Anger and the Church

Let’s be clear: Anger in and of itself is not sin. Let’s consider a critical point – Jesus experienced and expressed anger. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Christ was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). But every student of the gospels knows the account of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple. And there is also his response to his own disciples’ rebuff of children being brought for his blessing:

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these…” (Mark 10:13-16).

Jesus got angry – and yet he did not sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). And there are ample illustrations of God’s anger and wrath throughout the Old Testament as well. So anger, if experienced and expressed by both the Father and the Son, cannot be sin in and of itself. Sinful anger is a uniquely human problem: We add something to the “mix” that can make it sinful. Therefore Paul, quoting from Psalm 4, warns the Ephesian Christians, “In your anger, do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” (Ephesians 4:26).

I have found Anger to be a huge problem in the local church today. Sometimes it’s the pastor, reacting in pain or utter frustration at the challenges he faces in leading his flock. At other times, it’s the members of the flock who are reacting to change, or even the prospect of losing personal influence. But all too often, it’s the vicious combination of the two. And I must admit that, in most cases, neither side is being particularly righteous in their expression of this emotion (although each thinks they are!)

The Scripture has a lot to say about anger and its proper expression. And its proper expression within the Church makes all the difference. Local churches, pastors and parishioners will always have seasons of stress, periodic conflicts and tough ministry challenges. The question we face is whether or not we will respond in ways that honor God and represent him well to each other and the world.

The Difference
There is a marked difference between godly anger and the eruptive emotion we often see in today’s local church. In every case, we see that God’s (Christ’s) anger is imposed upon sinful behavior, injustice, willful disobedience and the like. Righteous anger always is. However, most Christians today express anger in much the same way the world does – because of fear or over selfish, worldly pursuits. The anger I often have to address in local churches is the result of personal agendas being impeded. There is little or no self-control – the anger escalates and even becomes a weapon of intimidation over time. It is rooted more in personal posturing than in truth (and is often accompanied by a very personal “spin” on pertinent facts). The anger I see is impatient, calculated, vindictive, and bitter. It rarely guides the involved parties toward reconciliation and forgiveness. It simply does not honor God.

Biblical Guidance
So what does the Word of God have to say about anger? Let’s look at several verses to establish some sound, practical guidance on the subject:

Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil (Psalms 37:8).

The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult (Proverbs 12:16).

A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated (Proverbs 14:17).

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (Proverbs 15:1).

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32).

A man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again (Proverbs 19:19).

Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare (Proverbs 22:24-25).

A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression (Proverbs 29:22).

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever (Amos 1:11).

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:21-24).

“If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:23-24).

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil (Ephesians 4:26-27).

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth (Colossians 3:8).

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling… (1 Timothy 2:8).

For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined (Titus 1:7-8).

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20).


Conclusions
Many important points can be gleaned from this quick study of Scripture:

1. As Christians, we are to control anger, not be controlled by it. Being controlled by anger is continuous bondage and usually causes us to be led through life by our emotions.

2. Self-centeredness never leads to righteous anger. There are righteous reasons for anger, but these are never focused on self. If one gets angry because of some personal frustration or injury, you can bet that his or her anger is not righteous.

3. The fruit of escalating anger is always sin. Christians must diffuse anger before it has a chance to grow and multiply.

4. Agenda-driven anger builds a camp – which leads others into sin. As perhaps the most prominent expression of anger I see in local churches, anger over unfulfilled personal desires and agendas is extremely divisive. People get caught up in the battle – often choosing “sides” – before they realize it. I have yet to enter a conflicted church where this is not true.

5. Acting out of anger (rather than righteousness) always leads to sin. For those who are in Christ, it is possible to be angry and still act out of righteousness. This combination is purposeful, caring and edifying. Its opposite destroys.

6. Unrighteous anger is sin and incurs God’s judgment.

7. All those who lead in the local church must be exemplary when it comes to anger – not just the pastor! The biblical criteria for leadership are very clear on this point. People who have a temper make themselves ineligible for local church leadership.

It matters not whether it is the pastor, a powerbroker, or some other saint quietly seething in the back pew, anger in the local church is an issue that must be addressed. In next month’s edition of FORESEE, I will provide some practical advice on just how to do that. In the meantime, continue studying the verses above as part of your daily devotional time, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you about your own experience and expression of anger.


http://www.ccccusa.com/anger1.html

A Church with No Gospel

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. " (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV)

I received a call from another church this morning -- one where there is division between the Pastor and elders, including some staff, and the congregation at large is frustrated. It's a story that seems to repeat itself over and over, church after church, all over the nation. It usually goes something like this: people begin to leave because it's easier to escape than to confront the problem and they take their bad feelings with them. It becomes harder to find leaders because people don't want to enter the fray. The youth (who nearly always see right through the 'Sunday Christian' facade of the adults) lose interest in 'church' because they see it as irrelevant -- or they seek other places to be fed spiritually (like the church down the road where their friends attend). Their parents become dissatisfied and begin to look for another church home, taking their whole families with them. Now the children's ministry and other outreaches begin to suffer. Before long, only a small core is left and they are proverbially circling their wagons to stop the bleeding. The church focuses on itself -- its human and financial resources used almost exclusively to meet the needs and desires of those who are already members of the church -- resting squarely in survival mode. The community views the church as dysfunctional (because it is) having heard ample stories from those who fled -- and has concluded that that church is full of hypocrites.

There are many variations on this story, but it is way too familiar to many Christians. It may take several years for the whole story to unfold, but a majority of Christians in America today say that they either currently attend or have left a church like that at some time. It's so sad.

Paul tells us that when we are in Christ, we change -- and that change is from God. God then gives that changed community a ministry -- specifically, a ministry of reconciliation (that's the Great Commission, the church's "prime directive"). He also gives that changed community a specific message of reconciliation (that's the gospel of the risen Christ). With those tools, we literally become Christ's ambassadors, representing him and his work to this world. Paul writes, "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

And this reconciliation also impacts our earthly relationships. In the context of sending us as his ambassadors out into the world, Jesus prays to the Heavenly Father,

"As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." (John 17:18-23 ESV)

The world knows Jesus' mission and his love through his people. We are called to Christ-centred unity. The local church's witness to the world rests on that unity -- one with Christ and one with each other in Him. It's not a forced ecumenical unity, but one that naturally flows out of a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17) in a changed community. And without it, there is no gospel -- no "good news."

It's a hard and unpopular reality to face, but fewer and fewer churches in America today (even within Evangelicalism) live out this life. We meticulously proclaim our doctrine and the gospel, but in our faith-communities we remain at odds with each other! We call the world to reconcile to God while at the same time we dishonor our God in our disunity. And rather than taking the biblically prescribed steps to address the problem (e.g., Matthew 18:15ff), we either break fellowship (go to another church, taking our baggage with us) or we live in disunity. The world watches us, hears us declare our "ministry of reconciliation" and the proclamation of our "message of reconciliation," and sees that we remain unreconciled with our own brothers and sisters in Christ. No wonder they are no longer interested in what we have to offer. Without the unity Christ describes, our proclamation is empty words. We posture and defend, but in the end, we are not united in Christ and, therefore, we have no authentic gospel to share.

So what's missing? What will bring us back to this unity and empower our message and our ministry? Three things: repentance, confession and forgiveness. Until individuals begin to truly live in ongoing repentance, nothing will change. But once our hearts are broken in transparency and repentance, then we will once again begin confessing to one another and forgiving one another. Only then will we be truly one with one another again.

The Missing Ingredient

“I don’t understand. We’ve done everything you’ve told us to do…” This godly man was frustrated and tired. He had such hopes for his congregation. And yet, the issues they had been facing for many years just wouldn’t seem to cease. The truth is, they had not done everything I instructed them to do. They had not gathered together as a church family to pray.

Why is it so hard to gather God’s people for prayer? Why are Christians in the US (it seems to be primarily an American problem) so unwilling to join each other for regular, fervent corporate prayer? Why do those who love Jesus refuse to pray out loud? I’m actually not sure of the answers to these questions, but I expect most of the problem is rooted in the fact that the Church in the US has not emphasized prayer in her teaching and practice for so long that now corporate prayer and intercession is exceptional – not normative. We limit most of our prayer time together to the worship service – and this is led by the pastor rather than the flock. We teach our children to pray the equivalent of “nursery rhymes” – e.g., “Now I lay me down to sleep…” or “God is great, God is good…” – instead of teaching them how to have a real conversation with God. Many folks say they don’t like praying out loud because they don’t know how to pray; and yet they have conversations every day of their lives.

American Christians also seem to struggle on knowing what to pray. It is rare to find a church that regularly (and corporately) prays for the lost in its own community. It is almost as hard to find a church that exercises intercessory prayer as part of its corporate prayer time, with the possible exception of prayer for the infirmed and hospitalized. I have yet to visit a church (and I visit many different churches all over the country) that asks God to break their hearts for the lost, to raise up full time laborers for the Lord’s harvest from within their own congregation, or spends substantial time in repentance before God in prayer or solemn assembly. Prayer in many congregations today is very self-centered – about what we want God to do for us, rather than for God to prepare us to accomplish His will through us.

Prayer is the missing ingredient in most churches today. We simply do not make it a personal and corporate priority. But without it, we are impotent. This I have come to know first hand. If we will not pray – together as a family – our church will not change and our “issues” will never be resolved. Until we align our hearts with God’s heart in fervent and other-oriented prayer and intercession, we will not realize the fruit our blessed Father in heaven wants to pour out in and through our ministries. If a church won’t pray, the Spirit won’t move, and no one can help them. God doesn’t want our excuses, he wants our attention. It’s time to gather together and to spend our time in prayer.

Inseparable Qualities

Over the last several days, as I have been preparing for the celebrations of this Holy Week, I have been pondering about John 1:14, 17-18. I know this passage is usually considered a Christmas passage, but it's really not. It's about the nature of Christ and his relationship with mankind.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

Grace and truth. Grace and truth. I remember a conversation with my dear friend, Art Gay, a few years ago when this passage came up. Art noted that Jesus never compromised the truth, and yet he always led with grace. Jesus came to us in grace and truth. Not with one or the other, but with both. And the necessity of that combination is huge!

When one offers grace but is weak on the truth, there is often too much license in life. In the name of this inadequate grace, we do not hold our brothers and sisters truly accountable for thier thoughts, words and behaviors. We correctly define "grace" as "giving what is not deserved" but do so without the anchor of truth -- this allows all the benefits of forgiveness without repentance and change, all the blessings of the Christian life without the transformation of the heart. If we are to follow Christ's example, we must give grace that is anchored in truth.

On the other hand, truth without grace often becomes a weapon. Holding to truth by itself can lead to legalism. Even the most orthodox position, when it is espoused without grace, is deadly. The Pharisees of Jesus' day were masters of the truth, but they lacked the tempering of grace. So too today, Christians can become so consumed with doctrine that they miss the very lives around them that should be built up by it in grace.

Jesus never separated grace and truth. He did not compromise the truth -- and neither should we! But he always led with grace. I am challenged to take some time to review Jesus' example. The gospels are full of it.

Thought I'd Give It A Try...

So many of my friends have their own blogs (and some have quite a following) that I decided I'd try it out as well. Not sure if anyone would really be interested in my random thoughts, and certainly not sure I have the time or discipline to keep a "blog" up to date -- but it can't hurt to try.

Today, we've just returned home from a time of family refreshing. It rained almost the whole time -- normally, I'd be miffed. But this time it forced our family to do indoor things together. Indoor water parks, museums and other novelty attractions (read "tourist traps"). It was great! What's better, I feel quite refreshed.

I am always talking to pastors about self-care. It was time that I followed my own advice. I have recently written articles on the topic...and felt like a colossal hypocrite! But not today.

• The Emotional Reservoir: http://www.ccccusa.com/emotionalrez.html
• The Spiritual Reservoir: http://www.ccccusa.com/spiritualrez.html
• The Physiological Reservoir: http://www.ccccusa.com/physiorez.html

I'm working on practicing what I preach. For the last 6 days, it's been going pretty well. :-)