While he was in prison, St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus because they were quarreling with one another. They were allowing their lives to be ruled by anger. Here's what he said:
Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
Sometimes we feel we should never be angry, we should repress our true feelings. However, when we do that, our anger continues to simmer within us and ultimately festers or blows up and can be destructive. Avoidance of conflict makes room for the devil. Anger is a natural part of our emotional makeup as humans. The scriptures record god becoming angry 375 times in the Old Testament and we know that Jesus got angry as well. He was angry when the scribes and Pharisees were watching to see if He would heal the man with the withered hand on the sabbath day (Mark 3:5). He was terribly and majestically angry when he made a whip and drove the moneychangers out of the temple. (John 2:13-17).
Paul gives specific and practical guidelines for dealing with anger. He says, “Be angry!” emphasizing that anger itself is not a sin. Then Paul adds do not let the sun go down on your anger. Plutarch tells us that the disciples of the philosopher Pythagoras, had a rule of their society, that if during the day, anger had made them speak insultingly to each other, before the sun set they shook hands and kissed each other, and were reconciled. Sometimes we are called to be angry. The world would have lost much without the blazing anger of William Wilberforce against the slave trade, and of Anthony Ashley Cooper, later named Lord known as the Great Reformer for his work to end the horrible conditions in which men, women and children worked in the 19th century. If martin luther king had not been angry at racism, the civil rights movement might not have flourished. If Gandhi had not been angry at oppression, India's independence might not have happened. Anger, channeled in a positive way, can be a catalyst for change. The famous writer Dr. Samuel Johnson was once asked to temper the harshness and anger in a book he was about to publish. His answer to that request was that “he would not cut off his claws, nor make his tiger a cat, to please anybody.” There is a place for the tiger in life; and when the tiger becomes a tabby cat, something is lost.
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