The speaker chose this topic because it is personal to him. He found out he had a thyroid condition last year. He had already been exhibiting symptoms of it. One of it was easily getting angry. For instance where he lived, he would sometimes smell cigarette smoke, and would get angry because he felt this smoker was being inconsiderate in harming others with second-hand smoke. So the speaker would sometimes take action and go around his apartment block to look for the smoker. He notices that ever since he has been on medication, he has not felt as much of an urge to take action against the smoker like look for who he is or report him.

Just a chemical imbalance in you can cause you to be more easily triggered to anger. We probably also know people around us who flare up more easily. So it is important for us to know if it is right to be angry and when it is right for us to be angry. It is also good for us to examine ourselves since there is Holy Communion later and to partake of the Holy Communion in a worthy manner.

God questioned people about their anger.

Gen 4:6-7
So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

We know that Cain was angry because his brother’s offering was accepted and his was not. By right, sin lay at his door but he should overcome it. However, we know that Cain was overcome by sin and he murdered his brother. He is the first person who got angry and murdered someone as a result of that.

Now the second time God posed a similar question to someone.

Jonah 4:9-10
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.

Were there times we were angry? Why were we angry? These are useful questions for us to consider. But this did not answer the speaker’s earlier question of whether it is sin for us to be angry. So he began to look at New Testament examples.

Gal 5:19-20
Now the works of the flesh are evident: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies

These verses tell us what is the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. One of those is “outbursts of wrath”. It suggests that anger is wrong and those from the camp of “all anger is wrong” would use this verse to support their beliefs. However, some people would say this verse suggests the effects of anger - its outburst - is wrong, not the sensation of anger itself.

Eph 4:31
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

Here, Paul mentions that we must put aside not just wrath but also anger - we need to put our anger aside. But is it true that a spiritual man will become less and less angry and not even have a temper, that when one cultivates himself, not only would there be less anger, eventually it will be completely removed from him. A lot of us may feel that cannot be so.

We must be a little more careful and think about it all. If Jesus exhibited anger, it might mean that even if you are the most spiritual person, you can be angry and it would be righteous anger. Because Jesus was in all ways tempted yet He was without sin. We can have an example of Jesus being angry. This shows that a spiritual person would never get angry. Can you think of a time when Jesus was angry?

I think many of us would think of Jesus in the temple, seeing people buying and selling, and He flipped the table and made a whip of cords. But we do not see that Jesus was actually angry here except that He took these measures.

And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
Mark 3:5

Here we see Jesus was angry because people wanted to see if Jesus would heal the man with a withered hand to use this as a chance to accuse Jesus, instead of having compassion on the man. Hence, Jesus looked at this man with anger. This shows us that there are times it is justified for us to be angry. So where lies the sin when one is angry? What makes anger wrong? If you think about it, when we are angry, it often goes through a process. We might see, hear or in the speaker’s case, smell something. Our senses sense something, we feel something, and then we want to take action as a result of that feeling. Where is the part dangerous? Wherein lies the sin?

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
Ephesians 4:26

There is the feeling part of anger and the doing part of it. The sin comes from the action. Now it becomes clearer. It is natural for us to feel anger but we cannot sin. When God asked Cain, why are you angry? His anger was already there. And God told him that sin lied at his door. Cain’s actions was very grave. Sometimes when we are angry we lose self-control.

When we see and hear, can there be problems with the feeling [of anger] that arises, even before we take action?

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
Matthew 5:21‭-‬22

We can link what Jesus says about anger here with what happened to Cain, especially “whoever is angry with his brotber without a cause shall be in danger of judgment.” The reason why we are angry must be taken into account. If our reason is uncalled for, unfair or unrighteous, we are in danger of judgment.

So now we know that it is not the feeling we experience but the reason for our feeling it, and we must consider the actions taken based on it.

Moses felt righteous anger. He was angry for God’s sake. The people were murmuring about why Moses had brought them out of Egypt. They were murmuring not just against Moses but also against God. Moses was angry because they continued to complain against God and they did not see God as God. But sometimes because of this clouding of anger that sometimes overcomes us, Moses struck the rock twice. This action of his was wrong and God pointed it out. This led to God preventing Moses from entering the Promised Land.

Sometimes a child may lie - it is right for us to be angry with the child but when because of this we give the child a one tight slap, this action may be problematic. Cain’s reason for being angry was jealousy and Jonah’s was because the plant died. These reasons for being angry were wrong. Now we have clarified that the actions we take in anger and the reasons for our anger may be wrong.

How do we control ourselves and our anger? Is there a way for us to stop ourselves from being angry or acting wrongly on our anger? Elder James gives us some advice.

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
James 1:19‭-‬20

These two verses tell us what we must consider. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Our reasons for anger may not be right. Verse 19 gives us steps we can take to be slower to anger. Remember we start of with seeing and hearing? Be swift to hear. But be slow to speak - we must be slow to take action, and slow to wrath - be slow to feel this. How do we be slow to wrath? If we think about the three steps the speaker has shared, there is one step in between what you see/hear/smell and the feeling. It is the interpretation of what has happened.

This interpretation of what has happened is an important way for us to slow ourselves down from anger. In this part we often tell ourselves story even when they are not true. Let me give you an example.

Husband A goes home to Wife A to give her flowers. Husband B also goes home to Wife B to give her flowers. Both bunches of flowers are big and equally beautiful. While Husband A receives a hug from his wife who is pleasantly surprised, Husband B receives a slap from his wife. Why might this happen? Wife A interpreted this as: my husband loves me so much and he thought to buy flowers for me. Wife A feels loved. Wife B, however, interpreted it as: my husband must have done something wrong and so he went to buy flowers, do you think the flowers can overcome whatever wrong you have done? And so Wife B gives her husband a slap.

One thing about having more control over our anger is considering the way we tell ourselves these stories or rather, how we interpret these situations. To help us slow this down even better, we can even use prayer to help. That was what we sang just now - when you are angry, did you think to pray? Other than asking God to take away our anger, we can also ask God to help us see the situation more clearly since what we understand is only an interpretation of the matter. This also helps us be more willing to listen to other people’s perspectives to check our interpretation of the story.

Now, an incident where people were willing to check the story when they were angry. This is in Joshua 22 about the two and a half tribes. Let us read from verses 10-12.

And when they came to the region of the Jordan which is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan—a great, impressive altar. Now the children of Israel heard someone say, “Behold, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan—on the children of Israel’s side.” And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them.
Joshua 22:10‭-‬12 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/jos.22.10-12.NKJV

When the two and a half tribes built an altar there, someone must have seen it and informed the rest of the Israelites, who interpreted this situation with a story that these tribes must be doing something wicked and going against God. But it was good that they did not act out and go to war immediately. They sent Phineas the son of Eleazar and some elders to go and talk to them in verse 13. Phineas and the rest spoke to them and warned them not to go against God because it would affect all the Israelites. But among all these accusations they had as they were warning them, they said this in verse 19.

Nevertheless, if the land of your possession is unclean, then cross over to the land of the possession of the Lord , where the Lord ’s tabernacle stands, and take possession among us; but do not rebel against the Lord , nor rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar besides the altar of the Lord our God.
Joshua 22:19

While they were angry, they also gave them some leeway and allowed them to go over to their land to live so long as they did not rebel against God. Later we see the two and a half tribes explaining themselves. Their explanation was that because the River Jordan was a natural barrier between them, they wanted to build the altar to remind themselves that they were one people. The nine and a half tribes decided that this was a good thing. Everything was resolved and nobody went to war.

From this story we see a good example of how people talked to each other to find out more and consider the other party’s explanation before taking irreversible steps. The nine and a half tribes sent delegates to talk to the two and a half tribes. The two and a half tribes also explained themselves clearly rather than fight back after being accused of going against God. They were slow to take action and to feel anger. They were able to accept that what they saw was only their perspective, that their interpretation was only a story they told and that they were willing to put this down.

Interestingly, when the speaker spoke this sermon many years ago, this was when there was an errant preacher who had many followers taking place. There were people who wondered whose side the speaker was on and whether the speaker was speaking up for this errant preacher. At that time the speaker could be very angry but he did not have thyroid then (haha) and he did not react. Someone came up to him to speak to him and explained that qqsome people might think of him that way. My point of bringing this up is that there must be open dialogue - this happens at the interpretation phase. There must be clarity over what has happened. It is during this phase that we can kneel down and ask God to help us, if it is right to be angry or if it is truly sin and evil. Let us take this time to think abput our own lives and whether it has been right for us to be angry, if actions we have taken are justified, and if not, to quickly repent.