Righteous Anger in an Unrighteous Age

If you have been around Cornerstone in the last few weeks, then you have probably witnessed the unprecedented heartbreak and shock that came with the firing of one of our executive pastors. My husband and I sat with our family during that Thursday night church meeting, listening to Pastor Michael and our elders share the appropriate details and responses from the events that had transpired. Afterward, we ran into our small group. Every couple in our small group, including my husband and I, share one thing in common—we all help with or are leaders for the Tribe Student Ministry here at Cornerstone.
Our group is not only united by our shared passion for discipling students but by the deeply personal sense of hurt and betrayal that came from Tivo’s sinful actions. As we stood there, one friend mentioned that she could not stop crying. Another friend said, “Sadness is not the emotion I am feeling right now”. That sentence struck a chord with me because I was not feeling sadness either. My feelings were more in line with pure, blind rage.

Anger is always something I have struggled to reconcile in my spiritual life. Whenever I experience it, I am tempted to shove it down, ignore it, or beat myself up over it. After all, aren’t Christians called to be loving and kind? Aren’t we called to forgive? If I am angry, does that mean I am sinning? These questions often plague me when I see injustice in the world or when people sin against me or my loved ones. Sometimes I think to myself, “How can I not react to this? It is so unfair!” Thankfully, I have come to learn through the grace of God and the teaching of the Holy Spirit that my perception of my feelings is all wrong. My freedom from these thoughts comes when I remind myself of one important concept: righteous anger vs. unrighteous anger.

Jesus Got Angry, Too.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is John 2:13-17. It 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. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

I love this picture of Jesus because it challenges the narrative in the church that says He did not experience the full spectrum of human emotion. Some Christian teachings equate Jesus to one of those Precious Moments angel figurines from the 90s—making Him all doe-eyed, harmless, and overly sweet. However, we must remember that while Jesus is the meek and lowly Lamb, He is also the fierce and roaring Lion. In the temple that day, this Lion was ANGRY! He did not stand there and politely ask the moneychangers to clean up their stuff and leave. He did not take them aside for a one-on–one conversation, wait for a convenient time, or try to ignore the ruckus they were causing. He literally flipped over their tables and whipped those fools off the premises.

He could not abide people making a mockery of His Father’s house. Not to mention the fact that they were setting up shop in the Court of the Gentiles—disrupting their worship and gatekeeping their access to the Passover celebrations. Jesus, who in less than a week was going to die for the Jews and the Gentiles alike, wasn’t stopping by to play games. He made His anger abundantly clear as He was consumed with a fire for God and the justice He demanded from His children. However, the key to this story is not knowing that Jesus became angry, but understanding the type of anger He acted upon. He was more than just infuriated—He was grieved by the evil He saw around Him.


Different Kinds of Anger

It is clear that all anger is not created equal. For example, the anger I feel when I stub my toe on the edge of the couch is far different from the anger I feel when I read about global corruption or see evil events play out in the world. The reason for this is that anger is typically a secondary emotion—rooted in a deeper sense of fear, pain, disappointment, rejection, or grief. The primary cause of our anger is an important factor in the way we respond. 2 Corinthians explores the topic of righteous vs. unrighteous anger through the root emotion of grief—breaking it into two distinct categories.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul is writing to the church in Corinth after a complicated few years of dealing with them. Sometime before 1 Corinthians was written, the church of Corinth severely wounded Paul by openly rebelling against him and his ministry. Paul, rather than retaliating, decided to leave and go back to Ephesus for a time. Biblical scholars agree that after a while, Paul sent Titus back to Corinth with a tearful and severe letter (now lost), which warned the church of God’s judgment if they did not repent. While many in the church repented, there was still a group that continued to reject Paul and the true Gospel. In response, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians in anticipation of his next visit to Corinth.

Paul’s grief (and therefore his righteous anger) is evident in 2 Corinthians 7: 8-12 when he writes, “For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death…”

Paul is teaching that Godly grief (or anger) comes when we lose God’s approval, and the consequences lead us to reverse our conduct and start living for God again. It is always characterized by repentance. Worldly grief (or anger), on the other hand, comes when we lose the world’s approval, and the consequences lead us to try and regain that approval. That leads to death and destruction.

The same sentiment is echoed in James 1:20 when it says that “...the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God”. This is because the anger of man is more concerned with ourselves than with God and His holiness. The tricky part is discerning the difference between what kind of anger we are experiencing in the heat of the moment.

How to Be Angry and Not Sin

As Christians, we are called to be angry about the things that make God angry. At the same time, we know that the majority of the anger we feel is a product of our sinful nature. Therefore, being angry in the right way requires constant introspection, prayer, and discernment. A good starting place when we feel the waves of anger boiling up inside of us is to ask ourselves, “Is this anger about me, or is this anger about God?” If it is about us, that realization should immediately be flagged as sin. It should alert us to ask for God’s forgiveness (and the forgiveness of the people we may have wronged) and repent. If it is about God, there are a couple of things that we can do.

Ephesians 4: 26-27 says, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil”. This verse points to the truth that righteous anger seeks restoration, while unrighteous anger seeks destruction. We are called to remember the grace that has been extended to us through the Gospel and extend that same grace to others, being careful to ensure that our anger is slowly expressed. Righteous anger is also never hypocritical; we are careful to remove the log in our own eyes before removing the speck from someone else’s (Matthew 7).

Righteous anger also cares more about God and His renown than our reputations; it is infused with a virtuous sense of justice and a hatred for the things that attempt to distort God’s Word or character. Lastly, righteous anger acts swiftly, decisively, and rightfully, when an urgent response is needed. This may be when a person or a group is in immediate danger or when there are signs of an unhealthy or abusive power dynamic. This is the kind of response that Cornerstone has strived to implement in the last few weeks. Not only has it made me exceedingly proud as a church member and youth volunteer, but it has honored and glorified God.

I have not been fully sanctified when it comes to processing my anger, and I probably won’t be until Jesus returns and makes all things new. Nevertheless, as we formulate a “new normal” and step into the future with our wounds surrendered to God, I pray that our lives would mirror the heart of Paul in Romans 12 when he wrote, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all…. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”