Does Righteous Anger Kill Our Joy?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, does holy anger kill our delight in God?

00:00:08.040 | It's a good question from Matt, a listener in Wisconsin.

00:00:11.880 | Pastor John, hello, and thank you for this podcast.

00:00:14.360 | I think we're living in an age where Christians

00:00:16.120 | are taking hard stances on just about anything

00:00:18.400 | and everything, making decisions about vaccines

00:00:20.800 | and politicians and masks,

00:00:22.960 | decisions all held with unflexing biblical conviction.

00:00:26.520 | And then those staunch positions

00:00:29.220 | and the resulting strong language is justified

00:00:31.360 | by Christians in terms of righteous anger,

00:00:34.820 | like Jesus flipping tables and not sinning.

00:00:37.220 | A long time back in an episode on abortion, APJ 672,

00:00:43.200 | you made a case for using righteous anger

00:00:45.440 | to call out the evil of killing the unborn.

00:00:48.560 | It witnesses to the world the degree of such

00:00:51.280 | an injustice as abortion.

00:00:53.960 | But later you were asked about the distinction

00:00:55.960 | between unholy anger and holy anger.

00:00:58.640 | That was in APJ 1100.

00:01:01.080 | And there you said, quote, "I was much more optimistic

00:01:04.520 | "about a righteous place for anger when I was 30

00:01:06.880 | "than I am now.

00:01:08.160 | "I have seen the destructive power of anger

00:01:10.320 | "in relationships, especially marriage,

00:01:12.740 | "to such a degree that over the last 40 to 50 years,

00:01:15.780 | "I am far less sanguine about so-called righteous anger

00:01:20.720 | "than I once was.

00:01:22.140 | "Anger is not just a relationship destroyer,

00:01:25.300 | "it is a self-destroyer.

00:01:27.400 | "It eats up all other wholesome emotions."

00:01:31.640 | End quote.

00:01:32.480 | I'm wondering if that last phrase is connected

00:01:35.200 | to your overwhelming emphasis in your ministry

00:01:37.240 | on delighting in God and desiring God.

00:01:40.660 | Were you there suggesting that righteous anger

00:01:43.480 | tends to eat up the proper, more dominantly necessary

00:01:47.940 | emotions of delight and satisfaction in God?

00:01:51.520 | And where are you now in life with the value

00:01:54.560 | or dangers of righteous anger?

00:01:57.220 | - I'm glad to address this again.

00:01:58.960 | I feel very strongly about it.

00:02:01.040 | So was I suggesting that righteous anger

00:02:06.040 | can become a destructive anger that eats up

00:02:12.720 | the God-glorifying emotions of joy and peace

00:02:15.720 | and delight in God?

00:02:17.240 | Yes, absolutely.

00:02:19.300 | I was suggesting that, and believe it.

00:02:23.160 | Anger of a certain kind and a certain duration

00:02:28.160 | will not only eat up all God-glorifying emotions,

00:02:32.860 | but it will eat up virtually all emotions

00:02:37.100 | and leave a person with an outward,

00:02:40.020 | plastic, superficial personality or persona

00:02:45.020 | and an inward, easily offended cauldron of suppressed anger.

00:02:52.900 | I have seen it in life.

00:02:55.620 | I see evidences of it in the Bible.

00:02:58.820 | So let's look at a few passages for why I see things

00:03:03.820 | this way and feel as strongly as I do

00:03:07.520 | and perhaps can give some help not to go there.

00:03:11.660 | You have this famous statement in James 1, 19.

00:03:16.820 | Let every person be quick to hear,

00:03:19.260 | slow to speak, slow to anger,

00:03:23.220 | for the anger of man does not produce

00:03:27.740 | the righteousness of God.

00:03:29.060 | Now, notice the logic, the logical connection.

00:03:32.860 | Be slow to anger because the anger of man

00:03:37.860 | does not produce the righteousness of God.

00:03:41.940 | So a quick-tempered person is generally experiencing

00:03:47.220 | anger that is not of God.

00:03:52.380 | And guess the logic.

00:03:53.780 | It is simply man's anger.

00:03:55.500 | Quick anger is regularly man's anger, not God's anger.

00:03:59.620 | It's not righteous.

00:04:00.900 | It's destructive.

00:04:03.420 | Now listen to these Proverbs to see

00:04:05.080 | where James has rooted all this.

00:04:07.380 | I think James is the closest thing we get

00:04:09.220 | to the book of Proverbs in the New Testament,

00:04:11.260 | but I don't doubt that he was deeply schooled

00:04:14.540 | on the Proverbs.

00:04:15.740 | So Proverbs 14, 17, a man of quick temper acts foolishly.

00:04:20.580 | Proverbs 14, 29, whoever is slow to anger

00:04:24.180 | has great understanding, but he who is hasty in temper

00:04:28.540 | exalts folly.

00:04:29.700 | Proverbs 15, 18, a hot-tempered man stirs up strife,

00:04:34.700 | but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

00:04:38.420 | Proverbs 16, 32, whoever is slow to anger

00:04:42.400 | is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit

00:04:46.940 | than he who takes a city.

00:04:49.040 | Proverbs 19, 11, good sense makes one slow to anger

00:04:54.040 | and eases his glory to overlook an offense.

00:04:59.600 | So then you go over to James 3, really important,

00:05:04.120 | I think, to align James 1, 19, and 20

00:05:06.880 | with James 3, 14 to 18, and you see

00:05:09.620 | the heavenly alternative to the merely human anger

00:05:14.620 | that does not produce the righteousness of God.

00:05:17.700 | Here's what it says.

00:05:19.060 | The wisdom from above, it's heavenly now,

00:05:21.980 | it's not just a man, the wisdom from above

00:05:26.020 | is peaceable, gentle, open to reason,

00:05:30.920 | full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere,

00:05:37.980 | and a harvest of righteousness.

00:05:41.780 | Remember, those verses back there said,

00:05:43.740 | anger doesn't produce the righteousness of God.

00:05:46.060 | So here you get a harvest of righteousness,

00:05:49.420 | and it is sown, this harvest is sown in peace

00:05:53.200 | by those who make peace.

00:05:54.700 | In other words, the opposite of anger.

00:05:56.580 | Anger seldom accomplishes the good ends

00:06:00.300 | that James is after, namely a harvest of right,

00:06:04.300 | good, wholesome, just, loving behavior.

00:06:08.420 | It may, you know, I'm gonna get to the fact

00:06:11.000 | that there is such a thing as righteous anger,

00:06:13.300 | but it is really rare, I think,

00:06:16.020 | and therefore, James says, be slow to go there,

00:06:19.380 | very, very slow to get there.

00:06:22.460 | So the very least we can say from James is,

00:06:25.780 | if anger should come, it should come slowly.

00:06:29.340 | Not necessarily temporally slowly,

00:06:34.020 | though that's probably the case ordinarily,

00:06:36.820 | but rather in the sense of it's got to go through

00:06:41.420 | some real serious filters in your soul.

00:06:45.460 | It's gotta go through the filter of humility,

00:06:47.220 | and through the filter of patience,

00:06:48.580 | and through the filter of wisdom,

00:06:49.780 | and through the filter of love,

00:06:50.780 | and through the filter of self-control.

00:06:52.740 | And if it comes out on the other side,

00:06:54.380 | it might be righteous anger.

00:06:56.220 | Slow in the sense that put it through the paces, man.

00:06:59.380 | Don't just go there.

00:07:01.620 | Now, here comes Ephesians 4.

00:07:04.220 | This is the only other serious,

00:07:06.340 | I mean, text we'll look at in a significant way.

00:07:09.380 | Ephesians 4, 26.

00:07:11.300 | Be angry and do not sin.

00:07:14.540 | Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

00:07:17.800 | Do not give place to the devil.

00:07:20.420 | So James says, be slow to get angry,

00:07:25.200 | and Paul says, be quick to stop being angry.

00:07:29.920 | That's really significant, isn't it?

00:07:31.920 | Puts a high premium on the duration of anger.

00:07:36.000 | Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

00:07:38.360 | Be done with it by sundown.

00:07:40.420 | It's dangerous, and the danger is the devil.

00:07:45.420 | So James and Paul treat anger as a hot potato.

00:07:50.020 | Be slow to catch it, and if you gotta catch it,

00:07:52.960 | toss it quick to somebody else,

00:07:55.120 | or better toss it in the river.

00:07:57.520 | Now, why?

00:07:58.720 | And Paul gives the reason why it's so dangerous.

00:08:01.960 | He says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.

00:08:05.960 | Get rid of it quick.

00:08:07.240 | Don't give place to the devil.

00:08:09.520 | So to go to bed seething, go to bed with a grudge,

00:08:14.520 | go to bed with undealt with anger,

00:08:18.340 | not forgiving people, holding a grudge,

00:08:21.200 | is an invitation as you go to sleep

00:08:24.560 | to the devil to come on in, come on in.

00:08:29.100 | And it seems that the devil specializes

00:08:33.100 | in moving in to this deadly work, his deadly work,

00:08:38.100 | where anger is held onto day and night.

00:08:43.260 | So one of the signs of righteous anger

00:08:48.260 | is that it comes slowly and it leaves quickly.

00:08:52.140 | It does not dominate.

00:08:55.040 | It does its work in the moment,

00:08:57.340 | and it doesn't stay around to contaminate.

00:09:00.860 | It doesn't give place to the devil.

00:09:04.740 | And what I've been saying for years

00:09:07.420 | is that what the devil does when you give him place

00:09:12.380 | by holding onto anger longer than you should,

00:09:15.460 | what the devil does is eat up

00:09:19.740 | every alternative good God-glorifying emotion.

00:09:24.540 | And I would add, from what I've seen in recent days,

00:09:27.900 | that he not only eats up good affections and emotions,

00:09:32.900 | but that in the absence of those affections,

00:09:36.420 | he eats truth.

00:09:38.820 | That is, he distorts true perceptions.

00:09:43.140 | We don't see things as clearly when anger eats us up.

00:09:47.820 | I have seen it.

00:09:48.740 | I've seen people move from the most mild assessments

00:09:52.500 | of someone's error to damnation.

00:09:55.940 | (laughs)

00:09:56.780 | I mean, just, you wonder, where did that come from?

00:10:00.180 | That they would move to the point

00:10:01.820 | of actually damning another person

00:10:04.180 | for what started out to be a relatively minor fault.

00:10:08.380 | And I think part of the answer is anger eats up love.

00:10:13.380 | Anger eats up affections.

00:10:15.960 | Anger eats up thankfulness.

00:10:17.660 | And anger eats up true perceptions of reality.

00:10:21.740 | So the point is that the devil hates joy in God.

00:10:25.660 | The devil hates tenderhearted compassion.

00:10:28.300 | The devil hates us to be kind to suffering people.

00:10:31.980 | The devil hates sweet affection for our families.

00:10:35.820 | He hates it when husbands and wives are tenderhearted

00:10:38.740 | and kind and forgiving to each other.

00:10:40.700 | The devil hates wonder and admiration

00:10:43.660 | at the beauties of nature.

00:10:45.220 | The devil hates all the fruit of the Holy Spirit,

00:10:48.260 | love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness,

00:10:52.740 | faithfulness, self-control, he hates them all.

00:10:55.220 | And when we give him place in our hearts at night,

00:10:59.780 | going to bed with anger, the jaws called anger

00:11:04.780 | consume over time all those precious affections.

00:11:10.460 | So the present state of my mind,

00:11:12.980 | he asked, "Where's your mind presently on this issue?"

00:11:15.780 | The present state of my mind,

00:11:17.900 | both biblically and culturally on this question about anger

00:11:22.900 | is that anger is a dangerous emotion,

00:11:26.700 | not necessarily sinful.

00:11:29.020 | God, by the way, is the only person who's holy enough

00:11:32.460 | to manage it really well.

00:11:34.900 | And he does get angry and he never sins by it.

00:11:37.940 | We, however, being fallen and sinful,

00:11:40.820 | must consider it much more dangerous for us

00:11:43.860 | than it is for God.

00:11:44.700 | It's not dangerous for God.

00:11:45.660 | Nothing's dangerous for God.

00:11:48.420 | It has a proper place, therefore,

00:11:51.820 | only when it comes slowly, leaves quickly,

00:11:55.140 | and in between is truly governed by a love for people

00:11:59.660 | and the glory of God.

00:12:01.500 | So let me end the way Paul does,

00:12:04.660 | following up on his admonition not to go to bed angry.

00:12:08.180 | He says in the next verses,

00:12:09.540 | this is chapter 4, verses 30 to 32 of Ephesians,

00:12:13.740 | "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,

00:12:17.220 | by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

00:12:19.420 | Let all bitterness and wrath and anger."

00:12:23.660 | So now we're told, not only do you give place to the devil,

00:12:28.660 | but you grieve the Spirit if you hold on to anger.

00:12:32.940 | "So let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor

00:12:35.860 | and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."

00:12:39.980 | And here comes the alternative.

00:12:41.860 | "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,

00:12:45.020 | forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you."

00:12:50.020 | And there's the key, isn't it?

00:12:53.580 | "Let our affections be joyfully overwhelmed,

00:12:58.580 | that while we deserved wrath and anger from God,

00:13:03.300 | yet amazingly, we have been forgiven

00:13:07.780 | by the death of the only innocent person who ever lived."

00:13:12.780 | That state of mind and heart,

00:13:17.660 | that forgiven, amazed at our forgiveness,

00:13:20.880 | like John Newton, amazing grace,

00:13:23.140 | that state of mind and heart will keep anger

00:13:27.820 | from rising too quickly or staying too long.

00:13:31.900 | - Thank you, Pastor John.

00:13:32.820 | And thank you for the wonderful follow-up question, Matt.

00:13:35.100 | If you have a follow-up question,

00:13:36.340 | send it to us through our online home

00:13:37.980 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:13:41.820 | Wednesday, we're back to look at that incredible episode

00:13:45.820 | in 1 Kings 18 of God's defeat of Baal's prophets.

00:13:50.500 | And we're gonna look at the whole point of that story,

00:13:52.440 | which is made clear in the text

00:13:54.060 | about a God who turns hearts to himself.

00:13:58.060 | It's a great observation from the text made by Pastor John.

00:14:01.900 | Up next time, I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:14:04.220 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday.

00:14:06.180 | See you then.

00:14:07.020 | (upbeat music)

00:14:09.600 | (upbeat music)

00:14:12.180 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Does Righteous Anger Kill Our Joy?

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