You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire.
—Matt. 5:21-22
Especially considering last week’s emphasis on pride, Jesus continually calls us to a level of obedience that can only be ours as we yield to the Holy Spirit. This verse, which condemns anger, in some Greek manuscripts, includes “without cause” after “angry with his brother”. The best manuscripts read as we have it here and it almost seems to me that somebody stumbled over the hard words of Jesus at some point and had to insert “without cause”. It makes the verse almost moot if you leave it in. As long as you have your reasons then you could be angry with your brother. I heard sermons preached on the “without cause” and it is reasonable to assume that “without cause” is not part of our Scripture. Of course anger is something we all will deal with and is not necessarily unrighteous. We will go over 5 factors to which anger must be subordinate. Unfortunately I think we are all too likely to allow our sin nature to run the show and the generalization that “all anger is sinful” is awfully close to the truth. It isn’t a true statement but it is rarely wrong to say “anger is sinful”. However, we’ll see a Biblical basis for defining good anger and bad anger today.
No One Decides to Get Angry
Anger is a spontaneous thing (dwelling on anger to produce bitterness is another topic) and so we see how extreme Jesus’ demand is that we control what is almost a “knee jerk” reaction. It results in a bigger jerk for some than others. We have a natural angry response to injustice and cruelty so what do we do with anger? We should manage it in the way God calls us to manage it. Unfortunately we often tell God to keep His hands off this aspect of our lives by refusing to address sinful responses as sin or seeking His will and power in keeping our responses godly.
While self-control is part of this process we are fundamentally dependent on our new birth, our repentance from sin, and our walk of faith to get anywhere in dealing with sin. Jesus doesn’t provide pop-psychology and self-help guidelines. Jesus provides His blood for your forgiveness, your freedom from bondage to sin, and entry into the rule of God in your life (Matt. 26:28; Mark 10:45; John 8:32; Luke 11:20). You are branches on the Vine and without Him you can’t do anything and you especially can’t change the way you’ve handled anger all your life without Him (John 15:5).
What Is Anger?
Scripturally, there are different experiences called anger, some of which are sinful and some of which are not. Jesus expressed anger and talked about the anger or wrath of God (Mark 3:5 “He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.” (John 3:36; Luke 21:23; Matt. 18:34; 22:7; Luke 14:21).
Anger can be defined as “a strong feeling of displeasure and usually antagonism.” It isn’t just displeasure because we generally require intent before we get angry. We don’t respond to an accidental bump the way we do to an intentional bump. Someone may have a problem that is severe enough that intent is not required. If I bump my head to I get mad and hit what I ran into. Well some folks might but it really is ridicules to respond in that way. I remember not too long ago hearing about a guy who was arrested for discharging a firearm in the city limits. He used his shotgun on his lawn mower. I understand the feeling but I also understand that it would not be something God would approve of and even the sheriff has a problem with it. A lawnmower may cause displeasure but it has no intent. As Piper points out, this is why the young Jonathan Edwards resolved not to get angry at inanimate objects. His Resolution #15 said, “Resolved, Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.”
Jesus’ Anger and Ours
If Jesus, in His perfection, could experience anger then exactly what are we being commanded to avoid in Matthew 5:22 when He said, “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” (John 2:15; Matt. 21:12; Mark 3:5; Matt. 23:15; Matt. 23:17; Matt. 23:27). Jesus wasn’t the only one who got angry in Scripture in an apparently righteous manner. We see examples from the Old Testament (Exod. 32:19; Num. 16:15; Neh. 5:6; Ps. 4:4).
Other teachings of Jesus would place anger as subordinate to (at least) 5 other things before it is good or appropriate. The five things to regulate anger identified by Piper are love, proportion, providence, mercy and servanthood.
Love and Anger
You must love those who make you angry. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you . . . do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you” (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27-28). The good anger then can’t delight in or desire the destruction of the ones who make us angry. You are supposed to bless and pray for and do good to those who make you angry. This drives a knife into the anger we typically entertain in our hearts because we look for vindictiveness, vengeance, and hostility. We can’t get to good anger is that place. Godly people have experienced anger and at the same time (with Jesus’ help) pray for, blessed, and done good to those who would normally be the focus of anger. This anger would not be evil.
Proportion and Anger
Jesus teaches that a holy response to evil should be proportionate. For example, Jesus teaches that a servant who knows his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more (Luke 12:47-48). So you would imply that anger would also vary in response to evil. So anger is in submission to love and also must stay proportionate. This cuts both ways. We probably naturally think of excessive anger at an offence since we have that tendency (an eye for an eye and a tooth for at tooth being a limit to excesses). We should also point out that in our day and age we need to avoid having hearts that are undiscerning or insensible about the seriousness of sin. That is an offence to God and while it may only be seen by God we don’t want to become callous about the sins that are accepted by our culture but condemned by Scripture.
Providence and Anger
Sometimes our anger shows that we are not really convinced of God’s providential rule. God is in control. Our anger at circumstances should stand in submission to that knowledge. We will not have justice on this earth but we will have justice. Every hair of your head, every thought, every word from your mouth, each time you stand, each time you sit … God is watching (Matt. 10:28-31). All of life is governed by God and you must not worry in a way that contradicts your belief in God.
Speaking to disciples, Jesus said, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:16-18). Not a hair of your head will perish even if you are killed for Christ. Evil is real but it will not be final and it is even now within the control of God. Anger has no room to grow bitterness where the knowledge of the providence of God is.
Providence: Rejoice in Persecution
Jesus says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12). I know we’ve recently looked at this Scripture before but it makes such a clear point here. We are likely to be infuriated by persecution that it is “evil” and it is “false” but He doesn’t say go ahead and have legitimate anger. He says, “Rejoice and be glad” and in Luke 6:23 “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy.”
Anger at persecution must be affected by this command. We must be transformed when we rejoice over persecution. God doesn’t expect us to approve of the treatment or think it is just. And even holy anger as disapproval of persecution mixed with the joy of God’s sure victory may mix with that joy. As we seek to live a quiet, peaceful, godly, dignified life (1 Timothy 2:2) we may seek to avoid persecution; but if it comes to us then it is not a surprise to God and it is within His control.
Our joy in the presence of persecution is possible because of God’s providence. Not a hair of your head will perish (when they kill you). Providence governs your suffering. This is Jesus’ argument why joy and not anger can dominate our experience of persecution: “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matt.5:12). Therefore, good anger is governed by faith in the all-wise,all-powerful, merciful providence of God.
Demand #19 – Do Not Be Angry – Embrace Mercy and Forgiveness
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
—Matt. 18:21-22
First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
—Matt. 7:5
Mercy and Anger
While we may never have a proportionate awareness of the magnitude of the mercy that God has shown us (maybe when we stand before Him), we must allow the awareness of His mercy that God has placed in our treasonous and felonious hearts to change the way we show mercy to others.
Few things make us angrier than when someone repeatedly does something we find objectionable. So Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:21-22). Well the first time I read this I was little and brother meant my brother (Greg) and I still couldn’t imagine putting up with 490 offences. Even then it was clear that Jesus wanted me to change my heart because the one I had wasn’t going past 7 offences.
Immediately after making this statement Jesus started on a parable, “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants” (Matt. 18:23). So the triumph over anger through forgiveness is a part of God’s rule (kingdom) in the lives of his people.
So when we talk about forgiveness we are not talking about simply a technique for better and happier living we are talking about the work of God and it is woven into the fruit of forgiveness that Jesus obtains with His blood (Matt. 26:28).
How We Forgive Seventy Times Seven
The parable says that a king had a servant who owed him the staggering amount of ten thousand talents (Matt. 18:24). It was estimated that King Herod had a yearly income of about 900 talents so this was more than a decade of income for a king or more exactly about a “zillion” dollars. However this guy got in debt, somehow, he accumulated a debt that is virtually incalculable. The king threatened to sell him and his family. But “the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything’ [an impossibility, it seems, in view of the amount]. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt” (Matt. 18:26-27).
The magnitude of the forgiveness is the point. Jesus wants us to realize that our sin is an incalculable debt to God. We could ever pay it back. No amount of penance or good works or apologies can pay the debt of dishonor we have heaped upon God by our sins. You have repeatedly committed “cosmic treason” both willfully and ignorantly, but without excuse, against a perfectly Holy God who will judge sin and His infinite perfection magnifies your transgressions against Him. But the servant did receive this forgiveness for what it was and Jesus reports gratitude or amazement from this servant.
Jesus says, “When that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii [one denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer], and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt” (Matt. 18:28-30).
Forgiveness from the king did not alter his anger. The king heard of it and was (legitimately!) angry (Matt. 18:34). He said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” The king “delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt” (Matt. 18:32-33). Jesus says, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matt. 18:35).
To be a disciple of Jesus you must be forgiven and to respond appropriately to those in the Family of God you need to meditate on the amazing, humbling, mercy-awakening Grace that has been shown to you. The fragrance of the mercy shown to you should be apparent in all your dealings with other people and especially within the Church (cf. Matt. 6:14-15; Mark 11:25). Jesus is not addressing eternal security in salvation here. He has addressed that in other places. The point of this parable, in response to the tenor of Peter’s question, is the relative mercy we experience from God and how that should make us behave toward others (Matt. 18:22).
For our anger, the solution provided by Jesus is to live in constant awareness of the mercy given us and to allow that to change our heart. Good anger must then be subordinate to this abundant mercy from God as it is expressed in us toward mankind.
“First Take the Log Out of Your Own Eye”
Anger is also expressed by being judgmental. Jesus gave us a demand in this regard: Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matt. 7:1-5)
Just like anger the verses show a right judgment and a wrong judgment. Jesus says, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye,” showing that your heart (or eye) must be right to make judgments about the speck in a brother’s eye. Judgment is kind, caring, and healing rather than judgmentalism that is harsh, uncaring, and hurtful. Awareness of the Grace of God in the healing of the log in our eye turns our angry judgment into a patient, forbearing, and careful thing.
We might still have a godly anger that eye-specks are hurting the people we love but we are not judgmental because mercy rules over our anger.
Servanthood and Anger
Servanthood will also cut off anger at the root. We may become angry about serving others or the demands of others on our life. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). He said, “Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44-45). We are not supposed to sad about this either, Jesus said “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). We don’t belong to ourselves. We belong to Jesus. We have a hard time with that. Here in Athens we even have a tree that owns itself. Self ownership in this world is an illusion. We do what Jesus tells us so that we will not hear Him say, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46).
A servant’s heart cuts the legs out from under anger at being required to do things we didn’t plan to do. For Jesus’ sake the slave rejoices to serve the good of others and says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34). What we were sent to do is serve. Good anger is governed by the contentment Jesus gives in serving others, even those who do not deserve it.
What Kind of Anger Is Jesus Prohibiting?
In Jesus’ prohibition of anger; “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:21-22). In context, Jesus is forbidding is the anger that grows against an individual, first to hurtful words, then hurtful indirect acts, then to violence against the individual, and then to murder. Jesus expands the command not to murder until it touches the root. From other Scripture, He obviously is not prohibiting all anger. This focus is confirmed by the two illustrations he gives next: “Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matt. 5:22).
All of his other teachings guide us in discerning whether our anger is appropriate as we keep our anger subordinate to love, proportion, providence, mercy, and servanthood.
The Vine Is the Source for Stilling the Force of Anger
The demand not to be angry is radical and devastating because it does forbid us from the kind of anger we have always lived with. We don’t naturally live with anger submitted to love, in proportion to the offence, comforted by the providence of God, tempered by the amazing mercy shown us, and with the attitude of a servant simply serving his Master. It puts us face to face, once again, with the impossibility of saving ourselves.
Becoming angry is not a choice we make. It is a fruit of our fallen nature 99 and 44 one hundredths percent of the time in the best of us. The question is: Whose branch on what vine are you? Whose fruit will you bear? The demand not to be angry is, therefore, also a demand that we abide in him as our vine. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And nothing is not a little something.
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