Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Spirit of Love the Opposite of An Angry or Wrathful Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:5) | Jonathan Edwards

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The Spirit of Love the Opposite of An Angry or Wrathful Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:5) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed thinking.
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  It is good to be back at the table.
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  It is always a pleasure to be here.
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  We have a very specific mission today.
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  We're looking at theology, but not the kind that just stays in
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  a book. We're looking at theology that
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  hits the pavement, the kind that shapes how we actually live and
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  breathe and and interact with people on a Tuesday afternoon.
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  Which is, in my view, the only kind of theology that really
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  counts. If it stops at the brain and
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  never reaches the hands or the heart, it's it's just an
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  intellectual game. Completely agree.
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  And to do that, we are going back to the well, We're pulling
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  down a text from one of the heavyweights of history.
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  We're looking at Jonathan Edwards.
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  The New England Puritan 17 O 3 to 1758 a A giant of the faith,
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  to put it mildly. Now, before we even crack this
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  text open, I feel like we have to perform a bit of an exorcism
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  because the moment I said the name Jonathan Edwards, I know it
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  popped into the heads of about 90% of our listeners.
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  Oh, I can guess a spider dangling over a flame.
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  A loathsome insect held over a fiery pit.
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  Sinners in the hands of an angry God.
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  That's the one. It's the sermon everyone reads
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  in high school American lit class, and you get this picture
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  of Edwards as this this sadistic, knuckles white
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  preacher who just delighted in dangling people over Hellfire
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  and watching them squirm. Yeah, a powerful image.
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  I get it, but it's a bit of a caricature, isn't it?
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  It's a massive caricature. It's like judging an entire
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  filmmaker by one scary scene in one movie.
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  If you actually look at the corpus of Edwards work, and we
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  are talking volumes upon volumes here, you don't find a man
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  obsessed with hate, right? You find a man who was
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  absolutely intoxicated by beauty.
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  He was obsessed with what he called Excellency, with harmony,
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  and specifically with love. Which is why I think today's
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  text is going to be so disorienting for some people.
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  We aren't looking at sinners in the hands of an angry God, we're
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  looking at what is essentially its polar opposite.
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  We're looking at a sermon titled The Spirit of Love, the opposite
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  of an angry or wrathful spirit. And honestly, if you want to
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  understand the Reformed view of the human heart, this sermon is
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  a massacre class. It's moral anatomy.
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  Moral anatomy. I like that it sounds surgical.
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  It is surgical. Edwards is going to take the
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  emotion of anger, put it on the table and just start dissecting
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  it. He wants to know what's the
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  tissue of righteous anger and where does it turn cancerous?
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  Because let's be honest, we all get angry.
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  But Edwards is going to ask, is your anger holy, or is it just
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  your ego on fire? And both of us, you know, coming
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  from a Reformed perspective, holding to the Westminster
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  Confession, we know that the heart is deceitful above all
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  things. We need this kind of surgery.
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  We do. We're experts at justifying our
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  own outbursts. Edwards comes in and just
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  removes all the excuses. So let's start where Edward
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  starts. He poses a very valid question
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  right out of the gate. Is all anger sin because the
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  text he's preaching on, his First Corinthians 13.5 charity
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  is not easily provoked? Well, flood isn't provoked.
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  Does that mean a Christian should just never get angry?
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  It's the obvious starting point, isn't it?
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  If you look at the landscape of modern psychology, or even just
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  casual conversation, anger is often treated in one of two
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  ways. Either it's just an emotion you
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  need to let out so it doesn't poison you, that whole catharsis
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  model, or in some Christian circles it's seen as a complete
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  failure of character. Right, the nice Christian
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  syndrome. Just smile, suppress everything,
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  and pretend it's all fine. Edwards rejects both of those.
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  He looks at Scripture and he sees attention.
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  On one hand you have verses that seem to condemn anger
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  completely. Ecclesiastes says Anger rests in
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  the bosom of fools. But then you have Ephesians 4.26
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  be angry and sin not. Which is a command.
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  It's an imperative. It's not a suggestion.
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  Precisely. It implies that there is a
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  species of anger that is actually compatible with
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  holiness. If God can be angry, and
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  Scripture says he's angry with the wicked every day, and if
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  Jesus can be angry, which he was, He was specifically at the
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  hardness of men's hearts in Mark chapter 3.
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  So if God and Jesus can be angry, then anger itself cannot
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  be intrinsically evil. OK, so there's a category for
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  it. So how does Edwards define it?
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  What's the baseline definition of anger before it goes wrong?
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  He defines it as an earnest, violent opposition of spirit
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  against a real or supposed evil. OK, stop there.
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  That word violent. Yeah, that carries a lot of
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  baggage. I mean, if I'm just sitting in
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  traffic and I'm frustrated, I don't feel violent.
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  Is he saying all anger has to be explosive?
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  No, not explosive in the sense of, you know, throwing a punch,
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  but violent in the older sense of the word, meaning forceful,
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  intense. OK, Think of it like a
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  physiological reaction. When you see something wrong,
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  your spirit doesn't just sit there passively, it rears up.
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  It pushes back. That internal push is what he
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  means by violence. So it's an active stance.
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  It's the soul bracing itself against something it perceives
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  as wrong. Correct.
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  But he makes some very important distinctions here to clear away
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  the first, he says it's not just a difference of opinion.
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  You can disagree with someone coolly.
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  That's just judgement. That's not anger, right?
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  I could disagree with your tax policy without my blood pressure
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  shooting up, ideally. Ideally.
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  Second, he distinguishes it from grief.
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  Grief is opposition to what he calls natural evil, suffering,
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  pain, loss. You hate the cancer that took
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  your friend, but you're not angry at the cancer in a moral
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  sense. Anger, for Edwards, is
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  specifically the spirit stirred against moral evil.
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  It's a reaction to a fault in a voluntary agent.
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  Someone who should know better. Someone who made a choice.
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  Yes, someone acting by their own will to do something wrong.
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  That is the specific trigger for this kind of anger.
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  He uses an illustration here that I found incredibly helpful
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  to distinguish this valid anger from the sinful kind.
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  It's the one about the father and the child.
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  It is the crucial illustration to understand his entire point.
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  Imagine a father watching his child behave badly.
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  Maybe the child is running toward a busy street.
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  Or maybe the child is being deliberately cruel to a sibling.
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  OK, the Father sees this and his spirit is stirred.
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  He opposes that behavior. He is, by definition, angry at
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  the conduct. But he loves the kid.
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  He doesn't hate the child. That is the key.
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  His anger is completely consistent with goodwill.
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  He doesn't want the child to be destroyed, he wants the child to
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  be corrected. He wants the child's ultimate
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  welfare. And Edwards uses this to prove
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  that the essence of anger is opposition to evil, not desire
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  for revenge. That is a massive distinction.
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  I think most of us, when we get angry, we instantly want the
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  other person to hurt a little bit.
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  You know, we want them to feel what we feel.
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  And that is the exact point where we cross the line.
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  That's where we leave the be angry and sin, not territory.
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  And we enter the territory of what he calls undo or unsuitable
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  anger. And this is where the sermon
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  gets really, really practical. Edwards breaks down 4 specific
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  defects four ways. Our anger goes completely off
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  the rails. Let's walk through these because
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  I think this serves as a checklist for our own
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  consciences. The first defect is a defect in
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  nature. This goes right back to what we
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  just touched on, the difference between justice and revenge.
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  Edwards argues that if your anger contains ill will or a
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  desire for the other person to suffer for the sake of your own
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  satisfaction, it is unchristian, full stop.
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  He quotes Romans 12.19 here. Vengeance is mine.
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  I will repay, save the Lord. That is the boundary line.
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  There is a critical distinction between public justice and
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  private revenge. A magistrated judge, a police
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  officer, acts as an agent of God's justice.
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  They punish evil not for their own personal satisfaction, but
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  for the safety of society and the glory of God.
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  So a judge sentencing a criminal isn't doing it because he
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  personally hates the guy? Hopefully not.
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  He's doing it because the law requires it for the good of the
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  whole. Right.
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  Ideally, the judge wishes the criminal could be rehabilitated
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  and saved even while passing the required sentence.
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  But private individuals, we're not judges.
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  We are commanded to wish to do all, even our enemies.
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  That is the hard part. Matthew 5.44.
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  Love your enemies. It's so easy to say, but so hard
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  to do when someone is actually hurt you.
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  And Edwards is rigorous here. He says.
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  If there is any malice, if you are secretly hoping they fail,
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  hoping they get sick, hoping they lose their job, that is a
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  defect in the very nature of your anger.
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  It has become poison. It really rules out the whole
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  concept of a grudge, doesn't it? It does, because a grudge is
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  basically just keeping a little pet monster of ill will in your
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  pocket waiting for the other person to trip up so you can
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  feel good about it. A grudge is a desire for revenge
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  on a layaway plan. You're just waiting for the
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  final payout, and Edwards says that is completely incompatible
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  with the spirit of charity. If you are angry, but you still
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  genuinely want the best for that person's soul in life, your
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  anger might be righteous, but the moment you start fantasizing
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  about their downfall, you have sinned.
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  OK, so that's the nature of the anger.
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  The second defect is a defect in occasion.
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  This is basically getting mad at the wrong things.
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  Or getting mad when there is no just cause at all.
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  And Edwards breaks this down into some fascinating scenarios.
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  The first is what he calls getting angry where there is no
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  fault. OK, what does that mean?
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  This is when we get angry at someone for things that are
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  completely beyond their control. Like ignorance or just not being
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  physically able to do something. Right.
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  You ask someone to do a task and they physically can't do it, or
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  they genuinely didn't know how, and you blow up at them, Edwards
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  says. That's totally irrational.
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  You're demanding omnipotence or omniscience from a fellow fallen
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  human being. That's a good point, but let's
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  look at the second scenario he outlines under occasion, because
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  this is the one that I think actually condemns most of us, if
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  we're honest. He talks about being angry at
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  the Providence of God. This is a heavy one.
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  Yeah, he talks about fretting when business goes wrong or when
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  our plans get disrupted. Basically getting mad at bad
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  luck. And he uses such strong language
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  there. He calls it horribly wicked.
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  Horribly wicked. I mean, that feels like an
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  overreaction, doesn't it? I'm just annoyed that it's
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  raining on my vacation. Yeah.
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  Or that the car broke down again.
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  Yeah. Not, you know, kicking puppies.
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  Why does he escalate it to wickedness?
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  This is where you have to follow the chain of command.
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  Edwards is a rigorous logician. He asks who ordered the rain.
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  Who decided that the flight would be delayed?
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  Who holds the mechanical workings of your car in his
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  hands? Theologically, we'd say God.
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  He ordains whatsoever comes to pass.
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  That's the Westminster Confession right there.
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  Exactly. So the rain isn't a sentient
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  being. The rain is a tool.
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  If you get angry at the hammer for hitting your thumb, you're
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  being irrational. But if you know the hammer is
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  being swung by a master Carpenter and you get angry at
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  the blow, who are you actually angry at?
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  You're angry at the Carpenter. Precisely, Edwards argues that
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  all fretfulness against our circumstances is, at its root, a
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  direct accusation against God's management of the universe.
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  It is US standing up and saying, God, you are doing a bad job.
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  If I were on the throne, I would have made it sunny today.
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  So my road rage is actually theological rebellion.
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  In Edwards view, yes, it's practical atheism.
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  It is acting as if God has left the building, or worse, that he
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  is incompetent and non caring, Edwards says.
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  If we truly loved God, if we had that spirit of charity, we would
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  be so content with his will that these crosses in our path
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  wouldn't provoke us to wrath. That really puts things in
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  perspective. It makes me want to be a lot
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  more careful about what I complain about, even in my own
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  head. It should make us all tremble a
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  bit. It's a high standard.
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  Then he mentions getting angry at people for doing well.
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  This seems completely counterintuitive, but it happens
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  all the time. This is getting angry at someone
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  for doing their duty. Like the Pharisees getting angry
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  at Christ for healing on the. Exactly.
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  He was healing. He was exposing their hypocrisy,
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  He was doing the will of the Father and they were absolutely
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  furious about it. OK.
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  But bring that closer to home. What about when a fellow church
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  member offers a valid, loving reproof?
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  Oh, nobody likes that she let the righteous smite me, the
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  psalmist says. But usually when the righteous
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  smite us, we bite back. We do.
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  We get angry at the person for pointing out a sin, even though
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  they are doing us a great kindness.
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  We are angry at them for well doing.
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  Or look at the prophet Jonah. Right.
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  He was angry at God. Why?
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  Because God showed mercy to the city of Nineveh.
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  Jonah was angry at God's goodness.
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  That is a terrifying thought, to be angry at goodness itself.
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  It's the ultimate inversion of values.
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  When your heart is so twisted that virtue looks like a vice to
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  you, you are in a very dangerous place.
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  Then there's the third scenario under occasion, which I think is
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  probably the most common one for the average listener.
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  The trivialities. The peevish disposition.
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  This is the person who is just constantly put out of humor by
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  small things. The toast is burnt.
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  The kids are being too loud. The Internet is slow.
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  We've all been there. We have, and Edwards gives a
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  reality check here that is so refreshing in its bluntness.
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  He basically says we live in a world where we will constantly
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  see faults in others because there are faults in ourselves.
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  In other words, get over it. Essentially, he says, if you are
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  going to be angry at every little defect you see in the
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  world or in other people, you will never have a moment's
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  peace. You will live in a constant
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  state of fretfulness. And that is not the spirit of
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  Christ, It's a spirit of entitlement.
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  You believe you are entitled to a frictionless existence.
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  And there's a litmus test he gives here that I found really,
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  really helpful for diagnosing this defective occasion.
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  It's the self versus God test. This is the core of the Reformed
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  diagnosis of the fallen human heart.
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  Edwards argues that we should only be angry at sin as sin.
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  What does that mean as sin? It means we should be angry
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  because God's honor is offended because his law is broken.
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  But the reality We are usually calm as a cucumber when God is
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  blasphemed or his commands are ignored in the public square.
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  But the moment our own reputation is touched, the
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  moment our own interest is threatened, we go nuclear.
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  So if someone breaks God's law across the world, I sleep just
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  fine. If someone cuts me off in
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  traffic, I'm ready to fight. That proves, according to
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  Edwards, that your anger is not Christian zeal, it is just
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  selfish passion. True zeal is moved by offenses
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  against God. Sinful anger is moved by
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  offenses against me. That's a hard mirror to look
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  into. It is.
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  It strips away that mask of righteous indignation we all
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  love to wear. OK.
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  Moving on to the third defect, defect and end.
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  This is about the why. Why are we getting angry?
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  What's the goal? And first, Edwards identifies
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  rashness here. This is anger without a goal.
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  It's just an explosion, a reaction.
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  Just venting. Exactly.
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  He compares it to the blind passion of beasts.
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  An animal gets hurt, it bites, it doesn't think, it doesn't
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  have a strategy, Edwards says. We are rational creatures.
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  Our faculty should be governed by reason.
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  If you just explode without thinking, what goodwill this do?
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  What am I trying to achieve here?
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  Then you are acting beneath your God-given nature.
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  And then there are the sinful ends, using anger as a tool.
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  This is manipulative anger, and we see this in toxic
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  relationships or even in leadership sometimes.
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  Using anger to gratify pride. Using anger to establish
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  dominance. I will raise my voice so you
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  know I am the boss. I will get angry so you back
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  down and give me what I want. That is using a passion to serve
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  the idol of self aggrandizement. It's bullying, essentially.
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  It is bullying, sanctified by the excuse of being emotional or
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  passionate. But Edwards calls it what it is,
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  a defect. In the end, the goal is wrong.
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  You aren't trying to correct a wrong, you are trying to win.
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  Finally, the 4th defect, defect and measure.
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  This is about the degree and the duration of the anger.
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  The degree part is so vivid he it talks about people getting
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  drunk with passion. Shrunk with it, yeah.
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  Losing control of their reason and their conduct.
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  You've seen people like this, where their red mist descends
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  and they say things they can't even remember an hour later,
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  Edwards says. When you lose command of
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  yourself, you have sinned, no matter how just the initial
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  cause might have been and. Then the continuance.
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  This is the famous sun going down on your wrath.
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  Ephesians 4.26 again, and Edwards offers a psychological
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  insight here that I think is just brilliant.
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  He says if anger continues, it changes, it morphs, it stops
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  being a flash of emotion which might be valid, and it curdles
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  into malice. It becomes a settled hatred.
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  It changes from I am opposed to this action you did to I am
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  opposed to you, and that is where it rests.
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  He quotes Ecclesiastes 7.9. Anger resteth in the bosom of
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  fools. It finds a home there.
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  It moves in. It moves in, unpacks its bags
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  and pays rent. And that, Edward says, is
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  foolishness, and it is sin. So we have these 4 defects,
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  nature, occasion and and measure.
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  It's a pretty comprehensive list of how we mess this all up.
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  But being a good theologian, Edwards doesn't just treat the
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  symptoms, he goes for the root. He asks why.
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  Why are we so prone to all of this?
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  And the diagnosis is classic Edwards.
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  The 2 great enemies of charity are pride and selfishness.
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  Let's break those down. How does pride fuel anger?
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  Because I think we often miss that connection.
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  We think of anger as just being mad, not necessarily proud.
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  Well, think of it this way. Pride increases the surface area
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  of your ego. I like that image, a bigger
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  target. A much bigger target.
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  If you were humble. You are small.
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  It's hard to hit a small target if someone insults you and you
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  already know in your heart of hearts that you are a Sinner
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  saved by grace. You think, well, they're not
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  entirely wrong. I am flawed.
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  The arrow passes right through you.
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  Because you aren't protecting some false image of perfection.
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  Correct. But pride.
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  Pride inflates you. It makes you vast.
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  You feel the entire room. And because you are so great in
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  your own eyes, any little slight, someone cutting you off
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  in traffic, someone looking at you the wrong way, it feels like
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  a massive blow. And because you think you are a
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  king, you interpret that slight as high treason.
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  So the prouder I am, the more sensitive I become to a fence.
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  Paradoxically, yes. We tend to think of sensitive
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  people as soft, but Edwards would say they're often just
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  immensely proud. They are so obsessed with their
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  own dignity that they can't handle a single scratch on the
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  paint. A humble man is hard to provoke
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  because he doesn't think he deserves better treatment than
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  Jesus got. And Jesus was spat upon.
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  That is a brutal truth. If I'm easily offended, it's
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  probably because I think I'm more important than I actually
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  AM. It is the math of the ego.
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  That's what it comes down to. And then selfishness, the second
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  route. This connects directly to the
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  Reformed view of the Fall, what Luther and Agustin called
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  Incurvatus in, say, humanity turned inward on itself.
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  Curved in on itself. We are malicious because we are
• 18:38
  seeking our own interests. If we truly sought the common
• 18:42
  good and God's glory, which is what love does, we would forget
• 18:46
  ourselves. We wouldn't take things so
• 18:48
  personally because we wouldn't be thinking about personally,
• 18:50
  we'd be thinking about the whole.
• 18:51
  We would be too busy looking at God's glory to even notice that
• 18:55
  someone stepped on our toe. But because we spend all day
• 18:59
  staring at our own toes, we scream when they get stepped on.
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  That is a very convicting image. It changes the entire
• 19:06
  conversation from, you know, anger management techniques to
• 19:09
  sanctification of the heart. You can count to 10 all you
• 19:12
  want, but if you are still proud and selfish on the inside, you
• 19:15
  are just delaying the explosion, you aren't curing it.
• 19:18
  So having laid out the anatomy and the root cause, Edwards
• 19:21
  holds up a mirror. He moves to application, and he
• 19:24
  calls the listener. He calls us to examine our
• 19:27
  consciences in three specific areas, and the first one is
• 19:30
  public and religious life. This is so relevant for our
• 19:33
  cultural moment, isn't it? We live in an age of constant
• 19:37
  outrage, and so often people cloak their anger in the
• 19:40
  language of virtue. They claim they are angry for
• 19:43
  the cause of religion, or for social justice or for truth.
• 19:47
  Zeal mask. I'm not being a jerk, I'm being
• 19:49
  zealous for the Lord. Right.
• 19:50
  And Edward says, OK, let's test that.
• 19:53
  Are you equally angry when God is dishonored in cases that
• 19:56
  don't affect your personal standing, your party, or your
• 19:59
  tribe? Or is your zeal actually just
• 20:02
  party spirit in disguise? That is a tough question if I'm
• 20:06
  furious when my political opponent lies, but I, you know,
• 20:10
  make excuses or look the other way when my guy lies.
• 20:13
  Then you are not angry at lying, you are angry at the opposition.
• 20:16
  That is selfishness, not zeal. Edwards warns that we often act
• 20:20
  like we are defending God when really we are just defending our
• 20:22
  team. Zeal is impartial.
• 20:24
  It burns against sin wherever it finds it, starting with one's
• 20:27
  own heart. The second area he points to is
• 20:29
  the hidden grudge. He uses some incredible imagery
• 20:32
  here. He talks about the old sore.
• 20:33
  He asks. Is your anger like an old sore
• 20:37
  that looks healed on the surface, but the slightest
• 20:39
  touch, the slightest reminder, brings back all the pain that
• 20:44
  implies it never really healed, it just scabbed over.
• 20:47
  The infection is still there. And then the image of the autumn
• 20:49
  leaves. That one is so poetic and so
• 20:51
  haunting. He talks about his smothered
• 20:53
  fire in a heap of autumn leaves. There is no flame visible.
• 20:57
  It looks calm. It looks dead, but the slightest
• 21:00
  breeze, a tiny provocation, a word, a look, and suddenly the
• 21:05
  whole thing bursts back into flame.
• 21:08
  Why? Because the heat was there the
• 21:09
  whole time, it was just smoldering underneath.
• 21:11
  He was smoldering and he asked the listener, has the sun gone
• 21:15
  down on your wrath? And he doesn't mean just
• 21:16
  overnight. He says winters cold have not
• 21:19
  chilled the heat, summer sun have not melted you.
• 21:22
  He's talking about grudges held for months or years or even
• 21:24
  decades. Yes, he says, there are people
• 21:27
  sitting in the congregation listening to him preach this
• 21:30
  very sermon who are carrying this burning coal of resentment
• 21:33
  in their chest, and they think they're fine because they aren't
• 21:36
  screaming about it. But God sees the heart.
• 21:40
  If time hasn't healed it, it means you have been secretly
• 21:43
  feeding it. Then he moves to the third area,
• 21:46
  and this is the one that I think probably hurts the most for many
• 21:48
  people, the family unit. Edwards identifies the family as
• 21:52
  the place of closest obligation. These are the people we are
• 21:55
  covenanted to love and cherish. But he notes the deep irony.
• 21:59
  It is often the place of our worst behavior.
• 22:02
  Why is that? Why are we so much nicer to the
• 22:04
  barista at the coffee shop than we are to our own spouse or our
• 22:07
  own children? Because we let our guard down,
• 22:10
  we feel we own our family in a certain way.
• 22:12
  We take them for granted. And Edwards asks directly.
• 22:15
  Are you peevish, Fretful. Impatient?
• 22:18
  He talks about being unkind to those who are dependent on you.
• 22:21
  That word peevish really sticks out.
• 22:23
  It's not a word we use much anymore, but it perfectly
• 22:25
  describes that low level constant irritability.
• 22:28
  It's the spirit of being easily annoyed, and Edwards points out
• 22:32
  that your moods affect the entire house.
• 22:34
  He says those dependent on you are easily made happy or unhappy
• 22:37
  by what you do or say. That is a heavyweight of
• 22:40
  responsibility. It is if you come home angry and
• 22:43
  irritable, you darken the whole house.
• 22:46
  You are stealing their peace to soothe your own agitation.
• 22:50
  We often treat those closest to us with the least amount of
• 22:52
  charity. We save all our patients for
• 22:54
  strangers and give the scraps to our family.
• 22:56
  Which is the exact opposite of First Corinthians 13.
• 22:59
  Love is supposed to begin at home.
• 23:01
  If it doesn't work there, it doesn't work anywhere.
• 23:03
  If you are a St. at church but a devil at the dinner table,
• 23:06
  Edwards would say your religion is vain.
• 23:09
  OK, so we are diagnosed. We see the defects, we see the
• 23:12
  root causes, we see the symptoms in our public life, our private
• 23:16
  wages, in our families. Now what is the cure?
• 23:19
  Edwards offers 4 arguments to dissuade us from this angry
• 23:22
  spirit. He's trying to reason us out of
• 23:24
  our passion. He wants to give us, as it were,
• 23:26
  cognitive roadblocks to stop the anger before it takes over our
• 23:29
  mind. The first argument is hypocrisy
• 23:32
  and Divine Mercy. This is the Moat and beam
• 23:35
  argument from the Sermon on the Mount put into Puritan language,
• 23:38
  Edwards says. Look at yourself, right?
• 23:40
  Consider your own failings toward God.
• 23:43
  You need His mercy every single day.
• 23:46
  You are a debtor to grace who can never repay the debt.
• 23:49
  How can you, who are standing under a waterfall of
• 23:52
  forgiveness, turn around and choke your neighbor for a few
• 23:55
  pennies? It's the parable of the
• 23:57
  Unmerciful servant played out in real life.
• 23:59
  Exactly, He also says. Consider your failings toward
• 24:02
  other people. We so often criticize others for
• 24:05
  the very things we do ourselves, he says.
• 24:07
  Self reflection is the quickest way to cool your anger.
• 24:10
  It's really hard to be furious at someone for being selfish
• 24:13
  when you just realize you were being selfish 5 minutes ago.
• 24:15
  Humility is the water that puts out the fire of anger.
• 24:18
  You have hit the nail on the head.
• 24:20
  You cannot be haughty and humble at the same time.
• 24:22
  They are mutually exclusive. The second argument is personal
• 24:25
  misery. This is a very pragmatic appeal.
• 24:28
  It is, Edwards says. Anger destroys the comfort of
• 24:31
  the one who feels it. It's like a storm in your own
• 24:33
  soul. An angry man is a miserable man.
• 24:35
  Think about the last time you were truly enraged.
• 24:38
  Did you feel good? Did you feel at peace?
• 24:40
  No. You felt tight, hot, agitated.
• 24:43
  You probably couldn't sleep. You couldn't focus.
• 24:46
  Edwards is just saying. Why are you doing this to
• 24:48
  yourself? You are drinking poison and
• 24:50
  hoping the other person dies. The third argument is spiritual
• 24:54
  hindrance. This appeals to the Christian's
• 24:57
  desire for communion with God. Edwards argues that anger unfits
• 25:01
  a person for religious duties. You cannot pray effectively when
• 25:04
  you are seething. You cannot read scripture with
• 25:06
  profit when your mind is just replaying an argument over and
• 25:09
  over. He references the command from
• 25:11
  Jesus. First be reconciled to your
• 25:13
  brother, then come and offer your gift at the altar.
• 25:15
  God is saying I don't want your worship if you are hating my
• 25:18
  child. The channel of grace is blocked
• 25:21
  by the debris of your anger. If you value your walk with God,
• 25:25
  you have to deal with your anger toward men.
• 25:26
  It's not optional. Finally, the 4th argument.
• 25:29
  Social consequences. This is almost funny in its
• 25:32
  bluntness. Edward says angry men are simply
• 25:34
  unfit for human society. He quotes Proverbs 22 Make no
• 25:39
  friendship with an angry man. He calls them a pest of society
• 25:43
  that's strong A. Pest.
• 25:45
  Someone who creates confusion and strife wherever they go.
• 25:48
  Nobody wants to be around the guy who might explode at any
• 25:50
  moment. Everyone has to walk on egg
• 25:52
  shells. You isolate yourself, you become
• 25:54
  a social pariah. And Edwards is basically asking,
• 25:58
  is your pride worth your loneliness?
• 26:01
  That is a powerful. Question.
• 26:02
  It brings it all back to a choice.
• 26:04
  You can have your anger or you can have community.
• 26:07
  You probably can't have both in any meaningful way.
• 26:09
  This has been a heavy lift. We have walked through the
• 26:12
  definition, the defects, the roots, the mirror, and the cure.
• 26:16
  As we wrap this up, how do we synthesize this?
• 26:19
  What is the big take away from Edwards anatomy of anger?
• 26:22
  I think the summary is that Christian love, charity, is a
• 26:24
  spirit of goodwill. It is a spirit that controls the
• 26:27
  passions, subjecting them to reason and ultimately to the
• 26:30
  glory of God. It's not that we never feel that
• 26:33
  initial flash of emotion, but that we do not let it rule us.
• 26:36
  We do not let it become undue or settle in our hearts.
• 26:39
  So we have to watch against the outbursts, but we also have to
• 26:42
  fight against the principle of anger in the heart, the pride
• 26:45
  and the selfishness. We have to kill the root, We
• 26:48
  have to mortify the pride and selfishness that fuel the fire.
• 26:51
  And we do that by looking at Christ.
• 26:53
  Edwards points us to the Lamb of God.
• 26:56
  Christ was silent under personal injury.
• 26:59
  He was mocked, beaten, spat upon, and he did not revile in
• 27:03
  return. But he was zealous for God's
• 27:05
  house. He overturned the tables in the
• 27:07
  temple when God's honor was at stake.
• 27:09
  That's the model. Silence for self?
• 27:11
  Yeah. Zeal for God.
• 27:13
  And we usually get it exactly backward.
• 27:15
  Don't. We loud for self?
• 27:16
  Yeah, silent for God. We need to flip the script
• 27:18
  entirely. I do.
• 27:20
  I want to leave the listener with a thought that came to me
• 27:22
  while reading this. It's a provocative thought, but
• 27:24
  I think it aligns perfectly with Edward's logic.
• 27:26
  OK, let's hear it. Edward suggests and scripture
• 27:29
  back this up, that if you hold a grudge, if you have that settled
• 27:33
  malice, you actually hate that person.
• 27:36
  You might not use the word I hate you, but your spirit is
• 27:39
  wishing them ill. And 1st John 3.15 says whosoever
• 27:43
  hated his brother is a murderer. A murderer.
• 27:46
  So here's the thought. If God defines murder as hatred
• 27:50
  in the heart, how many of us are walking around as serial
• 27:54
  killers? In the eyes of heaven?
• 27:56
  We think we are good citizens because we haven't physically
• 27:58
  broken any laws. But in the spiritual courtroom,
• 28:02
  are we standing over the bodies of our neighbors, our family
• 28:04
  members, our Co workers, completely justified by our own
• 28:07
  sense of rightness? That is a chilling thought, and
• 28:10
  it drives us back to the only place we can possibly go, the
• 28:13
  cross. We need forgiveness for our
• 28:16
  anger as much As for any other sin.
• 28:18
  Absolutely. We hope this deep dive has been
• 28:20
  helpful to you. This isn't just about being
• 28:21
  nicer, it is about having a heart that reflects the spirit
• 28:24
  of love. Indeed.
• 28:26
  Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 28:27
  We will see you next time.