legitimate/illegitimate anger

This whole topic can be controversial now can't it? I have had to ask myself the same original question-Did Jesus get angry or frustrated? And the answer is 'yes'.

I am reading a book called "The Other side of Love" by Trent about legitimate and illegitimate anger. Anger in itself is NOT sin-it's what we DO with our anger that is sin. Ephesians says, ...'In your anger, do not sin'.

Anger is simply a red light that there has been an injustice, or wrong behavior. When Jesus looked around the room, and saw the hardness of the men's hearts, their legalistic minds that put the law before compassion towards a lame man, Jesus, in his anger.........healed the man's hand. His response to their stubborness/meanness was to do the right thing-the thing they should have been doing as religious leaders, but weren't. And he did it right in front of their faces, as a rebuke to them. That's the proper response in the face of injustice.

Martin Luther King Jr. is a great example of having legitimate anger towards the hatred/abuse of whites, and responded by rallying millions of blacks to have nonviolent protests, and preaching the truth of God's word. His anger spurred him to constructively mobilize millions towards ending racism. But the fuel was anger, make no bones about it.

The problem is when there is illegitimate anger, when our flesh has been ruffled;someone took my parking spot, I didn't get credit...and we respond in the flesh with backbiting, complaining, slander or retaliation.

In my opinion, we have a wrong perception of anger in the church today-that all anger is sin, that it's 'unchristiann' so we ignore our anger or stuff it, and end up exploding at some point and doing more damage than if we had dealt with it properly. We also forget that God got angry with humanity all through the Bible, so yes, there is legitimate anger. We just don't like it.

This is a very important topic in light of the current condition of the church today, and how we should respond to our mess in an angrily constructive way-not in the flesh.

Peace

Sorry I meant to post this under the thread "Did Jesus get frustrated"

That's what I'm talking about. Anger is simply an emotion-it's an indication that something is wrong. The best thing to do is deal with the issue, not ignore it. Ephesians says, "Be angry, and sin not". It assumes that there will be times when we will become angry. But just don't stay angry, get rid of it. "Don't let the sun go down on your anger, and so give the devil a foothold". In other words, quickly respond constructively to the issue at hand, don't respond negatively and don't let it drag on.

But the Book of Psalms says that "God is angry with the wicked every day". God has the emotion of anger. And there will also come a time in history when God's wrath, his boiling anger will be released on mankind for their rejection of Jesus, and treatment of his saints (read the book of Revelation). For some reason we think this aspect of God's character doesn't exist. But it does.

Personally, I think it's ok to be angry at some of the things going on in the church today-the powerlessness, the apathy, the lack of genuine intimacy with the Father, the hype, the lack of preaching the whole counsel of God, the true words of life. We have a form of godliness, but deny the power all the time.

When it does become wrong is when anger is allowed to fester over these matters and we get "in the flesh" over these things. The way I know how to deal with the injustice we have towards God is to pour out my heart in intercession for the church and some of these issues. If I don't I just start to become more and more frustrated about it all.

So there you have it.