You have been told not to be angry. You have been told anger is a sin—but anger is not a sin. In fact, it is a sin to not be angry when you should be.
Christians would say there is a chasm between how the Bible speaks about God and how God is spoken of in the culture. In the culture, God is a God of tolerance, non-judgment, and affirmation.
Yet, in the Bible, God becomes angry. In fact, it says that God hates injustice—and His anger is enkindled against it in order to enact what is good and just.
And here is what Christians would like you to know.
You should be angry as God is angry. You should hate as God hates. The fire of God’s anger should be enkindled within you and move you to do what is good and just.
Yet, our culture dampens your heart to the justice of God and denounces becoming angry at evil. It says what is just is unjust, and what is unjust is just. You must overcome.
You must have a heart that burns as God’s does.
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Hate as God Hates
Anger is a passion that stirs the heart. It moves the heart to enact justice against an injustice. Christians hold that you are called to imitate God. Does God become angry? If so, what moves the heart of God toward anger, judgment, and justice?
It is written “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses” when he was reluctant to save the people of Israel (Ex 4:14), and later the Lord’s “anger was kindled” against Israel complaining after He had saved them from Egypt (Num 11:1). Israel will later fall into idolatry, and the Lord will say to Jeremiah: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast” (Jer 7:18-20). There are numerous examples in the Old Testament of God becoming angry about unbelief, ingratitude, and idolatry—all acts of injustice.
Even further, the Old Testament speaks of things that God hates. Like idolatry, “which the Lord your God hates,” (Deut 16:22), and stealing, especially from the poor and vulnerable: “For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrong” (Is 61:8). The Bible tells us of many grave injustices that the Lord hates (Lev 18:21-22; Jer 44:4-5; Hos 9:15) and even sins that “cry out to heaven for vengeance” (Gen 4:10; 18:20-21; Ex 22:21-24; 24:14-15).
And you are called to be angry as the Lord is angry—to allow injustices to stir your heart toward justice.
The righteous anger of God should be enkindled in you, and you can see this in the holy men of the Old Testament. When Moses came down Mount Sinai with the ten commandments and saw Israel had fallen into the idolatry of the golden calf, “Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain” (Ex 32:19-20). Similar stories are told of Joshua (Jos 7:1), Gideon (Judges 6:25), and Samuel (1 Samuel 13:8).
You are even called to hate as the Lord hates.
The Psalmist says: “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Ps 97:10), and the Psalmist moves to align his heart with God’s righteous indignation:
“Do I not hate those who hate thee, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies” (Ps 139:19-22).
In Proverbs, it is said those who respect God hate evil: “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate” (Prov 8:13). The righteous anger of the Lord should burn inside you, as it did in Moses and so many other Old Testament figures.
You must align your heart with the heart of God. To be moved as He is moved, as a heart unmoved by injustice is not like the Lord’s.
Yet, what about the New Testament? Did not Jesus do away with anger, hate, and judgment?
The Anger of Jesus
Christians warn of a common error in reading the Bible. The mistake is that people throw out the entire Old Testament, as they think it has been replaced by the New. Some go further to even claim the God of the Old Testament is a different God than Jesus—because many struggle to reconcile the two.
However, Christians hold the Bible is unified. The same God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is the same God who died on the Cross for you. It can be difficult at times to reconcile these passages—but Christians will warn that you are always in danger of conforming God to your expectations as opposed to conforming yourself to God’s.
But, this is true, where is the righteous anger in the New Testament?
The most famous example is when Jesus forcibly removed people who he believed were defiling the temple:
“And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the money-changers’ coins and overturned their tables (John 2:13-17).
The passage is fascinating for many reasons. First, Jesus took the time to make a whip. In other words, it was not an impetuous act but rather His anger was bridled by reason and His acts intentional. Second, He is not simply angry—His anger turns into judgment and the execution of justice. He commits a justified act of violence driving out those who are defiling the temple.
But, this is not the only time Jesus’ anger showed.
Several times Jesus’ anger is present in the strong language He uses to denounce evil. He strongly chastises the Pharisees for their hypocrisy (Lk 11:39-44), and the scribes “who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers” (Mk 12:38-40). Another example is when the disciples stopped the little children from coming to Him, Jesus became “indignant” and chastised them (Mk 10:13-14).
Christians would also point to when Jesus appeared to St. John in Revelation, and tells the beloved disciple “you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Rev 2:6). Reminiscent of the Old Testament, Jesus is condemning a Christian church for its idolatry and heresy by using the term “hate.”
The love of God is not in conflict with His anger, and imitating one in your own heart does not preclude the other. To love your enemy would be to desire justice for them, as justice to the unjust soul is like a remedy to disease.
Yet, how do you know if your anger burns as God’s does? When is anger praiseworthy and when is it a sin?
What if your heart is not moved to anger—is that a sin?
A saint has mapped this issue well for you, and gives you what you need to discern and bridle your own anger—but what is left for you to decide is why this righteous anger is so repugnant to the culture.
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