You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.
Do not be quick to anger,
for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
There is plenty enough to be angry about these days. And what we’re talking about is justifiable anger. At the same time, isn’t it best not only to keep a lid on such anger, but to some extent be suspicious of such? After all, if we step back and look at the full picture, it’s not like we’re without fault ourselves. At least we need to be humble, exercise humility, and not give full vent to our anger (Proverbs 29:11).
Neither James nor Ecclesiastes tells us not to be angry at all. It’s what we do with that anger that’s key. Not just sadness, but such should turn into occasions for prayer and action, but all of that must be done with love. If anger is not animated out of love of God and of neighbor, then it should be confessed and renounced as wrong, as sin. But to have no anger at all at the evil injustices of our world is also wrong, sin and amounts to not being human.
When occasions arise for anger, that should make us all the more resolute to be part of the answer, which means taking care of ourselves, the wrong in us, and seeking to remain in Scripture to hear and take in God’s word into our lives. And that means a change of life for us, and certainly implies that we act to become part of the solution to the problem or evil we were angry about.
We can’t stop with our anger. We have to move on from that to a humble love which acts in accordance with God’s will and working as we tend also to ourselves.
Jesus community 