Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

Author:Jerry Bridges [Bridges, Jerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, RELIGION / Christian Life / Personal Growth
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2017-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ANGER

Robert Jones, in his book Uprooting Anger, wrote, “Anger is a universal problem, prevalent in every culture, experienced by every generation. No one is isolated from its presence or immune from its poison. It permeates each person and spoils our most intimate relationships. Anger is a given part of our fallen human fabric.” And then Jones added, “Sadly this is true even in our Christian homes and churches.”[15]

I would add to Jones’s observation about our Christian homes and churches that our anger is often directed toward those we should love most: our spouse, children, parents, or siblings in our human families, and those who are our true brothers and sisters in Christ in our church families. I once knew a fellow believer who was the epitome of graciousness to other people but was continually angry with his wife and children. Fortunately, after years of this, God finally convicted him and helped him deal with his anger.

What is anger? Many of us might say, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it, especially if it’s directed toward me.” My dictionary defines anger simply as a strong feeling of displeasure, and usually of antagonism. I would add that it’s often accompanied by sinful emotions, words, and actions hurtful to those who are the objects of our anger.

Anger is a huge and complex issue, and dealing with it extensively is beyond the purpose of this book. In keeping with my objective to help us confront the sins we tolerate in our lives, I am going to focus on that aspect of anger that we unconsciously treat as “acceptable” sin. In order to do that, I need to right away deal with the issue of righteous anger.

Some people justify their anger as righteous anger. They feel they have a right to be angry, given a certain situation. How, then, can I know if my anger is righteous anger? First, righteous anger arises from an accurate perception of true evil—that is, as a violation of God’s moral law. It focuses on God and His will, not on me and my will. Second, righteous anger is always self-controlled. It never causes one to lose his temper or retaliate in some vengeful way.[16]

Though the Bible does give some examples of righteous anger, such as Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple, they are few. The main focus of the Bible’s teaching on anger deals with our sinful anger, our sinful reactions to other people’s actions or words. The fact that we may be reacting to another person’s real sin does not necessarily make our anger righteous. We are likely more concerned with the negative impact of the sinful actions on us than we are that it is a violation of God’s law. Or we may even use the fact that it is a violation of God’s law to justify our own sinful angry response.

Another topic of anger that is also beyond the purpose of this book is that of the person who is continually angry, or the person whose anger causes him or her to be verbally or physically abusive.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.