Daily Bible Reading – 10.19.2021
James 1:19-21, My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
James makes it clear that human anger is not the response God is looking for in our relationship with Him. We know anger is an emotion that is legitimate like joy or sadness. The emotion itself is not a sin, but how we express it could be.
Since James makes the designation about human anger, he indicates there is also appropriate righteous anger. This is the anger God displays on occasion.
One of the great verses that is repeated several times in the Old Testament speaks of the nature of God. It says,
Psalm 86:15, But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Thankfully, God is slow to become angry, or we would all be judged and condemned quickly! So, when James tells us to be slow to anger, he is telling us to be like God.
However, we know that God does get angry. There comes a tipping point when He has had enough. It took several hundred years for that anger to emerge against the southern kingdom of Judah, but we read this,
2 Chronicles 24:18, They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem.
Because of continued idolatry, immorality, and injustice, God’s anger finally was unleashed. It is appropriate to be angry about the things God is angry about. So, when we see injustice at work in our world, we should find appropriate ways to express our holy anger to bring about positive change.
Questions to Consider:
What are examples of sin/injustice in which we should have holy anger? What are appropriate ways for us to express such anger?
Weekly Memory Verse:
James 1:19-20, My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.