The Anger of Men

Fr. Scott Haynes

“But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” (Jas 1:19-20)

Righteousness doesn’t define God – God defines righteousness.  Righteousness is not something God conforms to.  Righteous is who He is. When we read that God is righteous or just, we are being assured that His actions toward us are in perfect agreement with His Holy nature.

 We are a blend of that which is born of flesh and that which has been reborn of Spirit.  We know both worlds. 

We first learned anger in the flesh.  We only know righteousness in the Spirit.  And we cannot get to God’s righteousness through our anger

God displays righteousness in both compassion, and in anger.  This is hard to fathom, because a great chasm exists in how we separate anger from righteousness. 

In the context of how believers should humbly receive the Word of God, James admonishes them to be “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger”, and immediately inserts an important timeless principle - “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God”. It is this principle that we want to carefully consider in this article.

Different Kinds of Anger

There are three words in the New Testament denoting anger. The first is thumos, which describes an explosive outburst of vehement emotions. This is a turbulent agitation that is easily set off. A person overcome by thumos turns violent, hurling things and hitting people. Such wild and mindless rage is destructive and outrightly forbidden in Scripture.

The second type of anger is parorgismos, a simmering hostility in the heart, a steady burning bitterness that eats at a person’s soul. It is not as boisterous as thumos, but a mean-spiritedness that is intense because it is pent-up. Paul tells us not to let parorgismos fester in our hearts, for that will surely “give the devil an opportunity” (Eph 4:26-27).

Then there is orge, the word used in James 1:20. A man may have certain convictions regarding an issue, and on occasions when those convictions are violated, his orge is stirred. God’s orge, for example, is the resistance of His holy nature to everything contrary to it. You may have a settled disposition about the sanctity of God’s Name, and when you hear someone blaspheming the Name of Christ, that incident arouses your orge because your convictions are violated. Scripture permits orge, “Be angry, and yet do not sin” (Eph 4:26).

But it is precisely because orge is allowed in Scripture that we have to be so careful about it. Our sinful nature tends to cloak all our anger under this umbrella of “righteous anger”, and we ride on the possibility of holy anger as an excuse for our sinful orge, and even parorgismos or thumos. Yet Ephesians 4:26 clearly warns us of this potential for evil; particularly when we are angry, we are to be especially careful not to sin.

The Heart of Anger

Human anger is usually a knee-jerk reaction, so readily provoked that all, except the most spiritually watchful Christians, fall prey to it. Yet the anger James speaks of here is not the volatile outburst but a seething resentment that boils over internally. Our love for the praise of others restrains us from ugly temper tantrums, but smoldering hatred can be nursed and harboured in the heart, unnoticed by all except the Lord and the sinner himself.

In the context of James 1, the anger here may directly refer to an unrighteous response to the truth of God’s Word. This could be teaching or preaching that confronts our sins or contradicts cherished personal (not necessarily biblical) convictions. Such anger is usually directed at the one through whom Scripture is brought to bear on our consciences.

But generally, sinful anger may be aroused for just about any reason. Writing about discontent and dissension within the local assembly, James issues this challenge, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (Jas 4:1-2). The root of anger is pride - self-opinionated believers want their views accepted and approved by others, self-assertive believers want their way applauded and adopted by all.

The Spiritual Impotence of Anger

Sinful anger in the local congregation and in church ministries is particularly odious. It can be manifested in a variety of ways: explosive outbursts, ungracious argument, heated gossip, even jostling and politicking subtly disguised as requests for counsel or prayer.

James bluntly asserts that the righteousness that God desires cannot be produced by human anger (Jas 1:20). Such anger is not right before God, and thus cannot attain God’s righteousness. It wearies the soul, and wastes the energies of the saints in dealing with divisions driven by selfish ambition. The antidote is wisdom that is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy” (Jas 3:17). Individual bitterness and communal strife can never serve the cause of Christ.

Diagnosing Your Anger

For most believers, holy anger is well beyond the state of sanctification they have attained. Amongst Christians, I have witnessed much anger, but very little holy anger.

On more than one occasion, I have been surprised by Christians regaling me with their displeasure about a variety of issues in their churches. The conversation usually starts off innocently enough; yet before long, it becomes crystal clear that this Christian is seeking my affirmation for his or her views, and my support for his or her anger. What shocked me was how deep-seated the anger was, how intense it has become (though dressed up initially in polite language and pleasantries), and how devastating the anger was to the Christian himself and to the body of Christ.

This begs the question - how can one tell if one’s anger is righteous or unrighteous? To be sure, the intensity of the anger is no gauge of its sinfulness or holiness. It is not always that an extremely unpleasant scene in church is always motivated sinfully - the Lord’s anger against the people who turned His Father’s house of prayer into a den of profiteers was both intense and violent (John 2:15-17). How, then, can we rightly judge ourselves?

May I suggest four questions below for interrogating your angry heart, to see if it is also a holy heart. May I also suggest that you earnestly pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts’ and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps 139:23-24).

1.      Am I Angry with Sin, or Only at Particular People?

Many claim to be angry at sin, to be angry because God’s standard of holiness has been violated. A most legitimate question to ask then is whether such anger is directed at all sin, or only at sin in some people.

It is possible, when one has a personal grudge against a particular brother or sister, to seize them on one sin and berate them, pouring out our accumulated wrath on them. We insist that it is not a personal agenda we are pursuing, but a principle of just action. However, this pretense at holy anger is shamefully exposed when other believers whom we are warm to commit exactly the same sin, and we choose to ignore it, or rush to show them mercy - the mercy we refuse to extend to the one we hate.

2.       Am I Angry with All Sin, or Only at Particular Sins?

Another important question to ask is whether our “righteous anger” is directed at all sin, or only at special sins.

There are some believers who pick on certain sins - men who fall asleep in the service, women who seem to be always late for church, youths who dress immodestly or inappropriately, et cetera. They feel that they have the right to unleash their anger at them, for the sin is clear and present. They search the Bible to drum up biblical arguments against those sins; they even ride on Scripture’s harsh condemnation of those sins, applying it personally to those they have observed caught in them. And as far as the truth of Scripture goes, they are absolutely right.

But if our anger is only aroused by certain sins and not others, we cannot legitimately claim that it is an anger that is zealous for God’s holiness. Remember that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (Jas 2:10). Holy anger ought to be aroused by all types of sin, not just our pet peeves. Such one-tracked anger is, in all likelihood, an expression of self-righteousness.

Moreover, to use the Word of God in pursuance of our own personal agenda (venting our own fury) is tantamount to using the holy Almighty God to do our sinful will, to achieve purposes beyond our feeble abilities. This sin is both hideous and dangerous. It should be we who do God’s will, not the other way around.

3.      Am I Angry with Sin, Even My Own?

Holy anger recognizes no favorites, it excuses no one, not even the one angry. If we claim to be incensed at others who dishonor Christ, are we similarly vengeful against ourselves when we offend the same Lord Jesus?

One symptom of pride is the cherishing of personal authority over others, and a refusal to submit to higher authority over ourselves. Too many believers who are juvenile in the exercise of leadership claim to be righteously angry at members of their team who refuse to submit to them, yet they refuse to recognise and submit to authority over them. They angrily demand of others what they refuse to do themselves, forgetting that all and sundry Christians are to “be subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (Eph 5:21).

From the above three questions, we would do well to observe that the seat of sinful anger is a focus on self. When the agenda is our own, and not God’s, it is not holy anger.

4.      Am I Only Angry?

Righteous anger reflects a believer’s Christlikeness, a maturity in Christ which should also result in “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” in ever increasing measure (Gal 5:22). Such a believer shares God’s wrath at sin, he also shares God’s compassion for the sinner, and God’s desire to show the sinner mercy, and will be willing to work tirelessly, with all servant-heartedness, to help the sinner repent of his vice and cultivate the opposite virtue.

You know that your anger is not holy anger when your desire is to condemn the sinner, and not that he might repent and be saved. The one who exercises a legitimate anger will, firstly, be extremely careful not to be overcome by evil knowing that sin crouches at the door of his heart; and secondly, make every effort to overcome evil with good.

From the baby screaming in its crib to the old man in hospital impatiently waiting for the night nurse to answer his call, all of us have trouble controlling our tempers. The only one who has no trouble with his temper is six feet underground. But the wise man says, "A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back" (Proverbs 29:11).

The next time you are angry, ask yourself, “Is this holy anger?”, for sinful anger is surely the epitome of illogical insanity - where one sinner responds to the sin of another sinner by stirring up own sin, all the while claiming to be pursuing the glory of God.

Bear in mind that “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (Jas 1:20).