Proverbs 19:11; 19; 20:3, Anger – Discerning or Destructive!

December 10, Proverbs 19:11; 19; 20:3

Eph. 4:24-32 “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”

Anger – Discerning or Destructive!

When did you last hear a sermon like Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”? Today, God just loves everybody, but does not Scripture teach otherwise (Ps. 7:11, 79:5, 85:5)? If anger expresses God’s hatred of sin, what about man’s anger?

1. Show It: To defer anger (11a) implies that there are times when anger is justified! God’s anger is affirmed three hundred times in Scriptures. Some then turn to “Gentle Jesus” only to find He too showed anger (Mt. 21:12). Paul sums it up, Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). Paul also showed true righteous anger when he witnessed the awful idolatry in Athens (Acts 17:16). He then gives it as a Divine teaching to be ye angry and sin not (Eph. 4:26). Oh! how complacent are we in the face of modern man’s sinfulness and lostness! Where is the holy anger of the Lord Jesus or Paul today? Yet, holy anger is but the development of God’s love!

2. Slow It: To defer anger means literally to stretch it out, making it slow down. It must not go off like a loaded gun (Isa. 48:9). We must strive to keep it under our control, not out of control. Apostle James wants us to be slow to wrath. Why? Because human anger works not the righteousness of God. It is too often vindictive, vengeful (Rm. 12:19; Jas. 1:19-20). Such anger is self-injurious, physically and spiritually (Pr. 14:29; 19:19; Mt. 5:22). We are so sinful we had better starve it, not feed it, slow it to a standstill. Paul urges us to be forbearing and forgiving one another, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. Why? Paul’s answer, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye (Col. 3:12-13). Recall Christ’s word to Peter (Mt. 18:21-22). “If Christ and thy heart are one, sin and thy heart are two. You cannot hold to thy Lord, and yet love that which He hates” (CHS).

3. Stow It: To pass over transgression (11b) means overlook or forgive it! Thus God deals with us (Mic. 7:18). God doesn’t ignore wrong, nor excuse it with phony love, but forgives the repentant sinner because He has found a ransom in Christ. Only because of Christ does God withhold His anger, and bestows His mercy. Paul exhorts all to speak the truth… Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Otherwise you give place to the devil. God has forgiven us our dreadful debt, so we must forgive those who beg our forgiveness (Eph. 4: 31-32). It is his [man’s] glory to pass over transgression, to cease from strife. This is more than a delay. It is to master it altogether. “It is blowing out its first sparks; it is crushing it in the germ” (Thomas). A greater glory, boast, (Ex. 28:2) is to conquer self. That is greater glory than he that takes a city (Pr. 16:32)! Paul asks, Who is sufficient for these things? His answer, Our sufficiency is of God (2 Cor. 2:16).

Thought: “He who can suppress a moment’s anger may prevent a day’s sorrow.”

Prayer: Lord, mould me more and more into Thine Image.