The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 26th July 2009 by David Sansum
"Getting in the Way of Peace"
"Getting in the Way of Peace"
James 1:19-20; Ephesians 4:26-32; Galatians 5:19-24; Proverbs 14:29, 29:11
Matthew 5:22 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.
Proverbs 14:29 He who is slow to anger has great understanding, But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.
Proverbs 29:11 A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back.
Ephesians 4 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil…31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Galatians 5 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, 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. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Don't be quick to get past these Scriptures to the teaching. This is the Word that sanctifies us.
This teaching was to be entitled 'Getting in the Way of Peace and Patience'. Peace and Patience are two consecutive fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians 5 above. The word translated 'peace' is the Greek 'Eirene' from which we get 'serenity'. It is an inner calmness and is the opposite of inner turmoil e.g. anger and anxiety. The word 'patience' is often translated 'long-suffering'. This would include continuing in the face of irritation without becoming angry. These two characteristics which flow from the Spirit affect much more than anger, but this teaching is specifically aimed at addressing 'the RAGE'.
Man's anger
Often people will attempt to justify their anger, claiming that it is 'righteous anger'. Let's not fool ourselves.
James 1 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
The vast majority of our anger results from self. We become angry when we are insulted, cheated, attacked or inconvenienced. Basically when things don't go the way we want them to, or people don't treat us as we would like, we get 'the rage'. It happens in traffic, whether you're in a car or on a bicycle, when someone gets ahead of you by cheating (e.g. jumping a red light). We get angry when people push in front of us in a queue. We get angry when someone fouls us when we're playing football. We get angry when someone is rude to us, speaking to us of treating us in a way that lacks respect. We get angry when situations don't work out as we would have liked. None of these things are to do with passion for God or compassion for others. They are all about our pride, our 'rights' and what we want. This anger does not achieve God's righteous purposes.
We are taught to die in order that we may live. We die to our own desires in order that we might please Christ (Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:2-5, 2 Timothy 2:11). Our priorities are no longer to do with our convenience and getting our rights, they have to do with pleasing and glorifying Christ. How does it please Christ when we get angry when we don't get our way? How does it glorify Christ when we get angry when people insult us? The song 'Surrender' by Marc James puts it well 'I'm giving You my heart and all that is within. I lay it all down for the sake of You my King. I'm giving You my dreams, I'm laying down my rights. I'm giving up my pride, for the promise of new life.'
God's anger
We are told that we are to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). Let's have a look at God's character. What makes God angry?
We do see God's wrath poured out in judgment concerning sin. We see individuals and nations punished in justice. Nevertheless God is slow to anger and His anger lasts only a moment. God is the God of peace. God is patient and faithful. It takes some very serious or persistent sin for God to act in wrath. He often holds back His wrath, giving time and opportunity for people to repent. God wants to relent and for people to avoid His fierce anger. God is not quick tempered, and His anger has to do with genuine injustice.
Jonah 4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favour is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
We see occasions where Jesus became angry in the gospels. He did not become angry when he was insulted, betrayed, rejected, abandoned, abused, beaten and cruelly put to death. He did not get angry about what happened to Him. Jesus became angry in the temple. He was zealous for God's glory. People should have been devoting themselves to God in worship and prayer, but instead were trading for financial profit (John 2: 13-17). He was angry out of Passion for God. Jesus also became angry as He was challenged about healing on the Sabbath. He appealed to the Pharisee's compassion and was grieved to discover that they didn't have any (Mark 3:5). He became angry because there was a lack of compassion for other people. The focus of righteous anger is injustice towards God and others, not towards ourselves.
Mark 3:5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Restraint
Referring again to James 1:19, we are called to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Solomon speaks on many occasions regarding restraint. We must be slow to anger, and if we do become angry we need to hold it back. We must restrain our words (Proverbs 17:27-28) and strive to promote peace (Proverbs 15: 1, 18). Stop and think, does this anger please God? If not let it die, whatever the cause. It is to our credit to overlook an offense (Proverbs 19:11). Look up these passages and bind this wisdom to your heart. We must be very quick to get over our anger (Ephesians 4 above). We must not go to bed still angry. We must be quick to listen and to make sure we have understood one another. Much anger results from misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Peace and Love
It is vitally important that we put aside all pride, bitterness and anger. These things bring about division in Christ's Church and distract us from pursuing God together. They separate the members of the body of Christ, which should not be possible. They distract us from the great purpose and privilege of the call to make disciples of Jesus. We must make every effort to pursue peace and love. We must resolve disagreements. If we must disagree over an issue we must not fall out of fellowship over it. We must search our hearts, striving for genuine honesty, the Bible tells us how deceptive our hearts are (Jeremiah 17:9); we must make sure that no root of bitterness has sprung up (Hebrews 12:14-15). If it has sprung up, root it out quickly. God wants unity among his people. Anger gets in the way of the command to love one another. Paul makes a big deal of addressing disunity as he writes to the churches. So promote forgiveness, gentleness and peace. Lay down pride and anger. Let's make it our goal to please God in everything.
