Righteous Fury - And Why Not Being Angry Is Sometimes A Sin

Anger is not a sin. At least, anger isn’t necessarily a sin. Like many other things, sin can easily creep into the situation and cause anger to become a sinful passion, but anger by itself is not necessarily a sinful response. So a Christian might find a situation where they can be angry, and yet without sin. But further still, there are certain times when a Christian not only can be angry, they should be angry. Sometimes when a Christian lacks anger, that lack of anger can itself be a sinful response.

Some Angers to Run From

Having made the claim that anger is sometimes not only permissible but necessary, a few words of caution and warning are likely in order. Christians should probably be best known for their love and not for their anger, after all. Christians recognize that there are a great many things we should not be angry about, and Scripture accordingly warns us against such anger in a great many places. Ephesians 4 is a well-known passage that speaks about anger and it includes several warnings for Christians concerning anger, bitterness, and wrath. These are things that the Christian should “put away” and not take part in. 

Scripture accordingly gives many warnings against anger, particularly when we let our anger control us or we “give vent” to it in our flesh (Prov 29:11). Such attitudes are described as “foolish,” in the true biblical sense of that word—we walk in the footsteps of a fool when our anger directs and controls us. Calvin accordingly spoke of three specific areas where Christians should not be angry: 

Regarding those things that are of slight offense, 

Regarding those times when we lose control, and

Regarding when our anger toward our own sin is instead misplaced onto our brethren. 

These are areas in which Christians are often tempted toward anger, yet such anger is not a righteous anger and must be given no quarter.

The Anger of Old

But contrary to the popular Christian notion of the Eleventh Commandment (“thou shalt be nice”), there is a command for Christian anger that is given in Scripture. That command does not exist in isolation, but it comes after a long and storied biblical backdrop. One such particularly poignant example is found among the testimony of the Old Testament prophets. The prophets were often a dynamic bunch, with their stories sounding less like a wise sage in pristine religious surroundings, and instead often far more so like fierce proclaimers of God’s truth (in a fashion that would undoubtedly offend as many in our day as it did in theirs). 

There is a particular scene in the life of the prophet Elijah that is quite fascinating in this regard. Elijah found himself standing firm against the prophets of Ba’al who had gathered no less than 450 of their number to stand against him (1 Kings 18). As if this show of force was not already daunting enough, an additional 400 prophets of Asherah gathered together as well, so that the pagan assembly of false prophets could collectively mock the Lord en masse and seek to lead God’s people astray. But this assembly of pagan zeal led Elijah to a righteous display of anger. After God’s show of sovereign power against the pagan gathering, Elijah obeyed God by slaughtering those hundreds of false prophets at the nearby brook. 

Elijah’s example is visceral, but it is not unprecedented—there are many examples of righteous anger that are given throughout Scripture. Moses was angered when he saw the suffering of his people. A young David was angered when he saw the giant Goliath mocking God and threatening God’s people. Even the incarnate Christ displayed a perfectly righteous and holy example of anger when He overturned the tables in the outer court of the Temple (and expressed anger at the unbelieving crowds in Mark 3:5). In each such case, there is a palpable example of a righteous anger that was provoked when God (and God’s truth) was attacked and disparaged. 

A Righteous Anger

This is where our rightly ordered affections (or passions, loves) come into play. The result of the Christian’s new life in Christ is not simply that we “stop” being angry. We are not becoming more Christlike when we behave as mechanistic automatons that do not experience emotions—that would be missing the point, and likely an exercise in futility. Rather, the command for Christians is to be angry and yet not to sin (Eph 4:26). This is indeed a command and not simply a concession: the command to be angry is an imperative verb given in a succession of similar command verbs. Our command is to be angry, and yet to avoid sin. 

These words are quite similar to those of David that are found in the Psalms, where the admonishment is that we are to be angry and yet not to sin (Ps 4:4). The problem in these passages is not our anger, the problem is that our expression of anger is often sinful. We become angry because we do not get our own way, or because something goes wrong, or because we have misplaced our anger toward others. Here is where Calvin’s admonishment helpfully reminds us that we are to avoid such wrongly-ordered anger. Yet this does not absolve us of the imperative command that precedes the biblical warning: be angry. 

What is to be the source of a rightly-ordered anger? How do we exhibit an anger that does not lead us into sin, but rather exhibit a righteous anger that glorifies God? Simply put, the things that we should be angry about are quite in keeping with the command in Ephesians: Christians must be angry about those things that are opposed to God and to His truth. This is in keeping with Paul’s admonition to the Romans, where genuine love is defined as abhorring (hating) that which is evil, while holding fast to what is good (Rom 12:9).

This admonition should be particularly helpful and instructive for Christians during an election cycle. Times of national elections entail quite a bit more than simply an individual’s vote for a candidate or party. Election years are times when Christians must affirm what is good and true, and must reject and abhor what is evil and false. Even further, such times are when Christians must speak truth to the culture around us, even when the proclamation of God’s truth angers that culture (which should make sense, if culture is essentially religion externalized). During times when our culture and country are weighing inherently moral values on a national stage, Christians may do well to remember that although we trust a sovereign God with every outcome in such times, we are still called to love the things that God loves and hate those things which God hates. This is not denying God’s sovereignty, it is the enthusiastic affirmation of that sovereignty. 

For those whose affections (loves) are rightly ordered with God as the focus and source of that love, they will (and must) rightly be angry with those things that anger God. The reason you are to be angry is quite simple: the things which anger God must anger you, if you belong to Christ. Calvin is again quite helpful in clarifying the target of such anger: “With respect to others, we ought to be angry, not at their persons, but at their faults; nor ought we to be excited to anger by private offences, but by zeal for the glory of the Lord.”¹ When the world shakes its fist in rebellion against God, when falsehoods rise and threaten the truth, when sin stands in the way of righteousness—these are the times when the Christian must display the righteous anger of God. 

¹John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians.