Anger is an emotion many of us experience from time to time. But is anger a sin? It can be – depending on what we are angry about and what we do with that anger. But anger isn’t always a sin. It can’t be. After all we read many times that God gets angry
Take a walk through any of the Old Testament books and you are likely to come up against God’s anger. Her are a few verses to get you started, Exodus 4:14, Leviticus 26:28, Numbers 11:33, Numbers 12:9, Numbers 25:4, Deuteronomy 4;25, and that’s just a few from the first few books!
If you look up anger in a concordance, you will find many other verses that speak of God’s anger. It is a theme that runs through the Old Testament. Often that anger is directed against God’s people because of their sin. Sin can provoke God to anger.
Jesus was angry with the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and lack of compassion toward the man with the withered hand, Mark 3:5. Jesus was rightly angry at the corruption and cheating that was going on in the temple and the lack of reverence for God and His house, Matthew 21:12-13 and John 2:13-16
So, I guess we could say it depends on what type of anger it is. If it a righteous, godly anger, then it cannot be a sin.
We should be angry at the injustice in the world, at mankind’s inhumanity to man, angry at those who take God’s Word and twist it till it means something less than God intended. We should be angry at those who dishonor God’s name by their behavior. We should be angry at the sin we see in lives and that includes our own lives. Angry enough to want to do something to rectify these situations.
The bible cautions us ‘Be angry, and yet do not sin,’ Ephesians 4:26. Therefore we know it is possible to be angry and yet not sin.
James 1:20 tells us, ‘the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.’
Think about the anger in your life. Is it righteous, godly anger or is it self centered anger?
Bible verses from The New American Standard Version
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