Jesus' anger

Two good quotes about the confusion we often experience about anger when we read the Bible.

"Hey, God gets angry. Jesus gets angry. And 'in your anger, do not sin' is from the Letters, so that assumes that sometimes we can get angry but it's not sin! But Jesus tells us not to be angry in Matthew 5:21!"

Well, here are two excellent quotes to give us God's perspective on this.

The first is from Max Lucado, from his book In The Grip Of Grace. Pam Owens pointed it out and it's true:

"Many don't understand God's anger because they confuse the wrath of God with the wrath of man. The two have little in common. Human anger is typically self-driven and prone to explosions of temper and violent deeds. We get ticked off because we've been overlooked, neglected, or cheated. This is anger of man. It is not, however, the anger of God.
God doesn't get angry because He doesn't get His way. He gets angry because disobedience always results in self-destruction. What kind of father sits by and watches his child hurt himself?"

Another one is from Dallas Willard, who I've quoted in these past two sermons. It's from his magnum opus, The Divine Conspiracy:

"Although [Jesus] certainly let his condemnation fall upon self-righteous and deeply corrupted leaders (Matt. 23; Luke 11:29-54), we never see it in other contexts. And we can trust him to express it appropriately toward such people, though we ourselves could rarely if ever do so. Anger and condemnation, like vengeance, are safely left to God. We must beware of believing that it is okay for us to condemn as long as we are condemning the right things. It is not so simple as all that. I can trust Jesus to go into the temple and drive out those who were profiting from religion, beating them with a rope. I cannot trust myself to do so." (pages 220-221)

There will only very RARELY be any occasion where it is appropriate for you to lash out or hold anger. Give it to God, let Him take care of it.

"Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' " (Romans 12:19)