“Anger is a universal problem, prevalent in every culture, experienced by every generation. No one is isolated from its presence or immune from its poison. It permeates each person and spoils our most intimate relationships. Anger is a given part of our fallen human fabric. … Sadly this is true even in our Christian homes and churches.”^[1]

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the sin of bitterness. Usually, anger is the driving force in bitterness. Bitter people are, typically, angry people. If we don’t deal with anger properly and biblically, it can easily drive us into bitterness.

Anger can have terrible consequences in our lives. Some people have trouble controlling their temper; they experience angry outbursts and temper tantrums when things don’t go their way. Violence and abuse is often caused by anger. Terrible and tragic events stem from anger.

We often control our anger in public settings because we don’t want to get into trouble and we don’t want to have a bad reputation in the community. But at home and in private, people with anger issues often vent their anger. Those we love the most may be the most common objects of our anger.

Anger is another one of those sins of the spirit that may be hidden, lurking just beneath the surface, that no one would suspect of us. Some of us here today may have anger issues that no one knows about; no one would even suspect that we have a bad temper. It’s a common problem with many people, even among Christians.

The Bible speaks to the issue of anger, and we must make sure we are handling anger biblically. What is anger, and what does the Bible say about it?

^[1] Robert D. Jones, Uprooting Anger (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2005), 13.  Quoted in Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2007), 121.