So let’s get started with a question, is anger a sin? It depends. Our human anger, which is sinful anger, is wrong. This is because we get angry about things affecting us. It is a selfish anger. A few examples include if something doesn’t go my way, if my feelings are hurt, if my boundaries are crossed, or if I don’t get what I want…and so forth. The whole community is me…myself…and I. In other words, we make ourselves the judge, jury and witness. We become god and think that all else must serve us. You see, we become angry when people, places and things don’t bow to our leadership.

You may not believe me, but when I become angry with someone and yell at them, I just think, “Why did I yell at that person?” I found out that it always has something to do with me or someone not doing what I wanted them to do, and so forth. This sinful nature comes from the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They chose their own opinions instead of God’s instructions. Look how that turned out for them—not so good. They thought they knew better than God, the God who created the world in six days and had a day to rest (and maybe watched Sunday football).

Yet we look at them and say, “Why would you do that? Look at what you did! Now we all have to suffer.” When you think about it, we do it all the time. I know I do. I do it all the time and I feel terrible afterward. People replaced God. That’s the problem. We play God. So when the world doesn’t obey, we get angry at it or with God for not doing what we want, for not bending to our awesome will. So how is God’s anger different?

God’s Anger
God has righteous anger, anger with justice. It’s crazy because God knows everything—what I have done and what I am going to do, what this world is going to become—but it angers Him because we have basically given Him the finger. We just brush Him off our shoulders. His anger is different because He is without sin—pure, life, loving, joyful…

So when people go around living from “me, myself and I,” they are separated from God. They just stink up the place. So God eventually gets rid of them. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true. This is called God’s wrath. So imagine God cleaning a house and putting all the junk in the garbage can or dump. The Bible calls this the lake of fire or hell. Because God loves us, He doesn’t want to see us get cut off from Him. We are lucky that our God loves us. Thank goodness our God loves us so much. That is what the gospel is—the story of God sending Jesus to die for us. Jesus is God’s answer to the problem. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He even sent His Son for those people who don’t care, the people who spit on His Son and the people who beat Him and killed Him. I don’t know about you, but I would think He was angry. He was sad for Jesus’ suffering, joyful at His resurrection; but I am positive God also was angry.

We trigger His anger by sinning, by being disobedient to His will. How would you feel if nobody cared if you sent our only son to die for everyone? When I say “everyone,” I mean the people sitting next to you, the people on the other side of the world: sex offenders, drug addicts, murderers, everyday sinners, your enemies whether at school, home or work. Wouldn’t you be angry? Let’s take a look at Jesus and how He controls His anger.

Jesus’ Anger
Turn to John 2:13-17 in your Bible. John 2:13-17 says, “The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money-changers sitting there. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen. He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who sold pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it is written, ‘Zeal for Your house will consume Me.'”

So we can imagine Jesus was not happy; He was angry. He basically saw the temple being used as a mall, made a whip of cords, and beat the crud out of everyone to get them out of there. Think about the money-changers’ point of view. “Man it was crazy, I was just minding my own business, selling stuff. Oh it was great, a perfect spot to rake in the dough, people are just leaving in and out of that temple all the time. I mean, yeah it probably wasn’t my smartest idea to set up shop in front of a temple; but I got a lot of money. Then one day, this crazy guy just comes out and starts beating me with a whip. He knocked over my tables and spilled all my money on the floor. Then people started to grab it. I got really mad at this one guy, but I just got the heck out of there.”

So let’s break this apart. Verse 15 says He made a whip of cords. Now I looked up on Google how to make a whip of cords. Apparently only one guy knows how to make them. I thought, “Oh, I guess that’s fair. Only one guy knows how to make a whip of cords in this whole world. Whatever.” Not only was he the only one, but his directions on how to make a whip of cords were crazy confusing. So all I am going to say is that in order to make a whip of cords, it takes a long time.

So imagine Jesus just sitting down making a whip of cords, saying things such as, “Oh, I’m gonna get me some of those money-changers and some sheep. I don’t want sheep poop in My Father’s house. Oh they gonna get it.” He was slow to anger. We see this multiple times in the Bible. Exodus 34:6 says, “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.'” Numbers 14:18 says, “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty.” Nehemiah 9:17: “They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders You performed among them, but they stiffened their necks and appointed leaders to return to their slavery in Egypt; but You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.” Psalms 86:15: “You, oh Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Psalms 103:8: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

There are so many more. I have three more in Proverbs, another in Psalms, and one each in Joel, Jonah and Nahum. We are made in God’s likeness and image, so we should try our very best to be like Him: slow to anger. Now we look at verse 17 and see the word zeal—that zeal caused the anger. Jesus so wholeheartedly wanted to glorify God that when He saw the temple—a house of prayer turned into a mall—He became angry. So He made a whip, turned over some tables, and basically kicked out the money-changers. It’s just a little picture of hell—people abuse God by living for themselves, profiting off others and God for themselves. So God gives us time to repent—to change our minds—to see the problem we caused.

Can We Have Righteous, Godly Anger?
Let’s start with this, if God has anger and never sins, then anger is not a sin. Anger can lead to a sin, but so can other emotions. The world just looks to morals and sees anger as being the only emotion that causes us to do bad things. Satan, the tricky tempter, uses anger constantly to make us sin. The devil stirs up the selfish parts of ourselves as a tornado, sucking all things into our submission—”serve me, feed me, give me what I want.”

With Christ, we can have a godly anger. James 1:19 says, “Know this, my beloved brothers: Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” So, we should be slow to anger. Why? We need to ask if our anger is godly anger or us behaving as our own god. If we are playing god due to selfishness, then we should not respond from that motive; just don’t go there. We see that if we continue on in James, James 1:20 says, “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness God requires.” So, selfish anger that is all about the self is fighting God’s righteousness.

Second, Ephesians 4:26 says, “be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Why? Ephesians 4:27 says, “and give no opportunity to the devil.” Satan can turn anger into bitterness, jealousy and unforgiveness. Somehow he will make it about you. For us guys, we can get really annoyed with someone when playing any type of video game. We get mad, yell and maybe throw a few punches. For girls they get angry because someone else has something they don’t have, so they gossip about the person or try to make her feel like as if she doesn’t need whatever the thing is or that she shouldn’t have it in the first place.

Before you respond to your anger, ask yourself if you’re annoyed at the other person or yourself; if your thinking is selfish; if your agenda is about yourself more than about God or what is godly.

What is right? What is righteous anger? How can we be godly instead of god? Jesus’ picture of this was spot on. If you see God’s Word ignored, His love is rejected. His world trashed; people, places, things that represent God end up twisted or abused, as when He saw the temple filled with money-changers. Then you can have righteous anger. If you see someone being abused and only think about yourself and see the world as a depressing place, then that can’t be righteous anger. So hear me: You can be angry and not sin! Do not sin because that is the line between you and God.

Four Main Points:
If you don’t get anything from my message except these four points, I would be completely satisfied.
1. Anger that is about self is sinful.
2. Anger that is about God, about what is right from God’s perspective, is not sinful.
3. Be slow to anger so you have time to ask yourself, “Is it about me?”
4. When you fail, seek forgiveness.