Morning kids! It’s Friday and time to cap off the business week. I’ve been under tight deadlines this week, so I’m looking forward to the weekend because I’ll get to spend some time with my mother, who I haven’t seen in over a year. My thanks to the Chinese Lung Pox.
Over the last ten days or so, I’ve had candid conversations with friends who are either people of color (POC) or are married to someone who is. I’ve watched a discussion held by my church with black members of the congregation. I’ve done some reading and research about what’s going on in our society with regard to race. I’ll write more about what I’ve heard and read at a later time, but I want to focus this post on the nature of anger.
To be perfectly frank, I’ve been observing the chaos across the nation with a mixture of anger, sadness, and alarm, with anger a growing percentage of the emotional mixture I’m experiencing. As a Christian, my conscience acts as a brake on my anger most of the time, primarily because we’re cautioned in scripture against “man’s anger.”
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. (James 1:19-20, ESV)
It’s not that we can’t be angry. The Bible documents Jesus expressing anger at the money-changers in the temple (John 2:13-17), at the stubbornness of the Pharisees (Mark 3:5), and at the pain death causes (John 11:33). Jesus was angry, but was without sin. Or, to state it positively, Jesus showed righteous anger. The same is to be true of us.
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)
What is the difference between my anger and what might be called “righteous anger”? Clearly, anger is to bring about “the righteousness of God” and is to be done without sin.
One of the better explanations I’ve read is in a post by Tim Challies called, 3 Marks of Righteous Anger. To quickly summarize, they are:
- Righteous anger reacts against actual sin, not personal preferences.
- Righteous anger is concerned with offenses against God’s name or fame, not our own.
- Righteous anger expresses itself in godly ways.
These seem right to me and are confirmed by other students of the scriptures. So if my anger doesn’t reflect these three qualities, it is probably a self-centered anger because of a personal offense I’ve suffered.
WHAT I’M ANGRY ABOUT
Coming back to the chaos being sown across our country, I find myself being angry about several things.
- I’m angry that I’m being shamed for the color of my skin.
- I’m angry that I’m being blamed for the evil deeds of others who lived long before I did.
- I’m angry that I’m being accused of being a “white supremacist.”
- I’m angry that mobs are tearing down statues and other monuments to men I admire or honor for their role in creating this country.
- I’m angry that the mobs are acting irrationally and cannot be reasoned with.
- I’m angry that our so-called leaders in Washington are not stopping the madness.
- I’m angry that radical subversive Marxists are allowed to act openly without anyone standing up to them.
- I’m angry that so many gains made in racial harmony are being erased by the insidious philosophy of critical race theory.
- I’m angry that these activists are being funded by billionaires whose financial coffers aren’t being shut down.
- I’m angry at the racial double-standards employed by the activists.
- I’m angry at the violence and mayhem visited on innocent people.
I’m not raging about these things, but I am angry about them—I’m exasperated and offended—primarily because it’s like our country has lost its collective mind.
FILTERING ANGER THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES
As a believer, then, I’m to react in a godly way to real sin and offenses to God’s name. Can I identify anything like that in the list above? You bet.
The rampant chaos and mob tactics goes against the very character of God. “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
The calls to defund the police are actually calls for lawlessness. “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).
Civic authorities who allow the rioting, looting, burning and shooting have shirked their God-given responsibilities. “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).
The men, women and children who have been shot to death as a result of the breakdown in law and order is a direct violation of the sixth commandment: “Do not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
Calls for “reparations” for black people from white people ignores the biblical teaching that individuals are responsible for their sin, not groups of people who share common characteristics like skin color. “God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done'” (Romans 2:6) and “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them” (Ezekiel 18:20).
There’s more, but those give you (and me) an idea of where my anger is situated. I’m sure as I give it more thought, some of the things I’m angry about will reveal a personal preference rather than an actual sin. In those cases I’ll need to let it go.
The bigger question is “So what?” Now that I’m identifying what is “righteous anger,” what am I required to do about it? Anything? Does it strengthen the case for being a patriot who, if called on to do so, will take up arms to defend his country? Does it require me to speak up about how God’s name is being defamed?
I don’t have answers yet but, as I’ve said before, I write transparently about these things because I suspect I’m not the only one who’s wrestling with them.
Have a good weekend. I will.