Is There Such a Thing as ‘Righteous Anger

The New Testament writers seem to speak in an unqualified way about the danger of anger in the life of the believer and the urgent need to get rid of it. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:31: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you.” He says, similarly, in Colossians 3:8: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander.” To state the obvious, Paul does not appear to have two categories for anger; a righteous anger that you can safely nurture and an unrighteous anger that you must get rid of; rather he says that all anger should be put away by the believer.

The Apostle James appears to have a similar perspective. In James 1:20 the Apostle says without qualification that: “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

It should not be surprising to us to hear the Apostles of Jesus speaking in this way, they were after all, first century Jewish people. It was settled Jewish wisdom that while there were many attributes of God that human beings should aspire to imitate—his mercy, love, justice, and patience—it was dangerous and inappropriate for people to attempt to imitate his anger. Only God could be counted on to act justly in anger. Only God’s anger could in any sense be considered righteous.

Anger for human beings inevitably resulted in wrong thinking and wrong behaving. Israel Abrahams, for example, said: “Thrice was Moses angry, and thrice he failed to produce the mind of God.” He wrote this while commenting on Pesahim 66b in the Babylonian Talmud, which says: “Whoever gets mad—if he is a sage, his wisdom departs from him, if he is a prophet, his power of prophecy departs from him.” If not even Moses—whom the typical faithful Jewish person would identify as the greatest man in Holy Scripture—was capable of acting righteously in anger, then which of us should be so foolish as to attempt to do so? Early Christianity and Judaism were on the same page with respect to the dangers associated with human anger.

But What About Ephesians 4:26?

Certain objections to this point of view have become increasingly prevalent in the contemporary church. Righteous anger is all the rage (pun intended) on the internet nowadays and is frequently espoused as a virtue, especially by those who would seek to influence young Christian men. Young men are being openly encouraged to be angry about abortion, gender confusion, sexual immorality, lax immigration policy, the housing crisis, government overreach, and more. Anger about these things is often presented as the appropriate, faithful, masculine response to ungodliness and injustice in the world. In essence, the argument appears to be the exact opposite of the one that was made by the Apostle James. According to many internet voices: the anger of men DOES bring about the righteousness of God.

In support of this position, Paul’s statement in Ephesians 4:26-27 will often be cited: “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Often only the first third of the statement will be cited, making the argument slightly more credible: “Be angry and do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). Citing it that way almost makes it seem as if there is a category of anger that is not sin, a type of righteous human anger. However, it must be remembered that Paul wrote this just a few verses before issuing an unqualified command for the believer to rid him or herself of ALL anger. It is helpful to consider the paragraph as a whole. Paul says:

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Eph. 4:26-32)

Unless we are to consider the Apostle both incoherent and inconsistent, we must understand him to be speaking in a concessive fashion in verses 26-27. He is saying, in essence, “Of course you will get angry. Anger is a response to external circumstances and stimuli, but you mustn’t harbour or nurture that anger. You must get rid of it quickly lest it be used by the devil to lead you into sin.”

The same counsel might be given to a person who experiences feelings of envy or greed. We can well imagine the Apostle Paul saying: “Of course you might feel these things as you encounter people in life who have possessions or attainments that you don’t have, but you must get rid of those feelings immediately lest they be used by the devil to lead you into sin.”

Feelings or passions arise in our flesh in response to external stimuli but a believer in Jesus is expected to wage war against those impulses, taking all of them captive to the Lordship of Christ. We do not speak about a “righteous greed” or a “righteous envy” and neither ought we to speak about a “righteous anger”. That only serves to discourage people in the battle that every believer must wage against the flesh.

But What About the Example of Jesus?

Persistent advocates of the ‘righteous anger’ hypothesis will often point to the example of Jesus, who does appear on certain occasions to have acted in anger. Two instances are commonly cited. In Mark 3, Jesus became angry with the Pharisees who opposed his healing of the man with the withered hand because it was the Sabbath. Mark tells the story this way:

And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3:2-6)

There can be no doubt that Jesus, while angry, acted righteously in this scenario, which would seem to provide evidence in favour of those who believe that it is possible and even admirable for Christians on occasion to do the same.

Another example that is frequently cited is the occasion in John’s Gospel when Jesus makes a whip of cords and drives the money changers out of the temple. While the story does not explicitly say that Jesus was angry, the narrative clearly seems to suggest that he was.

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:14-17)

What are we to make of these examples?

The first thing that should probably be said is that these incidents are treated as exceptional in nature. Jesus was not characteristically an angry person; in fact Matthew describes the character of Jesus using words borrowed from the prophet Isaiah, saying:

He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope. (Matt. 12:19-21)

In Matthew’s estimation, Jesus was not a brawler, rather he was characterized by a strong, resilient, persistent form of meekness. Therefore, we must consider the examples cited above as exceptional, and yet, it cannot be denied that these examples do exist and therefore we must consider carefully what they mean.

It is possible that the Gospel writers intended us to view these stories about Jesus as paradigmatic, in the sense that Jesus was providing his disciples with an example that they were to follow. However, that doesn’t appear to square with what Jesus said to his disciples. In Matthew 5:22, for example, he said: “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:22).

Similarly, we might wonder why there is no “Blessed are the angry, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;” instead we find: “Blessed are the meek” (Matt. 5:5). James seems to treat meekness as the character of a person who has rid him or herself of anger. In James 1:20-21 he says: “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (Jas. 1:20-21). In the New Testament anger (as well as all other forms of filthiness and wickedness) is to be put away so that meekness can be cultivated in the human heart, therefore it seems unlikely that the Gospel writers preserved these examples of Jesus acting righteously in anger in order to encourage us to do the same.

It seems more likely that these stories have been preserved because they furnish further evidence of Christ’s divinity. Remember, Jewish people believed that the attributes of God should be imitated by human beings except for his attribute of anger. Even Moses could not act righteously in anger, therefore, if Jesus could act righteously in anger, then Jesus must be more than merely human. Many scholars take that approach and see the cleansing of the temple in John 2 as one of the ‘signs’ in John’s Gospel whereby Jesus reveals his divinity.

Thus, when the Gospel writers tell us about the times when Jesus acted in anger, they are not telling us what to do, they are telling us who Jesus is. As John said at the conclusion of his Gospel: “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). Jesus could do what not even Moses could do because Jesus is truly human and truly divine, thanks be to God!

Should We Then be Passive in the Face of Wickedness and Injustice?

How then should the believer orient him or herself towards the wickedness and injustice we encounter in the world? Should we be indifferent toward the horror of abortion? Should we be passive in the face of economic exploitation? Should we be complicit with a public school system and a medical establishment that fosters gender confusion and the mutilation and sterilization of children?

Surely not.

Believers are never to be passive toward the evils that run rampant in the world. But neither are they to be angry, “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (Jas. 1:20).

What then should our posture be?

Thankfully, Jesus gave us specific instructions. He said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:4-6). People who mourn; people who yearn; people who fret not, but who rather trust deeply in the outworking of God’s sovereign plan engage with the wickedness and brokenness of the world through fervent prayer. They pray the laments. They pray the imprecatory Psalms. In the imprecatory Psalms the psalmist doesn’t say: “Give me strength Lord that I might do battle with the wicked,” rather he entrusts his cause to the Lord; he says: “Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer” (Ps. 10:15), “break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!” (Ps. 58:6)

And yet, the YouTube pastor says, “How unmanly! How effeminate! How pietistic!” And yet how thoroughly congruent with the teaching of the Apostle Paul who said: “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” (1 Tim. 2:8).

Surely then, we can never do less than pray, but can we and ought we do more?

I think the answer to that is yes. I think the grieving person can stand shoulder to shoulder with the angry person while protesting at an abortion clinic, or while participating in a local PTA meeting. However, because different emotions are being nurtured in their hearts, I imagine that very different words will be coming out of their mouths. As Jesus said: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). A person who is mourning wickedness can do all the same work as a person who is angry at it, but the former is more likely to function as a true gospel witness than the latter and less likely to be influenced by the devil toward sinful actions or expressions.

If we are to take the New Testament witness seriously, then we must agree that anger is neither an appropriate attitude nor a strategy for the disciples of Jesus Christ.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (1 Pet. 2:21-23)

O God help!

Pastor Paul Carter

If you are interested in more Bible teaching from Pastor Paul you can access the entire library of Into The Word episodes through the Audio tab on the Into the Word website. You can also download the Into The Word app at the App Store or Google Play.

Paul is the happy husband of Shauna Lee and the proud papa of 5 beautiful children, Madison, Max, Mikayla, Peyton and Noa. He attended Moody Bible Institute and is a graduate of York University (B.A.) and McMaster Divinity College (MDiv). He has been in pastoral ministry since 1994, serving in both Fellowship and Canadian Baptist churches in Oakville, Mississauga and Orillia, Ontario Canada. He presently serves as the Lead Pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, Orillia, a large multi-staff church with a passion for biblical preaching and local mission. He is the host and Bible teacher on the Into The Word podcast which you can find on our podcast page or on iTunes. Twitter: @pastrpaulcarter.