Interrogating Anger: Is it Sinful Anger or Righteous Rage?
In rare cases, anger can be good. But more often than not, its bad.
In some cases, anger can be good. But more often than not, its bad. That’s what this essay is about.
Scripture doesn’t forbid anger, but it does tell us to slow it down. Put “speed bumps” in front of your anger. James 1:19-20 says, “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Righteous anger does not erupt like a volcano. It burns slowly, like the smoldering embers in a campfire. Proverbs 14:29 says, “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.”
In that text, notice how speed is key: “slow to anger” is contrasted with “hasty temper.” Ecclesiastes 7:9 does the same thing: “Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.”
Since anger lodges in one’s heart like a splinter, best be slow and deliberate about what we get angry about.
Where Anger Comes From
Where does anger come from? Garden variety anger arises from a perceived wrong or injustice. When you feel wronged in some way, that perceived injustice makes you angry.
Of course, wrong things happen all the time and not all of them are worthy of anger. We also experience different levels of anger but give them different labels, like being irritated, aggravated, or frustrated. It’s all anger, just at different temperatures and situations.
Since anger is typically triggered by the sense we’ve been wronged in some way, it produces in us a corresponding sense that we are “right” about that thing. This makes anger addictive. Even though anger is a negative emotion, the surge of righteousness they feel in response to the perceived wrong can be enjoyable. There’s a reason we call it “righteous indignation.”
Why Anger Is Addictive
There is something enjoyable about being on a righteous crusade. Admit it. Even when we’re angry, it’s kind of a noble feeling. “I’m angry because I’m right and they’re wrong.”
In other words, anger makes us feel righteous. And we love feeling righteous.
That’s why back-and-forth arguments on social media are so addictive. If someone else’s posts are wrong, we may feel an immediate surge of righteousness, which prompts the pleasurable release of righteous energy of putting them in their place. Shutting them down feels like a moral victory. “You’re the bad guy. I’m the good guy.”
I’m not immune to this temptation. I use social media a lot as a teaching platform (including this Substack post!), but my typical policy is to avoid back and forth arguments, especially when I sense the other person is irrational and not open to reason. Why? Because I know they are not engaging on social media in search of truth, they are posting to get a surge of righteous dopamine. I ain’t got time for that.
Dealing with Anger
To surrender our anger to the Lordship of Christ, we need to first determine if our anger is righteous or sinful. To do that, we need to interrogate our anger. Ask ourselves tough questions and give ourselves honest answers.
When Jonah was pouting over God’s mercy towards the Ninevites, God asked him, “do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4). God was prompting Jonah to reflect on the cause of his anger.
Was it righteous? Did he have a right to be angry? No. In his case, his anger was not righteous. He was angry because he resented God’s mercy.
Personally, I’ve developed the habit of interrogating my anger as I sense it growing within me. Anger can sometimes arise inexplicably, which is all the more reason to interrogate it.
Sometimes I get up in the morning and, for no particular reason, I’m in a bad mood. I feel grouchy, which is a form of low-grade anger. Why am I grouchy? Why am I irritated at people talking to me? Why am I so annoyed that I can’t find my shoes? Why am I so mad about dirty dishes in the sink?
“Do you do well to be angry?”
Most of the time, the answer is no. I’m angry for selfish reasons. I want to wake up and have the world to operate on my terms. But it doesn’t.
Sometimes I’m angry because I haven’t accomplished all I wanted the day before. So I feel like a failure. I feel like I’m letting people down and I’m angry at myself. And then, I get frustrated at myself for feeling angry at myself. Wretched man that I am!
Anger is a mirror of our values
Here’s the thing. Angry feelings are not conscious thoughts. They’re lurking beneath the surface of our minds, unnoticed and unexamined, until we interrogate them and bring them to the surface. At that point you may recognize, “I have no good reason to be angry.”
That’s when I confess my foolish anger and repent to the Lord. Now, in that moment, I might still feel anger, which I may not be able to control, but I know that this is anger is not righteous and I had better watch my step. Most likely, whatever I say or do in response to that anger will not be righteous.
We should interrogate our anger because anger reveals what we value. If you’re angry about something, it’s probably because something you value is being threatened. Quite often, you may not even realize what it is. You’re just angry. Interrogating your anger can help you identify what subconscious values are driving your behavior.
Take “road rage,” for example. Why do people get so angry while driving? People have caused serious traffic accidents and even ruined their lives over brief moments of rage on the highway. We all know road rage is stupid. So why has this become such a common thing?
For me, I’ll confess, I’m an impatient driver. I get easily frustrated when I’m trying to get somewhere and someone in front of me is going too slow. If it normally take 20 minutes to drive somewhere and traffic makes it take 25, what’s the big deal? It’s only five minutes. Why does that make me angry?
So I ask myself, “What do I cherish that’s being threatened?” For me, the answer is time. I value my time. I want to do what I want, when I want it, on my schedule, and I don’t like interruptions. That’s not anyone’s fault but my own.
So, do I do well to be angry? In this instance, no. It’s my sin. I do not have a right to have everything in life happen on my timetable. There’s no moral righteousness at stake. I might feel angry at the car in front of me, but the fault is my own. If a man is only angry at other people's sins but never his own, he is a hypocrite and his anger is most certainly not righteous. Righteous anger hates sin everywhere, including in ourselves (Matt 7:3).
That’s why James 1:19 says everyone should be “slow to anger.” Anger clouds our judgment and makes us impulsive. Anger is physiological, raising our heart rate and adrenaline, lowering our inhibitions, and spurring us to take impulsive action. Anger makes us bolder, yet dumber. We’re more likely to act foolishly when angry and regret it later.
Most often, we might feel righteous but we acting sinfully. So we should slow it down enough to discern if it’s the rare instance where our anger is actually righteous.
Righteous Anger
So what about righteous anger? Can human anger ever be righteous? I believe it can. In Eph 4:26, Paul says, “be angry and do not sin.” He leaves the door open for the possibility of righteous anger, while warning us to not let it lead us into sin.
I was at the OH statehouse this week in support of a bill that would ensure equal protection under the law for pre-born babies. A group of feminist protestors showed up, interrupted the presentation with shouts and cheers, “abortion is legal!”
This made me angry. I did not erupt in a rage, but I prayed for them and joined with others who were singing hymns to drown them out. As far as I know my own heart, I believe my anger was righteous in that moment.
But how can I know that? By interrogating my anger. What was I angry about? The murder of preborn children and the “cheerleaders for murder” that celebrated it. I was angry because this is a heinous sin that offends God. Was I quick to anger? Even though everything unfolded quickly before me, I’m nevertheless confident that I was slow to anger in that moment.
Why? Because I didn’t arrive at my convictions about preborn life yesterday. These have been settled convictions for years, my hatred for the sin of abortion has grown stronger and more clear-eyes, and my heart was prepared for this kind of disruption. When it happened, I did not act impulsively or in any way that I’d later regret.
So yes, sometimes anger can be righteous. A father can be sinfully angry at his son’s disobedience because it inconveniences him and he erupts with violent rage. Or a father can be righteously angry at his son’s disobedience because his son is disobeying the 5th commandment. His anger is directed at his son’s sin against God, and he can patiently discipline his son in a loving way (Heb 12:6-8).
Therefore, human anger is righteous when we are angry about the things God is angry about and for the same reasons God is angry about them.
God’s anger is always righteous and perfect (Rom 1:18). God’s wrath is revealed against ungodliness, unrighteousness, and so forth. God is angry about sin because God loves his own holy character.
But God’s anger is also slow. Exodus 34:6 says God is “slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Second Peter 3:8 says God’s anger is slow because he is patient, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
In other words, God’s wrath isn’t a temper tantrum, it is his settled disposition of hatred towards sin. And His anger is slow because he’s compassionate towards those who would otherwise be consumed by his wrath. In his compassion, God’s wrath moves slowly to provide opportunity to repent.
Human anger is righteous when it reflects God’s own settled hatred for sin, and all righteous anger begins with hatred of our own sin first (Matt 7:3). Our anger is righteous only when we’re angry about what makes God angry and for the same reason God is angry about it. In other words, righteous anger springs from a godly zeal for the glory of God. When God’s name is mocked and dishonored, it should make us angry because it makes God angry (not merely because it offends our sensibilities). God’s name is worthy of the utmost reverence.
And our anger should also be slow, not only because God himself is slow to anger, but because we often incapable of discerning in the heat of the moment whether or not we are truly angry for the right reason.
Scripture doesn’t call us to be stoics, but we must let our anger off the leash slowly, lest we sin by taking hasty, foolish action in our anger. Anger is the emotion most likely to go bad, and most of us aren’t sanctified enough to let it run unchecked.
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Thank you for this article, I will start questioning my anger when it rears its head.