Christian anger management

Do not confuse temptation with sin.

In and of itself, anger is just one of many feelings that are morally neutral.

No sin in feeling angry

Jesus did not command us not to feel angry.

"Be angry but sin not."

Jesus Himself felt anger!

Sin is in the will, not in feelings

Jesus command us not to do violence to others.

Jesus felt angry and expressed his anger on many occasions (gotta look up the passages).

He did not sin.

Passive aggression is aggression

"You have two ways of dealing with your anger: silence and rage" (some movie--maybe "Midnight Run"?).

We may identify our enemies

Difference between suppressed anger (cold rage) and sublimated anger (love of our enemies).

We are commanded to forgive our enemies.

Righteous anger

Those who do not feel angry at evil done to them or to other innocent victims are not healthy human beings.

The proper response to injustice is anger.

The purpose of this anger is to motivate the hard work that it takes to act against injustice.

Distinguish between assertiveness and aggression

When we assert our rights, we grant the same rights to everyone else.

When we act aggressively, we deny others the rights we claim for ourselves.

Assertiveness is good.

Aggressiveness is bad.

Jesus' anger

At Pharisees

There are seven "woes" in this passage.

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’

¹⁷Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred?

¹⁸And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’

¹⁹You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

²⁰One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;

²¹one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it;

²²one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others.

²⁴Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.

²⁶Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.

²⁸Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous,

³⁰and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’

³¹Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;

³²now fill up what your ancestors measured out!

³³You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?

³⁴Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and pursue from town to town,

³⁵so that there may come upon you all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the righteous blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

³⁶Amen, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Paul's anger

Galations 5

1 Cor. 7:6-9, 25-26