In the Bible, we read that God was angry (Joshua 7:1 — due to Achan’s sin). Yet “slow to anger” (Psalm 103:8) was one of His glories. We know that Moses, a godly man, was angry (Exodus 32:19 – the incident of the Golden Calf) and Saul, an ungodly man, was angry (1 Samuel 20:30 – angry that Jonathan sided with David). In Revelation 12:12, we learn that the devil was angry. Ephesians 4:26 calls Christians to be angry and sin not, while Ephesians 4:31 exhorts Christians to put away wrath and anger. So what is anger? Is it ok or not ok to be angry? Should we work towards being someone with no anger?

“I’m against that!” These three words sum up what anger is. You encounter something, you assess it as wrong, you deem it as important to you and hence you move to oppose it, whether to right it or remove it. Put in this way, you will see that anger is rightly called “the moral emotion”. In anger, we make a moral judgment.

Let’s explore this using the following two scenarios:

[A] A single mother at the shopping centre with her 3-years-old boy. The boy wanted a candy bar, she said ‘No’ and he threw a tantrum. She slapped him, shouted at him and threatened to leave him!

By throwing a tantrum, that boy showed his anger. What happened? He wanted something but was denied. He assessed it as wrong — How can you say ‘No’ to such an important person as I? Hence, he created a scene with the goal of correcting the perceived wrong! By shouting, slapping and threatening, the mother expressed her anger. Maybe she felt burdened by him. Maybe she wanted a peaceful afternoon. Maybe she wanted to grab what she needed and get out of that place quick, without meeting anyone familiar. That’s all gone now, with his tantrum! He has embarrassed her once more! That’s wrong, that’s so unfair and so she exploded!!

[B] You were on your way to a holiday resort. You can’t wait to get there. But you were stuck in this traffic jam for the last 2 hours! You breathed hard, deep. You find yourself repeating curse words (under your breath) you’ve not used for a long time. 

Why were you angry? The holiday was crucial to your emotional well-being, but the jam was stopping you from your well-deserved break! Why can’t the government solve the traffic woes? Why can’t drivers drive more carefully and not cause accidents? Don’t the rest of the drivers know that it’s ME going for a break and that they should just give way to this VVIP?

 Now, as you looked out of your window, you saw young children, some without hands and some without legs, begging. Your taxi driver told you that they were actually controlled by a syndicate, that they were kidnapped, had their limbs chopped off so that they will look more pitiful as they begged. You exclaimed, “How terrible! The people behind this thing ought to be shot!”

In both instances, you were angry, you were saying, “I’m against that!” But in the 1st case, it was “perceived unfairness to yourself” that is in focus while in the 2nd case, it was “real injustice to others”. Is there any difference between these two instances of anger? In the second instance, was it better to have anger or no anger (indifferent)? Or if you have expressed pleasure at their misery?

Review the two scenarios above as well as the various passages quoted in the 1st paragraph. In every case, we encounter the same process: (a) something is encountered, (b) a negative assessment (it is wrong!) is made, (c) a personal evaluation (it is important to me!) is carried out, and (d) an action is taken. Note that (b), (c) and (d) are all moral in nature! In short, your anger reveals your moral value and it tells you who your real master is!!

Think of the anger of the devil, Saul, that single mother and her boy as well as the stuck-in-traffic-jam-Me. Imagine if you were indifferent to the terrible wrong done to those handicapped beggars. What moral values do they show? Who is the real master? Now think of God’s anger and Moses’ anger. They announce what is important to God and Moses. What do they announce?

You and I – we have all been angry, maybe even now! The more something matters to us, the more we care, the more important it is, the more we value it, then the more intense will our anger be! So what are you angry about?  What does your anger or non-anger announce about you? Your moral values? Your real master? 

My dear friends, in dealing with anger, let’s start with ourselves, with our own heart. What’s there?

Wei En Yi