Today’s reading: Ephesians 4:26; James 1:20
“Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26).
“[F]or the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).
For the past few days we’ve looked at the negative side of anger. So today, I thought it would be good for us to consider how and when anger can be a good thing. Ephesians 4:26 actually commands us to “be angry and do not sin.” So this lets us know that anger, in and of itself, isn’t a sin–unless we turn it into something sinful because our anger is driven by pride or self-centered motives. So when is our anger good and proper? When it is righteous anger. In other words, when our anger comes about because of and is directed toward an unjust situation caused by another person. Here are a few examples of righteous anger from the Bible: Jesus when he drove out the money changers who were defiling the temple (John 2:13-18); Paul confronting Peter about how he was conducting himself in Galatians 2:11-14; Nehemiah throwing out Tobiah’s furniture from the chambers of the house of God(Nehemiah 13:4-9).
When have you experienced righteous anger? What action(s) did you take as a result? Spend a few minutes considering the difference in you and your response when you have had righteous anger versus when your anger was self-centered and sinful. Tami
Source: Tami’s Blog
