Righteous Anger

There is a world of difference between righteous and unrighteous anger. One flows out of a holy and zealous heart, while the other is the overflow of a heart corrupted with sin.

Having Christ as our perfect example, we can consider one of His expressions of anger in the cleansing of the Temple to help us recognize righteous anger (Mt. 21, Jn. 2). In this brief story, we are told that Jesus visited the Temple and found men buying and selling sacrificial animals alongside moneychangers. In response to this scene, Jesus fashioned a whip of cords and drove them all out, dumping the money on the ground and flipping the tables, as He declared, “It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’”

Now notice a few things about Christ’s righteous anger here. 

First, it was fairly premeditated. He certainly knew that the moneychangers were going to be there when He arrived. And upon seeing them, He then took the time to sit down and make the whip of cords with His own hands. This was not an angry and uncontrolled outburst but the actions of a thoughtful man under control.

Second, His anger was connected to genuine zeal for God and love for people. This was His Father’s house, and instead of it being a place of prayer and worship, these men set up shop and took financial advantage of those who traveled there to offer their worship to God.

Lastly, His anger was short-lived. It was quick, controlled, and decisive. It was expressed in a precise and productive way, and then it was let go. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Be angry, yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath…” (Eph. 4:26–27). Even righteous anger is like manna – it will spoil when left overnight.

There are many things in this world worth getting angry about. How do you feel when you hear of a man who abandons his wife and kids to pursue his own pleasures? How about those undercover videos of abortionists making light of the murder of infants? Don’t things like these give rise to anger within you?

Of course, we could list many examples in our fallen world of things that evoke righteous anger. But even when we are angry about the right things, we must not be angry in the wrong way. Your anger should be wielded as a tool for good. It should be used for God's glory and your neighbor's benefit. If your expression of anger requires you to confess sin afterward – that is not righteous anger. And your anger should also, like Christ’s, be temporary. You must not be known as an angry man or woman.

Our Lord, at times, became angry, but He was ultimately known as a man of mercy and compassion.