Few people in the Scriptures exhibited as much anger as did King Saul in his jealousy over the blessings of
God in David's life. Saul's anger seemed to be triggered when David returned from battle and the women greeted
him with this song: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” The Scriptures tell us, “Saul
was very angry, and the saying displeased him” (1 Sam. 18:7–8).
In his anger and jealousy, Saul
• twice threw his spear at David, trying to pin David to the wall (1 Sam. 18:10–11; 19:9–10).
• put David in a position of authority, hoping that David would fail to lead wisely and be discredited (1 Sam.
18:12–15).
• required that David kill one hundred Philistines before he would give him his daughter in marriage, hoping
that David would die while fighting the Philistines (1 Sam. 18:25–29).
• pursued David continually for more than a decade, forcing David to live in exile and move frequently from
hiding place to hiding place (1 Sam. 24; 26).
Not only did Saul pursue David without mercy, but he ordered the murder of people who helped David. He even
turned on his own son with murderous intent. (See 1 Sam. 20:30.) Saul's anger had no end.
It is easy to see anger at work in a person such as Saul. The outbursts are violent, and the rage continues
to boil and manifest itself repeatedly over time. The angry person often has visible changes in physical appearance—dilated
eyes and tense muscles. Internally, blood pressure rises, and the stomach tends to feel as if it is in knots.
It is far more difficult for us to recognize anger in ourselves. We are such an angry nation as a whole, we
tend to tolerate a great deal of anger in our personal lives, families, and neighborhoods. Some even see anger
as a sign of strength or power.
This tolerance for anger is contrary to God's Word, and it is damaging to emotional health and well-being. It
is also damaging to spiritual growth and witness.
The Scriptures admonish us clearly, “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil”
(Eph. 4:26–27). Wrath is linked closely with the work of the evil one in our lives.
• Can you recall an experience from your past in which you were angry? What did you do? What was the result?
The Nature and Causes of Anger
Anger is a sudden feeling of displeasure and antagonism in response to an irritating factor. The irritation
may be created by a person or a situation. The irritation itself may have been felt for some time, but the response
of anger nearly always has an eruption factor. It is not a planned response. The angry person is momentarily out
of control—no longer operating according to reason or God's principles of love.
People tend to become angry because
• they aren't allowed to have their own way.
• they are in pain, either physical or emotional.
• they are jealous.
People can become so jealous of other people's possessions, position in life (including relationships), privileges,
and personal traits (such as appearance and personality) that they feel others' good fortune somehow spells their
own bad fortune.
Intense jealousy and anger manifest themselves in similar ways—with explosive, erratic, sometimes violent, and
always irrational overtones. Intensely jealous people are also angry people.
In each example, angry people to some extent feel themselves to be under attack. The attack may be against the
will, reputation, status, physical body, marriage, possessions, integrity, or personal sense of well-being.
Sometimes the perceived attack is only a matter of perception. People may see a connection between a current
circumstance or behavior and an incident that happened many years ago (for example, abuse as a child). In other
instances, people may totally misread others' behavior or motives. The anger that is felt, however, is the same
whether the situation that triggered it is real or imagined.
Ultimately, angry people seek to get rid of the perceived or real attacker. King Saul desired to kill David.
Violently angry people sometimes resort to physical violence—all forms of which, to some degree, are a prelude
to murder. In other cases, they seek to put distance between themselves and the persons causing the irritation.
Anger is usually expressed in one of two ways:
1. As a physical or verbal outburst. A person may throw a punch, pound a fist against the wall, slam
a door or phone receiver, swear, or shout, among other physical manifestations. Anger may even manifest itself
as gossip. Every form of abuse that I can name—sexual, physical, emotional, verbal—has anger at its root.
2. As a brooding silence. The person internalizes the anger and allows it to seep into the subconscious.
Sometimes this anger displays itself as boredom or an aloofness from other people.
The person who broods in silent anger may manifest an eruption of that anger at a later date. The anger may
even erupt within the body in the form of disease. Unless one deals positively and in a godly way with anger, anger
will manifest itself in some way.
• Have you had encounters with people who responded to you with an outburst of anger? How did you feel?
• Have you had an encounter with a person who responded to you with brooding silence? How did you feel?
Nothing good comes from anger, and that is why it is contrary to God's plan for emotional wholeness. Outbursts
of anger injure other people. Internalized anger injures the angry person. Both expressions of anger are closely
linked to hate. Thus, anger is diametrically opposed to love. When we are angry,
• we cannot respond with sensitivity to the needs of others.
• we lose our ability to feel compassion.
• we cause estrangement.
• we create strife and enmity in relationships.
• we cease to give generously.
• we require unrealistically high standards of behavior from others to compensate for the way we feel we have
been injured or attacked.
• we become highly judgmental.
These qualities are certainly not Christlike.
“But what,” you may ask, “about the little bursts of anger we all feel from time to time?” People who ask this
are usually referring to brief outbursts of anger or daylong pouts. All of these expressions of anger are equally
wrong before God. Ask God to forgive you for all expressions of anger against other people and to cleanse
you of an angry spirit. Then ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His love, joy, and peace—so that you might manifest
these and all the other emotional fruit of the Spirit in your dealings with others.
• What new insights do you have about anger and its damage to the spiritual life?
• In what ways are you feeling challenged about anger?
Righteous Indignation or Ungodly Anger?
Some people attempt to justify their anger under the banner of righteous indignation. They often point to the
behavior of Jesus when He drove the money changers from the temple. They conclude, “I can be angry because Jesus
was angry.”
Let's look at that incident more closely and in full context:
Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned
the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My
house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” Then the blind and the lame
came to Him in the temple, and He healed them (Matt. 21:12–14; see also Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46).
Mark added in his account that Jesus would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple (Mark 11:16).
People who have depicted this scene in artwork and in storytelling through the centuries usually show Jesus
with whip whirling and eyes blazing as He cleanses the temple. Jesus is given every appearance of being an angry,
violent man. That isn't what the Scriptures say. We have no evidence of a physical manifestation of anger from
Jesus in any of the gospel accounts that record this story.
The effects of Jesus' actions did overturn the tables of the money changers. Throughout the incident, Jesus'
actions were calculated and measured. No riot resulted. Nobody was out of control. Immediately upon the removal
of those who were buying and selling, Jesus engaged in a healing service. His righteous indignation was completely
without sin and without any diminishing of His spiritual anointing.
We have further evidence for this in the gospel account of Mark, who tells us that earlier that same day, Jesus
had looked for figs on a fig tree as He walked from Bethany to Jerusalem. When He found no fruit, Jesus said, “Let
no one eat fruit from you ever again” (Mark 11:14).
The next morning after Jesus had cast out the money changers and dove sellers, the disciples noticed that the
fig tree had dried up from the roots. When Peter asked about this, Jesus replied,
Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into
the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever
he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you
will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father
in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive
your trespasses (Mark 11:22–26).
Once you have the full context for what Jesus did in the temple, it is easy to see that:
• Jesus was using the fig tree as a symbol of what was going to happen to people who were ungodly in their business
conduct in the temple. Jesus had in mind when He left Bethany that morning what He was going to do when He arrived
at the temple in Jerusalem a few miles away.
• Jesus' emphasis was on prayer and faith during these final days of teaching and healing in the temple. He
insisted that His disciples forgive others as a foundation for their prayers being heard. Jesus would not have
taught that unless He was approaching those He was about to cast from the temple with a heart filled with forgiveness.
His prayers on behalf of “the blind and the lame” would not have been heard otherwise. Only a matter of a few days
later, Jesus freely forgave from the cross the people who crucified Him. (See Luke 23:34.) Forgiveness is an act
of love, not an expression that flows from anger.
• Jesus taught that His disciples needed only to speak to a mountain with faith and it would be cast into the
sea. At the time of Jesus' arrest in the Garden, He replied to the man seeking Him, “I am He,” and the troops and
officers of the chief priests “drew back and fell to the ground.” (See John 18:6.) Jesus' words alone held great
power. It could very well be that Jesus only spoke to the money changers and dove sellers, and that in their haste
to withdraw from Him, they overturned their own tables.
Throughout the scene, Jesus' behavior was
• without violence. We have no record of any person being hurt.
• without resentment. For example, Jesus did not call upon His disciples to continue the behavior. Nor
did He cite any past wrong done to Him as a reason for what He was doing.
• without bitterness. Jesus had no heldover feelings against those who were cast from the temple. He
never mentioned them again.
Jesus' action was vented not against the individuals themselves but against their actions, and against the system
that allowed buying and selling in God's house of prayer. In every way, Jesus acted in accordance with Psalm 4:4–5:
Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And put your trust in the LORD. (See also Eph. 4:26.)
Jesus was indignant or angry in a righteous way. He did not sin in what He did or the way He did it.
Righteous indignation is a healthy response to evil. It is an agitation in the spirit against something that
is wrong in God's eyes, without any partiality toward or against the perpetrators of the wrong. The behavior or
circumstance is wrong, apart from the personality of any person.
Righteous indignation is expressed in a measured and calculated way. It does not bring physical or emotional
harm to another human being. It is thought through in a rational way, and it is behavior that has been preapproved
by God through prayer.
Throughout the Scriptures, we are admonished to speak God's truth boldly and to do so in love. I believe that
is what Jesus was doing in the temple that day. His words bore great conviction because they were a statement of
truth. When we speak the truth boldly, we can expect results, too.
When you take an action or speak the truth with righteous indignation, you must be prepared to reap the consequences
that may be associated with the act. Jesus certainly did. The chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people
sought to destroy Jesus after He took this action in the temple. (See Luke 19:47–48.) God stayed their hand until
Jesus' ministry among the people was complete, but very soon after, Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified. Jesus
was prepared to die for the good that He had done, including this act of cleansing the temple.
If you truly act in righteous indignation against evil, then you must be prepared to put your life on the line
for what you believe and do. The angry person doesn't do this. To the contrary, an angry person tends to act in
hopes of destroying the enemy and then to live with a sense of smugness at the victory. The angry person isn't
at all interested in suffering or dying for the very person who has done wrong in his eyes.
• Have you—or do you know a person who has—exhibited words or actions rooted in righteous indignation? What
was the result?
• What new insights do you have into the difference between anger and righteous indignation?
Neutralizing the Acid of Anger
Unchecked anger acts as acid on the soul—eating away at your spirit and eventually destroying all feelings of
love toward others. You must neutralize anger as soon as you are aware that you are experiencing it. If you don't,
you may very well
• repress it, which is dangerous to you internally, both physically and emotionally.
• suppress it, which is like burying anger alive. It will erupt eventually.
• express it, generally in a way that is hurtful to others.
The alternative God provides for you is to confess it.
Confess your anger. Admit to God that you are angry. Ask for His forgiveness, help, and healing.
If you have manifested your anger to another person, go to that person and confess that you have acted in a
way contrary to God's plan and desire for your life. Ask the person's forgiveness.
Make certain that your confession to the other person doesn't turn into another bout of confrontation. The point
of your confession is not self-justification. Once you have confessed your sin to the person, walk away. Thank
God for His forgiveness!
Choose to trust God fully. Anger is one expression that you aren't trusting God fully.
Many people who are angry with others are really angry with God for something they think God has done to them
or has failed to do for them. If you are angry with God, you cannot trust God. The cycle is deadly, and the consequences
may be eternal; deep anger at God can keep a person out of heaven.
Don't let that happen! Confess your anger to God, and ask Him to forgive you for it. Make a new commitment in
your heart and mind to trust God with your entire life, and in following through on that commitment, ask the Holy
Spirit daily to lead you, guide you, and protect you from all evil. Also, go to God's Word and read every verse
you can find that promises God's sure and ready help to His children.
What the Word Says
“Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.”
For the LORD will judge His people
And have compassion on His servants (Deut. 32:35–36).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will
repay,” says the Lord. Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:19–21).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow,
And the rod of his anger will fail.
He who has a generous eye will be blessed (Prov. 22:8–9).
What the Word Says to Me
• What new insights do you have into the relationship between anger and emotional health?
• In what ways do you feel challenged today to deal with anger?
From Becoming Emotionally Whole: Overcome Negative Emotions and
Become Happier and Healthier by Charles Stanley. Copyright 1996 by Charles Stanley.
