“Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.” Ephesians 4:26, 27

Yes, we may be angry at times! In fact, we should be very, very angry as a living member of the Church of Jesus Christ. For anger is not necessarily evil. It may be very just and righteous. It is not really normal not to become angry with anything. The fact is, that where our treasure is our heart will be also; and where our heart is will become manifest in our anger. This anger will become evident in our entire being, in the manifestation of our words.
In view of this all, we may well pray with the Psalmist: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14. For what lies on top of our heart comes out first. We sometimes say things and then gloss it over with: I did not mean it that way. Well, we were right the first time. The second time we merely tried to patch it up.
So, if you are righteously angry, do not apologize for it!
We said that anger is not necessarily evil. The reason is: God, too, is angry. In God it is ever the assertion of His holiness. God’s anger is His purity; He is too pure of eyes to behold evil. And, therefore, His anger reveals itself as wrath from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Even the Son of God, the Christ, is said to be angry. In Psalm 2:12 we read, “Kiss the Son lest he be angry…” Here the word in the Hebrew means: to snort. Some animals when they are angry, such as the horse, literally snort when they are angry. And the Psalmist pleads with the Lord: “Wilt thou be angry forever?” Psalm 85:5. And Moses tells Israel that the Lord was angry with him for their sakes. This was when Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it. Moses was not angry here

Originally Published in:
Vol. 29 No. 1 March 1969