The Vice of Anger
Anger by itself is just an emotion, it’s a natural feeling
i. It’s a feeling that prompts us to correct some evil
But for most of us, the anger that’s meant to correct some evil normally ends up instead destroying some good
Anger is always vicious when it’s not constructive
But that also means it’s sinful when it’s disproportionate to the situation
If your anger is too long or too intense
i. If you blow up regularly, if you have a short fuse, if people tiptoe around you, or if your anger is directed toward an evil it’s not your place to correct – then you’re guilty of vicious anger.
So if you take offense easily, you’re on the wrong track.
But why do we indulge in destructive anger?
Because it’s easier. It’s always easier to break things than to fix them.
It’s easier to curse, or punch a hole in the wall, or yell at our kids, or get outraged about some atrocity happening in some other part of the country or the world
i. It’s a lot easier to just indulge in that kind of anger than actually to take the time, thought and effort to fix things.
But fixing things is exactly what God wants us to focus on. Not venting. Not throwing a hissy fit or being on edge or just being mad all the time.
i. He wants us to make the world and ourselves a better place. That’s the purpose of our anger.
There is such a things as righteous anger – and the model for it is Jesus in the Temple
So against what evil should our anger primarily be directed?
i. Our own. We are called to reform ourselves. Our sin. Our evil. Our vice. Our corruption.
1. That’s the primary evil we know, that’s the primary evil we’re called to correct.
If you’re going to get angry, get angry about your own sins. And then use that energy like Jesus did, to cleanse God’s temple, which is you. You are God’s temple.
g. Anger is the God given energy first to change the evil within us, the only thing we can control.