing impropriety. Yet in the Kingdom they
are so inappropriate that calling someone a
blockhead would be a capital offence and calling
someone a moron could put you in danger of the
fires of Hell.
People in heaven will not go
around calling each other names. That is not
Kingdom behaviour. That is not appropriate
behaviour for a citizen of heaven and we are
citizens of heaven! The author of the letter to
the Hebrews understood the holiness that is
required of Christians because of our heavenly
citizenship.(Hebrews
12:22-25 NIV) But you have come to Mount Zion, to
the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living
God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of
angels in joyful assembly, {23} to the church of
the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God, the judge of all men, to
the spirits of righteous men made perfect, {24}
to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to
the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word
than the blood of Abel. {25} See to it that you
do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not
escape when they refused him who warned them on
earth, how much less will we, if we turn away
from him who warns us from heaven?
Abusiveness belongs in Hell.
There are unfortunately some Christians who
rationalise their verbal abusiveness as
"speaking the truth" forthrightly.
Jesus says that abusiveness belongs in Hell.
Stern words may need to be spoken from time to
time but abusive intmidating language never needs
to come from the lips of a Christian. What is the
difference? Stern words have a clean, straight,
honest tone to them. They are chosen carefully
for that particular occasion. They rebuke
particular behaviours as opposed to blanket
condemnation of whole individuals, races or
denominations. They aim at healing and
repentance. Abusive words stream forth with no
accuracy or real forethought they are full of
blanket judgements and pure destruction.
Reconciliation outranks religion
but does not replace it.{23}
"Therefore if you bring your gift to the
altar, and there remember that your brother has
something against you, {24} "leave your gift
there before the altar, and go your way. First be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and
offer your gift.There are a few things
here. Firstly that relationships come first. Even
over offering a sacrifice to God. Pleasing
sacrifices flow from rightly ordered and properly
reconciled human relationships. Secondly the
sacrifice still has to be made. "Love of man
is my religion" is not a biblical concept.
Religion and the love of God and devotion to Him
are still required.
The initiative for reconciliation
rests with the person who knows there is
something wrong. I can be totally unaware that
people are extremely angry with me, I can be
completely surprised to find out that such and
such a person has a strong dislike of me. They
actually have to explode in anger at me before I
realise that anything is wrong. I cannot put
right a relationship that I have no idea is
wrong. Once I am aware that a brother has a
grudge against me I hurry to fix it up as soon as
possible. Whether you are in the right or in the
wrong as soon as you are aware that the
relationship is strained and that the other
person has something against you then it is up to
you to fix it. If you are the only one who is
stewing then perhaps you have to sort yourself
out first then approach your brother.
Prompt patching up prevents
punishment.{25}
"Agree with your adversary quickly, while
you are on the way with him, lest your adversary
deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over
to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.This
seems to be referring to a financial disagreement
and an "out of court settlement" is the
vastly wiser option. "Sticking to your
guns" can land you in jail. Stubborn pride
has led many people and firms to go all the way
to court where they then lose spectacularly. The
adversay here is not Satan though that term is
used of him. We are never to strike bargains with
the Devil! The adversary is a human disputant.
There is the application that God is, in some
sense , the adversary of the sinner and that
unless the sinner decides to agree/come to terms
with God during this life when he arrives at
judgement it will be too late.
Remaining angry can lead us into
situations of exact and merciless retribution.{26} "Assuredly, I say to
you, you will by no means get out of there till
you have paid the last penny.If we are
angry, exacting and merciless with others than
God will be angry, exacting and merciless with
us. Earlier in the Sermon On The Mount we saw
Jesus teaching that "blessed are the
merciful for they shall receive mercy". That
has a corollary in that the unmerciful are
treated unmercifully. This is very clearly shown
in the parable of the unmerciful servant in
Matthew 18 :21-35 who was punished for his
heartlessness by being handed to the torturers.
Jesus ends that solemn parable with(Matthew 18:35 NKJV) "So My
heavenly Father also will do to you if each of
you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother
his trespasses."Some see in the
phrase "will no means get out of there"
a reference to Purgatory. Jesus did not mean this
at all. He never taught of a state such as
Purgatory or Limbo. For Him there was simply
Heaven and Hell and a vast fixed unbridgeable
gulf between (see Luke 16). This verse emphasises
the exacting and merciless nature of the
judgement not the possibility of escaping it!
Conclusion
We see then that Jesus saw anger as a
very serious thing and not as a casual emotion. I cannot
see Jesus saying that we need to "let it all hang
out". He is no advocate of emotional catharsis. He
was fully aware that catharsis of our anger only breeds
immaturity in the long term. We cannot live a blessed
life if we are constantly getting angry over nothing.
That will only bring us into judgement and destroy the
works of our hands. We can see this judgement in action
in the lives of the habitually angry. They are riddled
with psychosomatic as orders such as ulcers, depression
and stress reactions. They get angry so they speed, the
get booked speeding so they yell at the policeman and get
twice the fine. They get indignant about the fine and
refuse to pay it and end up in jail. Anger gets people
into legal trouble and into fights. Sometimes angry
people pick up a gun and kill or are killed. Others are
arrested and spend a life in jail. Letting anger grow
inside us is a recipe for disaster in life and only leads
to the morgue, the jail or the hospital.
© Copyright Asian Internet Bible Institute
1997
Contact Asian Internet Bible Institute
Find
out how to become a Christian.
Back
Home
|