Love Is Not Easily Angered

You may not recognize your struggle with envy or boasting or rudeness, but I’m willing to bet that everybody here can recognize their struggle with quick and sinful anger.

The King James translates this, “Love is not easily provoked”. Heather’s favorite translation, the English Standard Version, translates it, “...it is not irritable.” I like that. That speaks to me. “It is not irritable.”

Proverbs 22:24&25 says, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”
Angry people are focused not on others but on their own emotions and issues When anger rules, small problems become big explosions.

It’s not just automatic. Automatic is anger. Slow to anger is something supernatural. It’s something we’ve got to learn. Something that’s got to be worked inside of us. And it’s more than just “Count to 10”. These are not everything that could be said, but I think they’re some of the main things that will actually make a difference.

#1. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE NOT GOD.

One person has said that there are two fundamental realities in the world: there is a God and you’re not Him. But when we get sinfully angry, we forgot that. We think that we are God, or at least, that we should be.

You and I tend to think of anger as primarily an emotion. It does have an emotional component. But it is also a thought that we have. It’s a mind-set. It’s a judgment we make. We need to remember that we are not God. We don’t call the shots. We don’t see things the way they really are. We are not the judge. We are not the prosecutor. We are not the executioner.

That’s why James says this in chapter 1 of his letter:
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, [why?] for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

How our relationships would be different if we could keep that in mind! It would be obvious to us to be quick to listen. We’d be humbled. And slow to speak–we’d be cautious. And slow to be become angry.

#2. CONSIDER HOW GOD HAS BEEN SLOW TO ANGER WITH YOU.

I looked up in my Bible program how many times the words “slow” and anger or angry come up. How many times do you think? Just 10 times.

One times is this James 1:19&20. And that’s talking about us, calling us to be slow to anger. Guess whom all the rest of them are about? The Lord. Most of them come from His self-revelation to Moses when He showed Him the tail-end of His glory.

Remember that? Exodus 34? The Lord talking about Himself? “He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness...”

And the other 8 occurrences talk about how that’s exactly how God has treated His children!

God is slow to anger. And friends, God has much more to be angry about than you and I do. He’s slow to anger.

Aren’t you glad for that? God is not irritable. God is not resentful. God doesn’t have a hair-trigger. Consider how God has been slow to anger with you. Does that change things in your relationships?

Young people, does that change how you might respond to your teacher, your coach, your parent, your brother or sister? God, the King of the Universe has been slow to anger with you! Can you let up a little?

Do you want to be godly? You have to be slow to anger. Let’s take it a step further. Not only was He slow to anger. But He sent His Son to absorb His anger against us.

#3. REMEMBER HOW JESUS ABSORBED GOD’S ANGER AT YOU.

God was not easily angered, but He was righteously angered at our sin. He cannot be neutral about our God-dishonoring behavior, falling short of His glory, rebelling against His standards, thinking, wanting, and doing what displeases God. He hates sin. And He will bring righteous judgment against it.

But He so loved you and me that He sent His One and Only Son, Jesus, to absorb His just wrath–His burning anger. That’s what was happening on that Cross! The Anger of God met the Love of God and Jesus took our punishment. He took our punishment for all of our sin–including the sin of rash anger.

My irritability on Jesus. The wages of irritability is death. And Jesus died for me. And for you, if you’ll trust Him. But He didn’t stay dead, did He?! Jesus was raised to life to give us life. To give us love. And to help us to love others. We don’t have to be irritable any longer. We’ll still be tempted to be irritable–and sometimes it will be so hard that we will give in. But we don’t have to be. Jesus has died for us, in our place. The Cross changes everything.

 “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” - Psalm 103:11&12
Remember, how Jesus absorbed the anger of God against you. That assumes that you have trusted in His perfect sacrifice. If you have not yet, I invite you to do so today. Believe the Gospel. Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus. And if you do, then the power of gospel can increasingly empower you to say no to sinful anger.

#4. TURN, IN THE MOMENT, AWAY FROM SELF AND ANGER TO OTHERS AND LOVE.

This presupposes that God has done a work in your heart. You can’t just choose to do this and have any lasting change.  But if you belong to Christ, you can do this. You can repent. And it’s repenting, in the moment, turning in the moment away from self and to others. Away from anger and to love. Turn. Turn, in the moment, away from the temptation to be provoked and turn towards others and love.

#5. DISCIPLINE YOURSELF TO WAIT BEFORE YOU GET ANGRY.

This, also, takes the Holy Spirit to really work. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It’s not just something that we can work up. But if the Holy Spirit has free reign in our lives, then we can discipline ourselves to wait before we get angry.

How many times have we gotten angry so fast, only to find out that we were wrong about what was happening? Wait before getting angry.

Proverbs 25:11 says, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”

That’s hot or cold anger. Hold off and see what’s really up before you react.

#6. LEARN TO OVERLOOK AS MANY OFFENSES AS POSSIBLE.

Yes, people are going to sin against you. But you can rise about a lot of those offenses. They don’t all have to be confronted.

Proverbs 19:11 (Hasn’t it been interesting to see how many Proverbs help us in our quest of learning to love? Proverbs is a book about a lot of things, but one of those things is how to love others skillfully!). Proverbs 19:11 – “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.:

Notice the connection again between patience and kindness. This is love. Wisdom leads to patience which leads to overlooking offenses which is to our glory!

Just let it go. Those sins are paid for at the Cross, or they will catch up to them. But you don’t have to be the one to do the catching.

#7. HAVE YOUR HEART “STOCKED UP” WITH JESUS AND HIS GOOD NEWS.

When am I slow to anger? When I am close to Christ. Around here, we call it, “a love relationship with Jesus Christ.”

When we are walking in fellowship with Him, we remember that we are not God. And we remember that God has been slow to anger with us. And we remember that Jesus has absorbed God’s anger at us.

And that empowers us to turn, in the moment and love us. And discipline ourselves to wait before getting angry. And learn to overlook offenses as they come.

Let’s not just look into the mirror of the Word and agree that we can be angry people.  Let’s gaze into the mirror and let the Lord change us. So that we can be a blessing to others.

matt-mitchell.blogspot.com