Let Go of Anger
James 1:19-20—My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Do you have an anger problem? Maybe you can readily admit you do! Maybe you can see where anger too often gets the better of you. Maybe you don’t think you have an anger problem at all. Well, guess what, to one degree or another, we all have anger problems. You know why? Because we are all sinful. Even when you think you have a righteous anger, I’d be willing to bet God could poke all kinds of holes in your arguments to defend your anger.
I was reminded of this the other day while hunting. I’m still a bit miffed by it, but now it’s just frustration rather than anger. You see, on Friday night, I had a bullet wiz over my head, not because I was being careless. Not because I was hunting in the wrong place. Not because of a freak ricochet. I was irate because I knew the bullet zipping over my head came off a neighboring property from someone taking a very foolish and dangerous shot. I wanted to march right up to that person’s truck, wait for them, and give them a piece of my mind while telling them how foolish and reckless they are.
Well, I didn’t do it, but that doesn’t mean my anger was fully justified. As the Lord says through James: …man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. What would have happened if I had taken the chance to talk to that person right away? Sure, I might have felt better about myself, for a bit. But what would that have done for my reputation with this person I might have been meeting for the first time? What might that have done with my reputation in the community after the story was told? What kind of damage could that have done to our ministry here at St. John?
You see, even when our anger may be mostly justified, the actions we take in anger rarely, if ever, bring about the righteous life that God desires. What God desires from each one of us, more than anything else, is repentance on our part, and forgiveness for others.
You can all think of countless situations where things could have gone far more smoothly if you had first let go of your anger before you spoke or before you acted. You can see countless examples in your own life where what God says through James is exactly true.
But what is more amazing than our foolishness is God’s capacity to love us and not deal with us according to his entirely justified and perfectly pure anger against our sin! Where our anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires, God’s anger against our sin has brought about righteousness for us—true righteousness. God our heavenly Father burned his holy anger against his only Son in our place. Bringing more heat and pain than a thousand suns, God the Father burned against his Son so that he wouldn’t have to burn against us for all eternity!
When we remember this amazing truth and hold it in our hearts, this enables us to Let Go of Anger. It enables us to live at peace with fellow human beings who may certainly cause our anger to burn, but to let it go and look at them as God looks at us. Namely, to look at people, no matter who they are or what they’ve done, and see that they are in far greater need of our love and forgiveness than they are of our measly and ineffective anger.