And the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why has hour countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?' (Genesis 4:6, 7a)

Someone has just crunched your car, and you are angry. He was sixteen and hot-rodding. You are angry at the kid, at all of today's kids, and at the system for letting such irresponsible people out on the streets. And to top it off some Christian comes up and tells you to put away all anger and wrath. Well, that really does it. Platitudes! That's easy for him to say. Besides, the Bible says you can get angry. Jesus got angry when he drove the money changers out of the temple. And anyway, it's bad for you to keep anger in; it is better to be authentic than hypocritical.

On and on go the excuses and justifications. You attempt to convince yourself that is was really okay to get angry. I suspect we have all heard and very likely used these excuses. If anybody is so foolish as to try to point out that angry is not what God would have us to be, we simply add him to the reasons for being angry.

Some people lose their tempers over what you may call trifling things (i.e. those things that don't bother you): inefficiency in the office, someone cutting in quickly and taking a parking place, the way a husband leaves his socks on the floor, or the wife who is chronically late. Isn't it amazing what can make people really ticked?

Others may get angry at "more righteous" things like world hunger, abortion, war, lack of civil rights, or discrimination. There are hosts of other reasons that can set off tempers, reasons that are as individual as fingerprints. But whatever our trigger is, the Bible has some very definite things to say about anger.

The most often used justification is, The Bible says to get angry. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it does say, "Be angry..." (Eph. 4:26). But that is often where people stop. They ignore the next part that says, "and do not sin." Christians are often very good on the first part of the command but a trifle weak on the second half. The verse add a second condition to the command, "do not let the sun go down on your anger."

There are other verses that can be interpreted to allow anger. "Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger..." Again, that indicates that if you don't just fly off the handle, that's okay. But again the following phrase adds some light to the subject. "For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God" (James 1:19,20).

Perhaps, then, it is okay to be angry if:

1. we do not sin;
2. we don't go to sleep with it;
3. it is anger from God and not man's anger;
4. it achieves righteousness;
5. it comes slowly.

Do you have the feeling that if these qualifications are met, the amount of anger would be cut drastically?

Another Biblical reference that is appealed to is when Jesus cleansed the temple (Matt. 21, John 2). This is a tricky passage to use as a proof text, for our anger is rarely so righteous. Even though the passage never actually says that Jesus was angry, we can still see how it fits at least four of the five qualifications.

The anger seemed to be God's, for the cause of the anger was not self-centered. He was purging God's temple. The result was righteousness. Because it was of God, it was not sin. It came slowly enough to allow him to make a whip. If we like, we can assume the sun did not go down on His anger.

If we are not up to likening our anger with Christ's, we may well use the You don't understand routine. Perhaps I don't understand, but Christ certainly does. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are ? yet was without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Christ sympathizes with our weakness, but it doesn't end there; He gives us grace in time of need (v. 16).

If we were more sophisticated, we could say that psychologically it is better to release our anger. Pent up anger may well give us ulcers. Of course, if we release our anger, others may get ulcers. It rarely occurs to people that there may be a third option, i.e. taking our anger to God. This does not mean venting our spleen towards God ("authenticity"). It means admitting to God that you are angry, that if it is not going to achieve His righteousness, you do not want it. With this confession, our anger is removed from us, we may continue our life in the joy of the Lord and nobody gets ulcers.

The Scriptures have just these few indications that anger may be all right under limited circumstances, but it says a lot more about the folly of anger and its sinfulness.

"Put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander..." (Col. 3:8). "Outbursts of anger" is listed as one of the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5:20. "An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression." (Prov. 29:22) "He who is quick-tempered exalts folly." (Prov. 14:29) Proverbs has a lot to say on the subject.

Suppose you are now convinced that your anger is not of God and you would like to get rid of it. How do you start? First, it is good to see where your anger is from:

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart (Lk. 6:45).

What we see here is that the fruit of our lives is generated from the state of our heart. If our heart has an evil treasure the overflow will be evil. If that is the case, two steps must be taken. The first is expressed in Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting." We need a heart-searching by God. The second is to confess the sins of the heart to God, "But if we walk in the light and His is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. ... If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness" (I Jn. 1:7,9). The anger will disappear from our hearts like the money changers from the temple. Once our heart is clean, we should fill it with all sorts of good things. Things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise are a few suggestions given by Paul in Philippians 4:8. This can also be defined as the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2).

Does the idea of putting away all anger seen hopelessly impossible to you? If it were only up to us to keep perfect control, the idea would be impossible. But thank Him it is not.

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy...Amen (Jude 24).

-Jim Wilson