5 Hidden Dangers of “Righteous” Anger
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As I look around at the state of the American church, there is something that seems to be more apparent to me than ever before. There are a lot of angry Christians out there. Many are angry over the direction of our country, political issues, social issues, even the economy. As these issues continue to exist, many people like to frame their anger and say it is righteous anger or righteous indignation.
If anger is your calling card, then there is a problem. I am not saying you won’t have moments where you will experience genuine righteous anger, but these moments should not happen all the time. Jesus was not an angry person, and if you find yourself angry all the time or very easily angered, there is something wrong.
Another thing to be mindful of is that anger does not produce righteousness. While your righteousness may produce a righteous anger, that should only be short lived. As I said earlier, if you live in a perpetual state of anger, there is a problem. That anger will not produce righteousness in you.
These are not my words but God’s words. Let me revisit the verse in James for a moment and look at the next verse along with it:
Again, I want to highlight that James is not saying don’t get angry, but don’t be quick to get angry. When you live in anger, whether you think it is righteous or not, it will not produce good long-term results.
If you decide that you are going to hold onto your “righteous” anger, the Bible warns anger can lead to sin. The interesting thing is the Bible puts no qualifiers on the type of anger that can lead to sin. If you think holding on to righteous anger will not lead you into sin, unfortunately you are wrong. Listen to what God says:
While anger is an emotion we may all experience from time to time, it was never meant to be an emotion we live in perpetually. If your actions are dictated by anger, there is a high possibility those actions may lead you to sin, even if the anger is justified.
I want to leave with a thought – anger is an emotion and emotions are not sinful. It is what you do with them that matters. If you see something that produces righteous anger in you, then express that anger to God in prayer. Remember our fight is not physical, it is spiritual, so when you see things going haywire, recognize the spiritual forces which are at work behind the scenes and get angry over that. After all Satan and his forces are our real enemy and he is the one who should be the object of our anger.
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