The Age of Rage

This post was originally published for Julia Bettencourt’s 2020 Bible Memory Challenge on Proverbs 18:15. Check out her website in the link provided. You can also find her on Facebook at Creative Ladies Ministry!

I don’t know if you have noticed, but we live in a day where it seems it is acceptable to be angry. Whether it is angry at parents, mad at kids, outraged at politicians, annoyed at spouses, indignant at teachers…The list can go on.

Anger is the emotion felt when we think something or someone has wronged us. Basically, we do not like the way we were treated. Our pride was hurt.

Someone may point out, “But in the Bible even Jesus got angry!” And He did. However, there was more to it.

There is a time when being angry is NOT sin. Jesus demonstrated righteous anger when He overthrew the tables in the temple because the people had made the house of God a marketplace (John 2:13-17). His anger was at their sins. Romans 1:18 also says God has wrath when it comes to sin.

We can be angry for the right reasons, but respond wrongly. Ephesians 4:26a says, “Be ye angry, and sin not.” Righteous anger will react without sin.

Looking at today’s verse, the all-wise Solomon says a wrathful man (or woman) stirs up strife. Strife can include arguing, bitterness, division, and even violence. God says a lot about strife in His Word (It would be a great word study!), but all those verses boil down to He tells us to avoid it.

The second half of Proverbs 15:18 advises us that if we are slow to anger then we can bring peace, and can calm and pacify the situation. Anger is a choice. We can decide whether we will have self-control and not be enraged (or irritated, annoyed, irate, resentful…whatever word you want to use). Adopt the choice of peace.

Final Thoughts

The only thing we should be angry at is sin. How do we develop a spirit that is “slow to anger”? We draw close to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to grow His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) so that we exhibit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. (Check out my Fruit of the Spirit series.) Other verses in Proverbs state if we are “slow to wrath” then we are of “great understanding” (Proverbs 14:29) and “better than the mighty” (Proverbs 16:32). Ultimately, we know by being “slow to wrath,” we are obeying the Lord. In this “age of rage,” show others that as a follower of Christ YOU ARE DIFFERENT. 💕