Is it wrong as Christians to show anger?

Question

If there are times when it is godly to show anger, please give examples.

"The wrath of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God."

Lovee - Why do you trust no one to be a true Christian on here? There are certainly some true Christians on here and the examples I was looking for were more biblical than personal.

Acid Zebra - The warrior concept we have comes from where Paul the apostle likens us to warriors for Christ in daily battle with our evil human nature and with the sin in the world.

Answer 1

First of all, anger is not always sin. God is angry (Psalm 7:11; Mark 3:5), and believers are commanded to be angry (Ephesians 4:26). Two Greek words are used in the New Testament for our English word “anger.” One (orge) means “passion, energy;” the other (thumos) means “agitated, boiling.” Webster defines anger as “excessive emotion, passion aroused by a sense of injury or wrong;” this injury may be to us or to someone else. Biblically, anger is God-given energy intended to help us solve problems. Examples of biblical uses of anger include Paul confronting Peter because of his wrong example in Galatians 2:11-14, David being upset over hearing Nathan the prophet sharing an injustice (2 Samuel 12), and Jesus getting angry over how some of the Jews had defiled the Gentiles’ place of worship at God’s temple in Jerusalem (John 2:13-18). I remember years back a former pastor of mine getting upset and speaking to a civic group that was teaching youngsters to play poker (gamble) in the hall of a mall.
But anger turns to sin when it is selfishly motivated (James 1:20), when God’s goal is distorted (1 Corinthians 10:31), or when anger is allowed to linger (Ephesians 4:26-27). Instead of using the energy generated by anger to attack the problem at hand, one attacks the person instead. Ephesians 4:15, 19 say we are to speak the truth in love and to use our words to build up others, and not to allow rotten or destructive words to pour from our lips. Unfortunately, this poisonous speech is a common characteristic of fallen man (Romans 3:13-14). Anger becomes sin when it is allowed to boil over without restraint, resulting in a “sawed-off shotgun” consequence in which everyone in earshot is hurt (Proverbs 29:11), leaving devastation in its wake...often with irreparable consequences. Anger also becomes sin when one clams up (Ephesians 4:26-27), doing the “slow burn.” This causes one to become depressed and irritable and fly off the handle over any little thing, often things unrelated to the underlying problem.

Answer 2

Anger is not a sin and while its better to temper one's anger rather than inflict pain upon others, we are allowed to be angry when we have legitimate reasons.

I trust no one here to be a true Christian anymore so I give no examples.

Psa 14:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psa 14:2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
Psa 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Answer 3

Jesus, who NEVER sinned, did get angry. Offhand I can think of several occasions when he displayed righteous anger: John 3:13-16 when he cleared the temple, Matt. 26:36-44 when the disciples failed to remain watchful and pray for him, and Matt. 16:22-23 when Peter challenges His predictions to name a few. There are however many cautions given about controlling our anger. We are told not to sin by letting anger control us Psalm 4:4-5 and James (1:19) urges us to be slow to anger. Just a bit of advice - look up anger in the concordance of your Bible. You'll learn more and draw closer to the Father researching this sort of thing on your own!

Answer 4

Jesus showed anger. He went to the temple and saw how people were using it as a market place and drove them all out.John 2:12-26

As for when you can and can not show anger? This is a good verse to live by when you are faced with a conflict of what to do:

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Matt 22:37-39

Answer 5

Anger against evil is actually biblical. We are to hate evil. But Christians aren't perfect just forgiven. For now pray that God will take this anger from you and help you to love those that hurt you. It's hard and you can't do it on your own but with God's help anything is possible.

Answer 6

I think it's wrong for anyone to show anger as it only increases that person's suffering and the suffering of others. I don't claim to be perfect but I'm learning more and more that an angry response ends up being ineffectual and causes more harm. Have a good one!

Answer 7

It is not a sin to become angry especially in righteousness as Jesus did in the temple in rebuking the merchants and tax collectors in His fathers house. Just because you become angry does not mean you have sinned, yet, it depends what you do with that anger.

Answer 8

No, it isn't wrong to show anger as a Christian.

Examples? Anytime in the face of something obviously wrong. How about the murdering of innocent people by islamic terrorists?

Answer 9

I'm no christian but I don't recall Jesus ever asking you guys to be saints.

Although, I don't quite get the 'warrior' aspect some christians here seem to take on. That also doesn't seem to stroke with his teachings. I was going to ask a question about that but it hasn't ripened yet.

update: thanks for the explanation but I fear some of your brethren are taking it a little to literally.

Answer 10

No, it isnt wrong, just as long as u know how to controll ur anger. God showed anger many times in the Bible, im not shure exactly where tho, whould have to look it up. But he knows how to controll it, it is one if the thingsthat make us humans in His image, that we can show the same emotion as Him. But he tell us in the Bible that we have to learn to controll our emotions, it is ok to get angry, but you actions when u are angry may be wrong.