Question about Anger...

[Allegro]

I understand that our nature of sin will never make us perfect, but as we continue to follow the path of the Lord, is it possible to live life without feeling anger? Knowing that sin is abound in this world, can there really be a point in our lives where we achieve a sort of “inner-peaceâ€

[Nate]

Anger isn't a sin. God is incapable of sinning, and He gets angry a lot. The difference I think is that we tend to do hurtful and wrong things with our anger, whereas God doesn't.

[GrubbTheFragger]

Kae hit the nail right on the head. Anger is not a sin but say like swearing and yelling at someone cuz they cut you off is.

[soul alive]

I agree that anger is not a sin. And like anything else, if it gets warped and twisted, it can become a sin and a potentially a serious stumbling block.

Road-rage is a good example, for me at least; when some other driver does something dumb or isn't going the speed I would like them to, I tend to get angry enough that my whole day is ruined. It would be fine if I got angry at the moment and then let it pass, but holding on to that anger, encouraging and feeding it and sometimes going out of my way to get angrier is the opposite of fine.

A good deal of bad anger is centered around pride. Take road-rage as an example again. The mind-set that a person is normally in during road-rage is centered around self-centered, prideful thoughts: 'I'm right. That other driver is not only wrong, they are stupid, inconsiderate, jerkish, etc.'

A friend of mine suggested going straight to prayer when you feel that unhealthy anger coming on. Anything from a quick 'Lord, help me keep my temper' to 'Lord, this other driver is really getting my attention right now, so You must really want me to pray for them...'

[Mithrandir]

Ephesians 4:26 ( "In your anger, do not sin" ) and Psalm 4:4 both talk about this. Anger is an emotion, just like any other emotion. Believe it or not, the first time an angry thought (or even a lustful one for that matter) enters your head, you're not sinning. It's a question of your intent. I do believe, however, that the Holy Spirit is contantly working in our lives to change how we act on our emotions.

If you are interested in a great story along these lines, read how Jesus reacted to the religious leaders who had set up a market inside the temple in John 2:13-17.

[Mangafanatic]

I'm gonna deviate slightly from the general concensus thus far. While anger itself isn't a sin (If you can be in your anger and NOT sin, it must be possible to be angry without sinning), it seems "anger" is a very broad umbrella under which a lot of sins come running to hide. To give you examples about what I mean--

such as anger over someone else's status in life,

See, that seems it would really just be envy.

It makes me wonder if we as Christians should approach a state in which we put our trust in God and not let emotion such as anger take hold of us (but only directed against sin).

I would say that's correct. While anger itself is not a sin, I would say that only a miniscule fraction of human anger is the kind of anger which God experiences. When you're "angry" because you've just seen a news bulletin about a little girl who was murdered by her mother-- there's an instance when you're feeling righteous anger. However, being the imperfect beings we are, how often are you capable of controlling that emotion and keeping the indignation you feel because of the injustice from turning into hatred for the perpitrator? I can't really. When I feel angry, I do it because I feeel wronged. I feel these wrongs are so unfair that I deserve to feel spitefully towards a person or curcuimstance. In my case, my anger 99% of a time is actually refusing to accept without grudging that God is controlling all curcuimstances, that he deals out revenge, and that there are a great many things that happen in my life that I will never realize happened for a purpose.

Anger in me is, almost without exception, the result of not forgiving others and not trusting God.

[Joshua Christopher]

Anger without cause is wrong, as is never forgiving. The whole "don't let the sun go down on your anger" deal.

[Puritan]

I think Mangafanatic hit the nail right on the head. Humans are fallen creatures, and thus even our best emotions can lead us astray. Anger is no exception, and when you are angry it is really easy to move from righteous anger at things that are wrong to anger at a specific person or unrighteous anger about other topics. However, we do need to keep in mind that there are things in the world to be angry about, and we shouldn't feel guilty when hearing about evil or seeing evil provokes anger. We need to focus on reliance upon God and try to practically deal with the evil we can deal with (usually that within ourselves) rather than focusing on our anger, which can lead to trouble.

In my experience, pride is often at the root of many problems we have with anger. Once I start thinking that I deserve more than I have or that I'm somehow better than someone else, I begin to have problems. I have to remember that I don't deserve anything good, that everything I have is a gift from God, and that I have hurt people as much as I have been hurt, if not more. I have no right to be angry at people for the things they do as I have done just as much evil, and reminding myself of that helps me keep my anger in check. That doesn't mean we accept the evil in the world, far from it, but it does mean that we shouldn't direct our anger at anything other than sin, especially that which we ourselves do.

[mitsuki lover]

Anger in itself is not a sin it is what you do with your anger.For example if you get really angry at the way about what is being taught in school and you decide to run for school board to do something about it,that is POSITIVE ANGER because you are actually doing something good about it.
On the other hand if one day you wake up and get angry because your neighbor's
daschund has piddled on your Sunday paper on you go get your.45 out of the drawer and go and blow your neighbor's brains out,that would be a definite SIN.

[Allegro]

Thank you for your input everyone. I guess I missed the point about us being creations in His image. Checking out a few instances in the Old and New Testament of the Bible, there are indeed plenty of examples of how He uses it to fight sin. It's wonderful on how we essentially 'feel' what God is feeling, but it's more of a responsibility in trying to control it without sinning.

In my experience, I often thought about when anger is acceptable to use. Now that I think about it, I believe pride is the root of most of the anger I experience (as well as witness). I like how soul alive put it as far as road rage. Surely "temper" may be a contributing factor when you're behind the wheel, but the fact that you do not know who is driving the other car adds to the case of you being a better driving simply because he does something that counters your well-being (which would be the sin of pride).

In other words, anybody who seemingly threatens your pride has to be dealt with against in order to maintain it (which is a lot easier if you have no idea who that other person is).

I guess earlier I had emphasized the matter of the possibility of living a righteous life without anger (whether sin was a motivator or not). While I myself believe that not directing anger at sin is a source of apathy, wouldn't that be saying that you do not trust the Lord enough that he is still in control regardless of the sins of this world? Mangafanatic mentions that most anger can be applied towards not forgiving others or not trusting God.

Put into the context of anger against sin, does God allow us to use such an emotion against sin, or are we suppose to trust Him and live through it?

[Heart of Sword]

Anger is an emotion...it's what we might do in response to that emotion that is a sin.

Believe it or not, the first time an angry thought (or even a lustful one for that matter) enters your head, you're not sinning.

Actually, a lustful thought is a sin:
Matthew 5:28
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

[snow_Rock]

Being humans, we have a heart, which gives us emotions. In other words, it's kinda like an overflowing of your subconscious. I think...

[Allegro]

Being humans, we have a heart, which gives us emotions. In other words, it's kinda like an overflowing of your subconscious. I think...

Yeah, I always get that feeling of whether or not I am too angry over certain things, or angry at the wrong things.