Emotional Intelligence: Taming Your Anger

When Jesus first started his ministry, he walked into the temple grounds where there were money changers. Money changers would sell animals for sacrifice and also exchange foreign currency. The problem is that they were taking advantage of those that had travelled to offer their sacrifices. These pilgrims had come to worship at the temple, but they would take advantage of the fact that these people didn't have the Jerusalem currency, so they would exchange it for a high commission rate.

When Jesus saw what the money changers were doing to the poor worshippers, his anger surged. In fact, it says that Jesus, who is often times called meek, mild and gentle of spirit, began flipping over tables, driving animals out with a whip and scaring people out of the temple while shouting, "This is the house of God, and the house of God will not be a den of robbers. It will be a house of prayer for all the nations." Now where did that come from? It came from holy anger. There are times when anger can be used to change things that should be changed. It's a positive burst of energy that says, "This should not be this way. It needs to be changed!"

Most of the time, however, our anger is not righteous anger. Most of the time our anger is destructive anger revolving not around justice but around selfishness. Our desire to control and frustration with the way things are around us triggers our anger. Think about the last time that you got angry. Was it a righteous anger or was it a selfish anger? Come on, be honest.

So as we look at James Chapter One, I want to look at verses 19 through 21 as we talk about this whole idea of anger. So it says,

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 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.

Now that's a powerful passage and let's break it down for a second so that we understand it. I'm talking about James 1:19-21.

1. DESTRUCTIVE ANGER

First of all, let's look at destructive anger and what it does.

I don't know if you ever saw the series called the Incredible Hulk. Now the main character in the Incredible Hulk was a fellow by the name of Dr. Daniel Banner who was a scientist in some sort of gone bad scientific experiment that had an effect on him so every time he became angry, something would begin to happen. Not only would his emotions surge, but there was this physiological change which would happen where suddenly this mild-mannered Dr. Banner would begin to bulk up. His pants and shirt would split, his eyes would turn green and he would turn into this muscle-bound monster of a hulk that would damage anything in front of it. He could throw you around like a little rag doll because rage would take over. The monster would come out, and you could never anticipate what the monster would do. The following morning when he would wake up from his rage in tattered clothes, he would barely remember what he had done and regret the damage that had occurred.