Sinful anger is saying, “I am god, you are not, and as god, I am not happy with you.” I hope to demonstrate this throughout this blog and discuss how serious sinful anger is.

At one point in my life, during very formative years as a Christian, I was connected to an organization that, frankly, was held in check by its leader’s anger. The constant undertone in that organization was, “Let’s not make this person mad.” People have described being near him as having a knot in their stomachs as they wondered how he would respond. I felt that wrath a couple of times and was very embarrassed that I had even asked a question.

I remember a Christian school leader once bragging to me that he could control his students with his voice. How many children, churches, spouses, governments, and organizations are governed and held in check by the fury of their leaders? Is there anyone who would say this is healthy and good?

The Bible is chock-full of examples of anger and its effects. Some of the more notable examples include Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, Moses in Exodus 32, Saul in 1 Samuel 18, and David in 1 Samuel 25. In each of these cases, the person responding in anger was essentially saying the same thing to his victims: “I am god, you are not, and as god, I am not happy with you.”

This is the first of three blogs on the topic of anger, broadly entitled “The Discipline of a Cool Head.” In these three blogs, I will use a slightly altered version of the three-part framework employed by Christopher Ash and Steve Midgley in their excellent book, The Heart of Anger: How the Bible Transforms Anger in Our Understanding and Experience. In this first part, we will address what anger is, why we experience it, and how devastating its effects can be.

As we introduce this topic, we will consider three things.

First, we need a description of anger. Anger begins inwardly as an emotion and ends externally as an action. In The Heart of Anger, the authors say this about anger: “Anger is one of those experiences that begins with a feeling and ends with an action; the same anger inhabits the angry feeling and then the angry deed.” Sinful anger is first a feeling that leads to an action.

Anger encompasses the whole person, not just our spirit. Have you ever heard the phrases “hot under the collar” or “hothead”? Both terms describe the feeling of anger. The Old Testament word for anger is also the word for nostril because, when you are angry, it is visible in your bodily presence.

But anger is more than merely a feeling. It also reveals what you are passionate about and what you believe matters most in life. The Heart of Anger describes anger as a “value barometer,” meaning that what you become angry about reveals what is important to you.

Another excellent book on anger is Good and Angry by David Powlison. He suggests:

“At its core anger is very simple. It expresses, ‘I’m against that.’ It is an active stance you take to oppose something that you assess as both important and wrong. You notice something, size it up, and say, ‘That matters … and it’s not right.’ You encounter something in your world that crosses the line. Anger expresses the energy of your reaction to something you find offensive and wish to eliminate.”

Do not forget that line: Anger says, “I am against that.”

As we seek to diagnose our hearts and understand why we become angry, that thought must govern us throughout this entire blog. What matters most to you is what you become angry about. Whether it is your free time, your bank account, your children, or your God, you become angry when that which is most important to you is disrespected.

The second thing to observe is the root of anger. The Heart of Anger says, “It is the sin underlying all sins, the first and most fundamental failing of the human heart. It is the desire to be god.”

It was Cain’s self-appointed deification in Genesis 4 that caused him to become so angry that he killed his brother. It was David’s devotion to himself that led him to demand better treatment from Nabal in 1 Samuel 25. If it had not been for Abigail, Nabal’s wife, David would surely have killed him. Self-deification—or your desire to be god in a given situation—is nothing more and nothing less than pride in your heart and mine.

When you step back and examine it, the sin of anger is irrational. I am not God, but I think I am when I become angry.

Over the years, one area in which I have been tempted toward sinful anger is fixing things around the house. Full disclosure: I am not very good at fixing things to begin with, so I do not enjoy it. It is also embarrassing for me, as the man of the house, not to be able to do these things. Add to that the fact that I normally do not have the proper tools and have a bad track record when it comes to fixing things, and you have the perfect storm for becoming angry about something very petty.

If I could step back and zoom out, is it not irrational for me to think I can fix the dishwasher in 20 minutes? Is it not irrational for me to think I should be able to fix my small-engine lawn mower or pressure washer when I have no idea how the thing even works?

If it is irrational, why do I still become upset? It is because the god on the throne of my heart is not pleased, and I want people to know about it. The bolt I am trying to use or the wrench in my hand is not submitting to me as the sovereign of my domain. I become angry because, when I am angry, I believe I am god.

It is the same with you. When your children do not do what you say, the god on the throne of your heart feels threatened and annoyed. When your wife does not respect you, your god is angry. When your husband does not sacrifice for you, your god is wrathful and ready to lash out.

The true God is not like this. As we will see in our second blog, He is patient, slow to anger, and kind. As followers of the Son of God, we must learn to recognize our own humanity under His lordship. We are not sovereign. We are not all-powerful. We are not to be worshiped.

This knowledge, accompanied by a work of grace, should humble us and make us a people who are slow to anger and filled with grace and mercy because we know God—and we know that we are not Him.

The third thing to consider is the devastation of anger. Anger is connected to a whole host of sins prohibited by the sixth commandment: “You shall not murder.”

In Matthew 5:21–22, Jesus taught that if you are angry with someone, you are guilty of committing murder in His sight and are liable to judgment. Often, in moments of great self-righteousness, people proclaim how good they are by saying, “I have never killed anyone.” According to Jesus, if you are angry with someone else, you are a murderer. Honestly, some people are spiritual serial killers who are constantly angry and looking for their next victim.

You may be thinking, “That does not really make sense because murder is more serious than anger.” First, we need to submit to Jesus’ words no matter what because He is the authority. On the other hand, if you struggle with this teaching, understand that sins connected to anger can be forms of murder.

For instance, consider a husband who verbally abuses and intimidates his wife. If you have ever met a woman in that situation, you know that her husband has murdered a portion of her soul. She is not the same person she once was because she has been beaten down by him.

If you gossip about someone, you are murdering that person’s reputation in the mind of an innocent listener. It is interesting to note that, of all the sins included in the vice list of Galatians 5:19–21, half of them are connected to anger. The Heart of Anger includes depression, jealousy, anxiety, humiliation, bitterness, resentment, and fear in its list of anger-related sins.

Do not forget how Good and Angry describes the quieter expressions of anger: “Quiet brooding, defensive withdrawal, judgmental thoughts, low-grade irritability, a critical attitude, avoiding outright conflict, indifference to reparable wrongs—these are just my less dramatic brands of an anger problem.”

My friend, you and I have an anger problem. In Powlison’s book, the second chapter contains only one word. The chapter title is “Do You Have a Serious Problem with Anger?” The answer is simply, “Yes.”

The reason this answer is correct is that to be human is to be angry. You are either angry about good things or angry about selfish things. More than likely, you are often angry about selfish things.

Maybe you learned that from a parent. Maybe you have become angry because of the way you have interpreted life’s negative circumstances. Maybe you become angry to control someone else. Whatever the reason for your anger, one thing is certain: You become angry because you believe you are god, and your sovereignty has just been threatened.

It is essential that you repent and unlearn your self-deified status. To quote Jesus in Matthew 5:21–22, the hell of fire awaits those who do not repent of sins of anger.

God help us—the stakes are too high!

Soli Deo Gloria