Anger is simpler to define than to identify. Expressions of anger range from the overt, in-your-face brand of open hostility to the cool indifference of a silent stare.
At times, anger can feel like an inner fire. We see red and feel hot and sweaty. Our stomach churns, our blood pressure rises, and our breathing rate increases. Our body responds to this internal turmoil with a flushed appearance. We perspire, and our jaw tightens.
Yet anger can also be experienced as compliance on the outside while resentment and hostility simmer just beneath the surface. The silent withdrawal and lack of involvement of a spouse is often an indication that one is angrily punishing the other for not doing things his or her way. Even the withholding of sex in a marriage becomes a weapon of anger instead of the expression of shared love.
The Bible has much to say about the dangers, roots, and taming of anger. With vivid imagery, the Scriptures describe the flaring nostrils of a person who displays anger (Genesis 39:19; Exodus 4:14). Another speaks of anger as an emotion burning furiously hot (Exodus 22:24; 32:10–12). Anger is also depicted as a fiery outburst that consumes everything in its path (Ezekiel 22:21–22, 31).
Several passages in the Bible urge us to get rid of any kind of bitterness, rage, or anger (ephesians 4:31; colossians 3:8). Yet the Bible does not always paint a negative picture of anger. The vast majority of biblical references to words like anger, rage, wrath, and fury refer to the anger of God. These sections, which speak of God’s anger with His enemies or with His own people, far outnumber those that tell us to avoid anger. What the Bible shows us is that anger is neither right nor wrong until there is a motive. Anger can be productive and loving, just as it can be destructive and selfish. We need discernment in order to see our anger from God’s point of view.
