Not Easily Angered

There is a sense in which all our hearts are like fields in which land mines have been planted. Some of our “fields” are virtually filled with mines; the least misstep by another person can set off an explosion of anger. In most cases, our relatives and friends gradually learn where our mines are and develop the ability to tiptoe around us so as not to set off explosions. Nevertheless, explosions always occur, for we all have situations, events, or certain people that annoy us and trigger our wrath. Only with regeneration, our new birth as Christians, does the Holy Spirit come in like a bomb squad and begin to help us identify where the mines lie, that they might be eliminated and never trouble us again. It is this work of “defusing” to which Paul calls us when he tells us that love “is not provoked,” that it is not easily angered. To carry the metaphor through, love does not have a hair trigger.

It is important to note that neither Paul in this passage nor the rest of Scripture is saying Christians must be completely without anger. Jesus certainly declared that anger can have grave consequences (Matt. 5:22). But the psalmist, later quoted by Paul, made clear that anger is not necessarily sinful, saying, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Pss. 4:4; 37:8; Eph. 4:26). The key to understanding Paul’s instruction here is the adverb easily. God and Christ certainly are pictured in moments of wrath in Scripture. The historical books of the Old Testament are filled with instances in which God poured out judgment and punishment even unto death against those who offended His holiness, from the depraved residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the apostate people of Israel themselves. And the gospels depict an angry Jesus cleansing the temple of the moneychangers. But the testimony of the same Scriptures that recount these stories is that the Father and the Son are not and never have been easily angered. Rather, they are long-suffering and patient, and so are we to be with other people.

As we mentioned in a previous study this week, love is the first of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit that Paul lists in Galatians 5:22–23. But the last is certainly not the least significant: self-control. As the Holy Spirit does His work of sanctification in our hearts, we gradually learn to bear with the failings of our still-imperfect brothers and sisters. As our love grows, we are less quick to grow angry with them.