Train to Live on Mission – Week 21
Battle Drill #21:
Slow to Anger!
Proverbs 14:26-30 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Slow to Anger!”
Soldiers must be emotionally healthy. Emotional health doesn’t mean you will experience your emotions less, it is the ability to be aware of your emotions so that they don’t hijack your thoughts, words, or actions. The military trains soldiers in a difficult school so that they can learn to make good and right decisions, regardless of their circumstances or emotions. Soldiers are pushed emotionally, mentally, and physically to be able to do the harder right instead of the easier wrong. As soldiers for Jesus Christ, we must train ourselves in the same way.
Today we are learning the battle drill, “Slow to Anger” because anger is a real emotion that every single person must learn to bring into submission, otherwise, it has the potential of causing a wildfire. For example, the thought of a trained soldier with a gun on mission doesn’t bother most people, because that is a soldier’s life. But what does bother us, is when a trained soldier with a gun has lost control because of their anger. In the same way that this is a scary reality, so are Christians who use the Word of God in anger.
It is my calling to equip you to use the Word of God effectively, so that you may bear the good fruit of a disciple of Jesus, but it’s not enough for me to teach you the Word of God, I must disciple you to use it with emotional health, under submission to the Holy Spirit, not in your flesh. We will now look at the first action step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 14:26-30:
In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death. In a multitude of people is a king’s glory, but in the dearth of people is a prince’s ruin. He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly. A tranquil heart is life to the body, but passion [jealousy, envy, rivalry, zeal] is rottenness to the bones.
To better understand how I am applying this Scripture, you need to hear these verses in their context, as a part of the whole of Proverbs 14. (Read from the Bible). This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal [same Hebrew word “passion” in Proverbs 14:30] of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Who will accomplish bringing righteousness and justice to the nations? God will through His Messiah! God has a plan; trust Him. He reminds us of this in Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Is it your zeal or striving that exalts God? No! It is “the zeal of the LORD of hosts [who] will accomplish this.” Don’t take on the offenses of God; He is fully capable of exalting Himself! God accomplished this through the coming of Jesus Christ and we are His body, the Church. We must remember that God will establish the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and uphold it with justice and righteousness. As Psalm 100:3 proclaims, “Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
Paul reminded the Church in Galatia with his rhetorical questions in Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” In other words, if the zeal of the Lord is to establish the Kingdom, will your flesh now uphold it with your anger at people’s mockery of God, fueled by your self-righteousness religious zeal?
No, absolutely not! That is an arrogant, prideful, and blasphemous thought! One, which has fueled churches for way too long! We must keep reminding ourselves of this if we are going to train ourselves to be slow to anger. Anger is often fueled by discouragement and disappointment, in ourselves and others; when expectations are not met and ideals are not realized. We hate it when our plans, or, even worse, God’s plans seem to be thwarted every which way we turn by evil and sin. And when I’m angry about something, I feel powerful and when I act upon it, I can do mighty things. In the past, as a teenager and young military man, I fueled my anger, thinking that I could harness it for greater accomplishment, only to learn the hard way that anger was a wildfire that while powerful, yes, it was destructive as it spread into areas of my life that I did not want fueled by it, such as my relationships. I made hurtful and bad decisions because I was trying to harness the power of a wildfire. A popular culture illustration of this is the transformation process of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in the Star Wars universe.
Anger is very real, but it must not be allowed to be in control of your faculties. God does not desire for your life to be fueled by wildfires, such as anger. Rather, God desires your life to be fueled by His holy fire, the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus desires that our lives be fully submitted to His yoke – His ruling authority of peace! Paul taught in Ephesians 4:17-27:
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.
What are the first two examples Paul used in applying this teaching to our everyday Christian walks? First, you are to give an honest report (see my sermon from July 3, 2022) – “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another” (25). Second, you are to not sin in your anger (26-27), which means, when you are experiencing the very real emotion of anger, you are not to give it lordship of your life. Nor are you to use anger as a motivation or fuel source in your life. Your Lord is Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and coming again. Your fuel source is the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you to give you everything you need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Your motivation is the glory of God alone! That takes us to the third action step to training yourself to being slow to anger.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
How? By becoming like Him! God is “Slow to Anger.” That is one of Yahweh’s first descriptions of Himself, as God revealed His character to us in Exodus 34:6, “Then the Lord passed by in front of [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” This is one of the most repeated verses in the Bible because God wants you to know who He is. He has revealed this truth to us on purpose.[1] The following passages repeat that God is “slow to anger”:
- Numbers 14:18, “The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression.”
- Nehemiah 9:17b, “But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; and You did not forsake them.”
- Psalm 86:15, “But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.”
Who will give you this great understanding? The answer to that is found in the axiomatic battle drill of the book of Proverbs, found in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” When you fear God, then you will have knowledge. When you are slow to anger, then you will have great understanding. Only fools, who despise God’s wisdom, are quick tempered! James taught in James 1:19-20, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” Those who fear God will please God by being like Him (that is righteousness). That brings us to the final action step.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
There are things worth getting angry about, even when you are slow to do it, but, and this is a big but, we are not permitted to sin in that anger, no matter how righteous the cause or holy the crusade may be to you or others. We conclude today’s sermon by learning from Jesus’ example when He was on mission and got angry in the face of injustice and corruption in the temple courts, from John 2:13-17:
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”
Jesus’ anger is righteous because it flows out of love and is focused on the real and legitimate enemy. Imitation is the greatest complement you can give someone! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:16). Here are three practical observations you can apply to your life about anger, gleaned from Jesus’ displays of anger in the Bible:
- Jesus had pure motives with His anger. He did not seek selfish gain but desired the best for the other person in why He was angry and how He expressed His anger. Because He loves the person and hates the sin!
- Jesus focused His anger on the sinful behavior or corrupted activity. His anger was fueled by love and bound by the Word. Jesus’ response to His emotions was always for the will of God to be accomplished in and through His life, words, and actions. Anger that does not flow out of godly love is focused on the wrong target.
- Jesus was in control while He was angry. He did not “see red” and lose control. He did not hold on to his anger. Jesus controlled His emotions; His emotions did not control Him.[2]
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] For an easily accessible study on “slow to anger,” watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQ1nq_YJD0.
[2] “Was Jesus ever angry?” https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-angry.html. Accessed July 14, 2022.