Latest / Reformed Thinking / Love That Silences Anger | Jonathan Edwards

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Love That Silences Anger | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about a fire in a house, there
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is this sort of expectation of panic.
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Oh, sure, you smell smoke, you see flames.
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And the immediate visceral reaction is absolute rejection.
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You just think, put it out, get water.
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All fire inside a house is a threat to my life, right?
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It is a danger. I mean, it consumes oxygen, it
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destroys structures, and it is frankly terrifying.
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We want it extinguished immediately before it spreads
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out of control. But then, you know, you walk
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into the kitchen and there is a fire neatly contained under a
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plot of boiling water, cooking your dinner.
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Or you walk into the living room and there is a fire sitting
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perfectly inside the hearth, radiating heat and warming the
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whole house in the dead of winter.
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Suddenly the rule that all fire is bad gets completely
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shattered. That is a really great way to
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look at it. We are looking at a force that
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is highly dependent on its container, its boundary and its
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purpose. It is the absolute definition of
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a dangerous tool. A tool that requires perfect
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mastery and strict boundaries because if it stays in the
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hearth it is life sustaining. The second it jumps the grate
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and catches the rug it is life destroying.
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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I am thrilled you could join us
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today. And when I say you, I'm talking
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directly to you, listening right now.
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We consider you the third person in this room, sitting right here
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at the table with us, ready to learn.
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Absolutely pull up a chair. So what we are doing today is a
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comprehensive deep dive into the source material.
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We have a fascinating text in front of us.
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We are looking at Jonathan Edwards essay from his work
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Charity and Its Fruits, specifically his section
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detailing how the spirit of charity opposes an angry or
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wrathful disposition. It is quite the read.
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It really is our mission for this deep dive into the source
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material is to breakdown the mechanics of human anger, draw
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the line between lawful and sinful anger, and examine how
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Christian love acts as the absolute antidote to malice.
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I have my Co host here with me ready to dissect every piece of
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this puzzle. Hello.
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I'm very glad to be here. And what stands out immediately
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about this text, written hundreds of years ago, is how
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strikingly relevant it remains for your daily life.
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Oh yeah, completely. We're talking about human
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emotions that have not changed a single fraction since the day
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this was pinned. The things that frustrate us,
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the way our tempers flare, the excuses we make for our
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outbursts. Edwards diagnosed all of this
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with surgical precision. OK, let's unpack this, because
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the first thing Edwards does in the text is actually quite
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surprising. It catches a lot of people off
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guard. It really does.
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He does not condemn all anger. He kicks off with a scriptural
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caveat, quoting Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26, Be ye angry
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and sin not that completely shatters the stereotype that a
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Christian must be some emotionless robot who never gets
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upset. Yes, that verse operates as the
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premise for the entire discussion.
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If the instruction is to be angry but avoid sinning, then
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there must be a category of anger that is completely devoid
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of sin. Makes sense?
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It is possible to be angry in certain cases and yet not offend
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God. The spirit of charity is only
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opposite to undo and unsuitable anger.
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So there is a suitable anger. Yes, God gave humans the
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capacity for anger, which means that capacity has a righteous
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function when it operates within the bounds He designed.
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Wait, hold on, I need to push back on this little bit or at
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least get some clarification. Sure, go ahead.
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If I am walking through the house in the dark and I brutally
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stubbed my toe on the coffee table and I cry out, my face
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gets red, my heart rate spikes, is that anger?
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Or if someone breaks their arm and they are screaming in pain,
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is that anger? Because it feels like anger in
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the moment? I have definitely yelled at
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inanimate objects. I think we all have, but Edwards
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draws a very helpful distinction here to answer that he separates
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natural evil from moral evil. OK, Natural versus moral, yes.
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When you stub your toe or break an arm, you are suffering a
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natural evil. The opposition your spirit feels
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toward that physical pain manifests as grief or sorrow.
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Oh, I see. But anger is different.
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Anger is an opposition to moral evil.
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It requires A voluntary agent, someone acting by their own
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will, or at least someone you perceive to be acting by their
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own will. So I am not angry at the coffee
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table even if I yell at it. I am just in pain.
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Precisely. But wait, what if my printer
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jams when I am trying to print a critical document and I actually
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feel furious at the machine? Am I just crazy, or is Edwards
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missing a category of psychological frustration here?
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You are not crazy, but Edwards is not missing a category
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either. Think about what your brain does
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in that split second when the printer jams.
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It explodes. Right, but you anthropomorphize
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the machine. You assign a malicious intent
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because your ego cannot handle the frustration of a mechanical
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failure without blaming a who. You treat the printer as a
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voluntary agent that is deliberately working against
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you. The moment reason catches up and
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you realize that it's just a piece of plastic and metal, the
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anger morphs into mere frustration or sorrow over the
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situation. That is embarrassing but so
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true. Genuine anger requires a fault
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committed by a moral agent. That makes total sense.
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We project agency onto things because we want someone to
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blame. But Edwards goes even further
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into the psychological framework here.
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He does. He notes that anger is not
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simply a cool, detached opposition of the judgment.
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You can dislike something or judge something to be wrong
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without your spirit being excited.
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That is correct. For it to be anger, there must
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be an earnestness. The spirit must be stirred and
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moved within us. It is a passion of the soul.
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A passion of the soul. Yeah, you can look at a math
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problem and judge that 2 + 2 does not equal 5.
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Your judgement opposes the error, but your spirit is not
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agitated. Right, I am not offended by the
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math. You do not feel your blood
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pressure rise over a math error, but anger involves the
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affections. Think about your own reactions
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for a second. When you see something wrong,
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say someone cuts in line at the grocery store.
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Is your mind just logically disagreeing with their choice of
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action, or does your spirit actually agitated?
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Usually it is agitated, right? Do you feel that Sutter flush in
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your chest? Does your jaw clench?
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Edwards is saying that anger requires that internal stirring.
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It is not just a calculation that an error occurred.
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God gave us the capacity for our spirits to be stirred against
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moral evil. The problem arises when that
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capacity is corrupted by our own fallen nature.
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That is the tricky part. Since some anger is lawful, we
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have to figure out where the boundary is.
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We have to know when the fire is in the hearth and when it is
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burning down the house. Right.
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Since some anger is lawful, our discussion logically shifts to
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defining when anger becomes undue or sinful.
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Edwards breaks this down into four categories, nature,
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occasion and and measure. We'll start with the first one.
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Yes, let's start with the very core of our intentions.
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The first major boundary that sinful anger crosses is in its
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nature. Anger becomes undue when it
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contains ill will or a desire for revenge.
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Ill will. Yes, many people assume that
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anger and revenge of the same thing.
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They think that if you are mad at someone, you naturally want
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them to suffer. Because that is how it usually
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feels, right? Well, that is how it feels, but
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Edwards proves they are distinct and that wishing harm on someone
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is where anger crosses into sin. He uses a fantastic real world
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analogy in the source material. He talks about a father
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disciplining a child. I love this example.
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Let's modernize this a bit. Imagine a father sees his
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toddler running toward a busy St.
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The Father sprints, grabs the child by the arm and pulls them
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back. The Father's spirit is
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absolutely stirred. Oh, completely.
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He might raise his voice, he is genuinely angry at the child's
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reckless action, but he has absolute goodwill toward that
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child. What's fascinating here is that
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this is the perfect illustration of lawful anger.
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The father wants the child's highest welfare, not their
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destruction, right? His anger is an opposition to
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the thing that will harm the child.
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It does not contain a single shred of ill will.
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The father does not secretly hope the child gets hit by a car
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to learn a lesson. Of course not.
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He is stepping in with intense passion to prevent the hurt.
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But let me play devil's advocate here.
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Isn't some level of spite a natural survival mechanism?
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Who do you mean? Well if a Co worker constantly
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steals credit for my projects, my instinct is to want them to
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get fired. I want them to face room so they
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cannot hurt me anymore. Is it really possible to never
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have ill will towards someone who is actively harming you?
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It is difficult, but it is the standard set for the Christian.
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Edwards offers a logical proof here.
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If anger inherently required ill will, then no anger would ever
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be lawful under any circumstance.
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Oh wow. OK.
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Why? Because Christ requires us to
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love and pray for our enemies. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 44,
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the command is to wish well and pray for the prosperity of all,
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even those who persecute us. You can never wish evil upon
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someone. That is a staggering thought.
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You can oppose their actions, you can seek to stop them, but
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you cannot desire their personal ruin.
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The source quotes Romans chapter 12, verse 19.
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Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
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God holds the absolute monopoly on vengeance.
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Yes, and the text makes one specific caveat about public
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justice. When a judge sentences a
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criminal or a government acts to punish evil, that public justice
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acts as an agent for God's order, not for personal revenge.
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So it is institutional. Yes, it is an institutional
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function designed to maintain society, but for you as an
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individual dealing with personal grievances, all revenge is
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forbidden. Any anger that secretly hopes
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the other person suffers simply for the sake of your own
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satisfaction is sinful. It's a terrifying mirror Edwards
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holds up here. If we look at our own lives, say
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when that Co worker takes credit for a project or a friend
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cancels plans at the last minute and leaves us stranded, our
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default human instinct isn't to hope they improve.
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No, it is not. Our instinct is to hope they
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trip in the parking lot. We want them to feel
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embarrassed. We want payback.
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If there is ill will in your anger, it has crossed the line.
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The fire has left the hearth. It is a high bar.
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We naturally want to see our offenders diminished, but
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identifying the presence of ill will is only the first Test.
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Only the first, yeah. Even if we somehow managed to
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avoid wanting revenge, our anger is very often sparked by the
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completely wrong things. Edwards moves on to the second
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Anger becomes sinful, which is in its occasion.
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The source material breaks this into 3 distinct errors of
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occasion. The first error is getting angry
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without any fault on the other person's part.
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We get mad at people who literally did nothing wrong.
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This happens far more often than we would like to admit.
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We get angry at people for circumstances they could not
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control. Like what?
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Well, we get mad at someone's involuntary ignorance or their
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inability to change a situation. Imagine someone is late to a
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critical meeting because there was a massive, unpredictable
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accident on the highway. Oh man, I have been on both
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sides of that. Right.
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And we sit in the conference room, boiling over with rage at
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them. They committed no moral fault,
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yet our spirit is stirred against them as if they planned
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the traffic jam just to insult us.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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Edwards points out the most severe version of this error.
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He says that we often fret at God's Providence.
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That is a heavy one. We experienced crosses,
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disappointments, financial loss or sickness, and we keep our
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spirits in a constant state of fretfulness.
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We might not say out loud that we are mad at God, but secretly
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we are murmuring against the Author of Providence.
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The source brings up the biblical example of Jonah.
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Jonah is a fascinating case study in misplaced anger.
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He was a prophet, a man who knew God, but he sins severely by
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getting angry at God without a cause.
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Hey. Didn't he get mad because God
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saved a city? Yes, in fact, he got angry at
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God for something. He should have praised him for
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God's great mercy in sparing the city of Nineveh.
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Let's expand on Jonah for a second because it perfectly
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illustrates this point. Jonah sits under a plant waiting
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for a whole city to be destroyed.
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God spares the city because they repented.
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Jonah gets furious. He loses his mind over.
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It then God sends a worm to eat the plant that was giving Jonah
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shade. Jonah gets furious again, saying
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he has a right to be angry, even to the point of death.
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He's throwing a massive Kitty party because the universe is
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not conforming to his personal preferences.
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Jonah's occasion for anger was completely sinful.
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He was angry at God's mercy, and he was angry at God's sovereign
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control over a plant. When we get furious about the
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weather ruining our outdoor plans or a sudden illness
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preventing us from taking a vacation, we're essentially
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acting like Jonah. We are opposing the reality God
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has ordained. There's another part to this
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first era of occasion that we need to touch on.
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Edwards notes that people frequently get angry at others
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for actually doing well. This is a very insightful part
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of his work. He observes that historically
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people react with intense hostility toward well doing and
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righteous reproof. Now, applying our strict
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impartiality rule here regarding the sources, Edwards states that
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people often get angry at civil or ecclesiastical authorities
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for proceeding regularly against them.
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They also get mad at neighbors or church members for bearing
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due testimony against them. We are simply reporting Edwards
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historical observation here. People utterly despise being
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corrected, even when the correction is completely just.
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Why do we hate being corrected? Because it shatters our curated
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self-image. It hurts the ego.
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When someone administers A reproof for something we did
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wrong, maybe a boss pointing out a flaw in our work, or a friend
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pointing out a harsh word we used, the righteous response is
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to accept it. But instead, our ego flares up.
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We get defensive. We react with anger to re
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establish dominance over the person who pointed out our flaw.
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We get angry at the person who is trying to help us.
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His classic defensive behavior. We shoot the messenger because
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we do not like the message, and that leads directly into the
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second error of occasion, getting angry on trivial
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occasions. The text quotes the proverb, He
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that is soon angry Dealeth foolishly.
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God does not call us to have our spirits ceaselessly engaged in
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opposition over every little inconvenience.
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I love how Edwards highlights the hypocrisy here.
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We get put out of humor by tiny faults in our family or in
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society or in business. Like what kind of faults?
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You know, someone drops a spoon, someone forgets to reply to an
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e-mail. Someone chews their food too
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loudly. Oh, the loud chewing that gets
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people. But the kicker is, these are
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faults that we ourselves are guilty of.
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Every single day. We drop things and expect grace.
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We forget emails and excuse ourselves because we are busy.
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Of course, we always have an excuse for ourselves.
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But if our spouse drops a spoon, we sigh, roll our eyes, and feel
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our blood boil. He says that a person who
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diligently guards their own spirit keeps their mind in a
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calm, clear frame. They do not suffer their mind to
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be stirred except on extraordinary occasions that
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truly call for it. Which makes total sense.
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If you were provoked at every trifling thing, you are failing
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the test of charity, which is not easily provoked.
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A soul that is constantly agitated by trivialities is a
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soul that lacks basic self governance.
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OK, so we have established that getting mad at uncontrollable
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events is a waste and blowing up over trivial things is
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supercritical. But what about when someone
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actually does sin? Does that give us a blank check
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to get furious? Edwards says no.
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And that brings us to the third era of occasion, selfish anger
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versus righteous anger. This is where we distinguish
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between vice and true zeal. Virtuous anger is called zeal,
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but true zeal is opposing sin specifically as sin against God.
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Not just because it annoys us. Right.
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It is not opposing something just because it is an
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inconvenience to us. Let's frame this with a shared
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human experience. Are you more upset when God's
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honor is offended, or when your own personal interests are
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crossed? That is the ultimate test.
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If someone scratches your car in a parking lot and drives away,
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your blood boils. You want justice, You want
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cameras checked. But if you see blatant injustice
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happening to someone else, or someone openly mocking the
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Christian faith, do you feel that same level of agitation?
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Usually we just shrug it off. Edwards points out the perfect
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model here. He looks at Christ.
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Christ was like a lamb under personal injury.
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Beautiful analogy. When he was personally attacked,
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mocked and beaten before Pilate, he was silent.
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But when he saw the temple being turned into a corrupt
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marketplace, when the cause of God and the purity of worship
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was at stake, he was angry. He made a whip of cords and
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drove them out. Most of our anger is entirely
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selfish. We act as if we belong to
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ourselves. When a fault occurs, even if it
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is a genuine sin, we get mad because it hurt us, not because
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it offended God. We are far more concerned for
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our own temporal comfort than for anything else.
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Identifying the wrong triggers is really only half the battle.
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We also have to look at what happens when anger takes over
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our reasoning and distorts our sense of time.
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OK, where are we going next? That brings us to the next major
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section of the source material, anger being undue, and its end
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and its measure. When we talk about the end of
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anger, we are talking about the goal or the outcome we are
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aiming for. Anger becomes sinful when we act
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without considerately proposing any good end to be gained by it.
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Yes, the phrase Edwards uses here is incredibly striking.
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He calls this kind of rash, unthinking anger the blind
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passion of beasts. It is a beastly fury because it
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completely bypasses reason. Let's think about this in modern
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neurobiological terms. I'm intrigued.
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In a human being, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain
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responsible for logic, planning and regulating behavior, is
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supposed to govern our actions. Every other principle in the
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soul should be governed by reason to achieve a proper end.
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OK, so reason is the captain of the ship.
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Exactly. But when passions go before
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reason, it is what modern psychologists call an amygdala
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hijack. The primitive part of the brain
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takes over. Anger rises before you have even
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formed a single thought about what benefit the outburst will
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bring. We have all been there.
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You yell something hurtful and a second later you think, why did
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I just say that? What was I trying to accomplish?
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You were trying to accomplish anything.
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Right. You were just reacting like a
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startled animal. But Edwards says that even when
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reason is involved, the end can still be sinful.
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Yes. What if you do have a goal for
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your anger, but the goal itself is corrupt?
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Even if reason tells us that an outburst will not glorify God or
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benefit anyone, we sometimes deliberately allow ourselves to
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be angry because it gratifies our pride.
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Gratifies our pride. Wow.
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We use anger to extend our influence, to intimidate people
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or to gain superiority over others.
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I will yell outer so I win this argument.
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The motive is pure pride. You see this in corporate
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meetings or even in theological debates online.
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Go all the time. People use intellectual
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aggression as a tool for dominance.
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The end is not to find truth. The end is to look superior.
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So that covers the end. But what about the measure?
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The source says anger can be immoderate in two ways, in
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degree and in continuance. Let's talk about degree first.
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When it comes to the degree anger can escalate far beyond
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what the situation requires, Edwards paints A vivid picture
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of this. He says men's passions rise so
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high that they are, as it were, drunk with anger.
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Being drunk with anger, that is a terrifying reality.
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It's the intoxicating rush of adrenaline.
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You lose motor control, you lose your filter, you say things you
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can never take back. You become a different person.
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You are completely disconnected from whatever good and your
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reason originally proposed. You're just riding the wave of
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the passion. The degree of anger should
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always be strictly regulated by the end.
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It should never rise higher than what is necessary to obtain the
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good, good and reason proposed. Give us an example of that.
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Going back to the father disciplining the child, he only
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needs enough intensity to stop the child from running into the
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street. If he continues to scream at the
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child for an hour after the danger has passed, the degree
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has become immoderate and sinful.
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But the second part of this, being in moderate incontinuance,
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is equally dangerous, if not more so.
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We are talking about the grudge. This raises an important
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question. How long do we let anger sit?
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The text references Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26.
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Again. Let not the sun go down upon
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your wrath. Edwards outlines a chilling
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progression here. Anger that has long continued
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degenerates into malice. It is like leaven and bread.
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I think the sourdough analogy works perfectly here.
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Think about how a sourdough starter works.
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You introduce the yeast and it slowly ferments and changes the
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chemical structure of the entire batch of dough until the whole
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thing is altered. The leaven of evil works the
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same way in the soul. If you allow yourself to hold
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anger toward another person, week after week, month after
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month, year after year, it changes your neural pathways.
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It ferments. You will quickly come to
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genuinely hate them. You might not admit it out loud.
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You might smile at them at the family reunion or wave across
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the fence, but the grudge has morphed into genuine malice.
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It rots you from the inside out. It taints everything.
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You interpret their neutral actions as hostile.
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You view their successes as personal insults.
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And Edwards calls this almost dreadful sin in the sight of
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God. We must be exceedingly careful
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not to suffer anger to continue in our hearts.
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It is poison so. What does this all mean?
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We have diagnosed the disease. We have seen how anger gets
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corrupted in its nature, its occasion, its end, and its
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measure. What is the cure?
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The source material pivots here to the antidote.
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It tells us how the spirit of charity or Christian love
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directly opposes this wrathful spirit.
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The very nature of Christian love is goodwill, because love
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is goodwill. It is the direct opposite of the
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undue anger that tends toward revenge.
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Love acts as a psychological and spiritual buffer.
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Yes, it tends to prevent persons from being angry without just
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'cause it makes us backward to anger.
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I really like that phrasing backward to anger.
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It means you are dragging your feet.
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You do not want to get mad. You have to be forced into it.
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You have to be dragged into it by a genuinely severe offense
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against God. You are not yielding to it on
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trivial occasions. Edwards breaks down how the
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fruits of charity attack the two main roots of sinful anger,
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pride and selfishness. Let's look at pride first.
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OK, let's look at pride. Pride makes men touchy.
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It makes them revengeful. A proud man exalts himself in
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his own heart, so he interprets every slight as a mortal threat
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to his status. If his will is crossed or his
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honor is touched, he treats it as a massive crime.
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If you view yourself as the center of the universe, your
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brain will constantly misfire when you are inconvenienced.
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But love destroys pride. The humility that comes with
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Christian charity removes the fuel for rash anger.
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How so? If you do not think of yourself
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as the most important person in the room, you are not going to
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fly off the handle when someone forgets to hold the door for you
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or when a Co worker sends a slightly terse e-mail.
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Humility softens the blow of perceived insults.
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That is absolutely right. That is the mechanism.
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The second route is selfishness. Men are malicious because they
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are intensely focused on their own private interests.
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Anyone who interferes with those interests is viewed as an enemy
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obstacle that must be destroyed. But love destroys selfishness.
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If you seek the glory of God and the common good of your fellow
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human beings, you will forget yourself.
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You won't harbor long continued wrath when you are personally
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provoked because your ego is not the driving force of your life.
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You will have a zeal for the honor of Christ.
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The goal is not making yourself great or getting your own way.
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The goal is God's glory. It changes everything.
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Love completely rewrites the motivation of the heart.
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It changes the interpretive lens through which you view other
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people's actions. This brings us to a really
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intense part of the deep dive. The source material shifts its
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tone drastically. Here Edwards turns the mirror
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inward and calls for severe self examination.
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He asks the reader. And we are asking you, the
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listener, to do this with us, to faithfully search your own
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conscience. It is very easy to listen to an
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analysis of anger and think about all the other people in
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your life who have bad temper. Right, we all do that.
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We picture a grumpy neighbors or our difficult boss, but Edwards
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forces us to look at ourselves. He asks, Have you not often been
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angry, and if so, is there not reason to think that anger has
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been undue and without just cause, and thus sinful?
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One of the most piercing observations he makes is about
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the excuse of religion. We love to put a holy mask on
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our bad temper. Men often plead zeal for
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religion or duty or the honor of God as the cause of their
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indignation, but in reality their own private interest or
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their own faction was touched. It is a brilliant diagnostic
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test, he offers, he says. Look at how you react when God's
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honor is hurt, but your own interests are not affected at
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all. In those cases, are you still
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full of zeal, or are you cold, backward and ready to make
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excuses? Let's make this concrete.
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If someone insults my specific church denomination or my
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personal theological camp online, I might get furious.
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I will type out a massive aggressive response and claim
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I'm contending for the faith and defending God's truth.
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Well, don't you really? Exactly.
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Well, no. If I see blatant sin occurring
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in society that does not affect my personal group at all, I just
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scroll past and shrug my shoulders.
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If so, my previous anger was not zeal for God, it was just a
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defense of my own ego masquerading as piety.
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Edwards uses 2 vivid analogies to describe how we hide this
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anger. He compares concealed anger to
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an old sore that is not thoroughly healed.
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Yeah, the Leaf Touch renews the smart.
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You know those situations, or maybe you recognize this in
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yourself, where someone brings up a topic from five years ago
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and instantly you snap. It's like phantom limb pain or
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an unresolved trauma response. The sore was never healed.
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The anger was just covered up with a bandage of polite
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distance. The other analogy is a smothered
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fire in a heap of autumn leaves. Think about a Keat fire that
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burns underground. It looks like it is out on the
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surface. There are no visible flames.
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But the heat is there. But the immense heat is still in
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there, waiting for the least breeze to kindle it back into a
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blazing inferno. And where does that breeze
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usually blow the hardest in the family?
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Edwards focuses intensely on the application of this to the
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family dynamic. Families are the most closely
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united societies. We are under the greatest
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obligations to maintain peace, harmony and love with our
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relatives. Yet tragically, the family is
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where we often show our worst behavior.
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Edwards points out how often we are fretful, peevish and severe
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to our dependence. Think about the people whose
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happiness relies almost entirely on your kindness.
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Your spouse, your children, your aging parents.
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We hold their emotional well-being in our hands.
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It is a heavy responsibility. And yet, why do we snap them
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over a misplaced pair of shoes? But we politely smile at the
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barista who completely ruins our coffee order.
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Because the barista is a stranger and there are social
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consequences for yelling at a stranger.
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With our dependence, the social consequences are removed.
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Our true, unfiltered lack of charity is exposed.
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That stinks. We give our best, most polite
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behavior to strangers, but we unleash our unrighteous anger on
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the people God has placed closest to us.
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Edwards asks us to review our conduct.
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Have we been sullen? Have we been severe to an extent
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that our own conscience disapproves of?
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Think about the interactions you have had with the people in your
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home this past week. Have you allowed yourself to be
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angry over little things? Have you let the sun go down on
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your wrath? We have to see where we come
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short of the Spirit of Christ. Because the consequences of
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ignoring this are devastating, Edwards outlines why sinful
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anger ruins absolutely everything, and he provides 4
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key considerations to help us fight against it.
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The baseline requirement here is constant watchfulness.
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Because human hearts are naturally full of pride, we
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cannot expect to just coast through life and avoid sinful
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anger. We have to actively fight it and
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mortify it through prayer. The first consideration he
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offers to help us do this is to think frequently about our own
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failings. This is the classic concept of
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the hypocrite judging a splinter in someone else's eye while
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ignoring the log in their own. We constantly fall short of
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God's requirements. Every day we incur a debt we
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cannot pay, and we rely entirely on God's mercy not to be angry
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with us. Furthermore, we constantly
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offend our fellow human beings. If you are always ready to carry
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resentments highest against other people's faults, consider
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that you were likely guilty of the same faults or worse if
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someone provokes you. Instead of getting mad, let your
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first thought turn inward. Ask yourself, have I done the
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same thing? That is humbling.
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Thinking of our own errors drains the fuel from our
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self-righteous anger. The second consideration is that
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undue anger destroys our own self comfort.
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An angry man is a miserable man. Edwards compares the angry soul
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to a storm on the ocean. There is no peace.
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There is no rest. A person whose mind is always in
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a fret lives a terrible life. They are flooded with stress
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hormones. Simply out of regard for your
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own physical and mental well-being, you should shun
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sinful anger. The third consideration is that
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anger unfits us for religion. You cannot truly engage in pious
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exercises when your heart is full of wrath.
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It puts your soul far away from that sweet frame of spirit where
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you enjoy communion with God. The Text.
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Cites First Timothy chapter 2 verse 8 where we are commanded
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to lift up holy hands without wrath.
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It also points back to Christ's command in Matthew chapter 5.
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You cannot approach the altar to offer a gift if you were at
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enmity with your brother. You must be reconciled first.
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Because it breaks the connection.
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Anger breaks your communion with God.
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You cannot harbor malice toward an image bearer of God and
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expect to have a clear line of communication with God Himself.
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And finally, the 4th consideration, anger makes a
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person unfit for human society. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture of human relationships, the Bible is incredibly clear.
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Proverbs chapter 22 warns us, Make no friendship with an angry
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man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest they learn
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his ways and get a snare to your soul.
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An angry man is called a pest to society.
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He puts everything into confusion.
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Everyone around him feels uncomfortable.
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He is walking on egg shells all the time.
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Anger is a contagion. It really is contagious.
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If you spend enough time around a furious person, their
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hostility will infect your own reactions.
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His example is evil and his conduct is disapproved by God
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and men. The call here is to cultivate
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the spirit of gentleness, kindness, and love.
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That is the spirit of. Heaven He requires A fundamental
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shift in how we view ourselves and how we view others.
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It is not an easy process, but it is necessary for anyone
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seeking to align their life with these biblical principles.
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We have covered a massive amount of ground today.
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We've looked at the mechanics of human emotion, the dangers of
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pride, and the healing effect of charity.
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Thank you so much for sitting at the table with us and joining
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this deep dive into the source material.
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It has been a pleasure walking through this text.
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The analysis required to truly understand our own motives is
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challenging but highly rewarding.
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Before we sign off, I want to leave you with a final thought
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to Mull over. Something to process on your own
31:09
that builds on what Edwards observed about our hidden
31:11
motives. Imagine if an impartial
31:13
observer, someone who could see right into your soul, could
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instantly categorize every single flash of anger you felt
31:19
this past year. OK, I am listening.
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Imagine they sorted all that anger into two columns.
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Column A is labeled Zeal for God's honor.
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Column B is labeled defense of my own ego.
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If you had a look at that Ledger today, which column would be
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longer? And knowing what you know now
31:35
about the fire of anger, how it can either warm the house or
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burn it to the ground, What steps where you take tomorrow to
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start tipping the scales toward charity?
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Keep thinking, keep analyzing, and we will see you next time.