We have all found ourselves trying to reason with people who have allowed their emotions to cloud their judgments. It can be extremely frustrating if not futile. Some might, therefore, conclude that reason and emotion are incompatible; but this is simply not so. It is possible to be very emotional about something and remain rational. To be rational is not to be without feeling, and to be emotional is not to be without sense. God has given us the capacity for both, and we need not shelve one in order to engage in the other.

The Psalms are great examples of expressions of emotion while retaining reason. Emotion is defined as "a psychic and physical reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling and physiologically involving changes that prepare the body for immediate and vigorous action." Indeed, emotion is critical to action. Reason without emotion may reduce truth to something merely academic; and emotion without reason is blind and - without self-control - is dangerous.

If you are home alone at night, in bed, and in the dark and suddenly hear the sound of breaking glass, you will have an emotional response. Mine would be Yikes! We call it fear. Goodbyes are often accompanied by the emotion of sorrow and reunions accompanied by the emotion of joy. Injustice or mistreatment brings out anger.

It is this emotion of anger that I want to address in a rational manner. It is the emotion with a bad reputation. Some believe that anger of any kind is reflective of a sinful attitude. Yet, this is a harmful oversimplification.

Anger is defined as "a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility." We have all felt anger. Living in a world of sin gives us the occasion to be angry about a host of things. There are many injustices which take place in the world, but these aren't the only things that anger us.  Indeed, we are capable of being as angry with our own neighbors or family members as we are with terrorists, and this should give us some pause to consider the range of things over which we rage.

If someone contradicts you, do you have the right to be angry? If kids track mud through your freshly mopped kitchen, do you have the right to be angry? If a person cuts you off in traffic, do you have the right to be angry?  If someone mocks your faith, do you have the right to be angry? If someone molests your child, do you have the right to be angry? If your spouse commits adultery, do you have the right to be angry? We have all had occasions to be angry, but what does a person mean when he says he has the right to be angry?

My computer dictionary defines a right as "a moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain something or to act in a certain way." Its first example was, "She had every right to be angry." From whence comes this right? The U.S. Declaration of Independence asserts that "all ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," along with, no doubt, the right to be angry at an oppressive government (as the signers and those they represented were). In other words, when someone is doing something we consider to be unfair, we believe we are entitled to be angry. Let's consider this in the light of Scripture.

God has anger. There is such a thing as righteous indignation. From the curses pronounced in the Garden of Eden to the judgment against the world of Noah's day to the consequences of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, God's anger is manifest in Scripture. Indeed, most of the Scriptures which speak about anger or wrath are in reference to God's anger toward men for their continual rebellion against Him. "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Ps. 7:11). Yet, we are also told that God is slow to anger and forgiving (cf. Ex. 34:6; Num. 14:18).

We also learn that men were rightly angry. Moses' anger was often just (e.g. Ex. 32:19-22; Deut. 9:17-20). David was righteously indignant when he heard about a rich man's killing of a poor man's pet lamb (2 Sam. 12:5). However, you surely recall the context of that story. David's anger was promptly replaced with conviction and repentance when Nathan said, "You are the man!" (vs. 7). The one who called for God's anger to rage against his enemies (Ps. 7:6) also found himself begging God not to act in anger toward him (Ps. 6:1). Our righteous indignation can be shown to be little more than self-righteous indignation with a slight shift of perspective.

Yes, anger is indeed a legitimate emotion which, like any other emotion, has its place and can be used properly. Indeed, we not only have the right but the obligation to be angry about the things which anger God. However, before we are too quick to let our rage and wrath roll, there are some things we need to keep in mind. If the omniscient and omnipotent God is slow to anger, then we who are finite must be all the more so. "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." Why? Because, generally speaking, "the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19,20).  While Paul's "be angry" attests to anger as a legitimate emotion, his "and sin not" (Eph. 4:26) attests to the difficulty we have in bringing our emotions under the control of the spirit rather than the flesh.

Therefore, we must be extremely careful in justifying our anger as a right. Too often the right to be angry is used to justify nearly any expression of that anger. We clearly see that as false when someone's "justifiable" anger at a careless driver turns into "road rage," resulting in an unjust punishment which doesn't fit the "crime." Yet rage is not limited to the road, and injustice is not only in the extreme of murder.  Christians need to be careful to express their anger in ways which honor God. Social media is a public forum often used unwisely in order to vent anger toward others in ways unbecoming to the Name we wear. From sports to political policies to social injustices to unfaithful spouses, beware the reactionary rants, the citing of dubious news stories, the posting of snarky memes, or the "sharing" of or even the "liking" of those posted by others whereby we fuel their rage.

For anger to be righteous, it must first be rooted in truth and spoken with care (Eph. 4:15). We have no right to return evil for evil (Rom. 12:21). We are explicitly told "do not avenge yourselves" (vs. 19). Vengeance is not inherently evil, but it belongs to God and to those to whom He has given it (13:1-4). We do not have the right to personal vengeance.

Finally, no imagined human right to be angry includes the right to withhold grace and reconciliation to those who repent. If we desire God's wrath to be tempered by grace toward us, then we must temper our anger toward others and extend grace. This is a dominant, practical message to any who claim the gospel of the grace of God (e.g. Matthew 6:12,14,15; 18:21-35). God would be just in condemning us in His righteous anger because He is perfect in all ways. The fact that He has chosen in love to extend grace to those who repent demands that we do likewise. Because we have all sinned and fall short of God's glory (Rom. 3:23), any right to be angry comes with the obligation to extend grace to the penitent as God has pictured for us in Christ. "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps ... who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pt. 2:21-24).

- Think On These Things, Vol. 48, No. 1