AVOID THE ANGRY
Proverb 22:24-25 NKJV
24 Make no friendship with an angry man,
And with a furious man do not go,
25 Lest you learn his ways
And set a snare for your soul.
This is a great reminder before we all get together for Thanksgiving. It reminds us to beware of angry people and not to be the angry person.
Notice these proverbs do not say to never get angry or be friends with someone who gets angry. The angry man is different from the person who gets angry on occasion. This proverb refers to the person who is perpetually angry. The person who is furious is not the one we want to hang out with.
The word furious carries the connotation of heat - hot displeasure, indignation, poison and rage. So this is not someone becoming irritated at the slow person in the left lane. This is the person raging at the slow person cutting them off or waving hand signals.
So, the Scriptures are clear to avoid these angry, raging, irrational people. And the question is, why? Why, with all the negative stuff going on in the world, shouldn't we be angry? With the clear and growing disregard for traditional Christian values in America, shouldn't we be furious? With all the blatant disrespect for God and His Son Jesus, shouldn't we rage? With our politicians and intellectual elites flaunting ideals and policies that are a far cry from anything godly, do we do nothing? Doesn't all this anti-God philosophy call for extreme anger?
At face value, there are many reasons to be angry and furious today. But if we are following the Lord, we keep that anger and rage in check. We can be angry but not sin by lashing out at others. And if we are adhering to the Scriptures, we will be slow to get angry because anger does not display the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20). The hidden problem with anger is that it sets a trap for our emotions. If we keep giving in to anger, it will affect us. And not in a good way.
So we can be opposed to what we see in our country without giving in to rage and fury. People love to cite that Jesus was angry and cleared the temple of the money changers and people who were cheating those who came to worship and pray. Jesus became angry, but Jesus did not live angry. The majority of the anger moments experienced by Jesus were directed towards the religious leaders who were hindering and hurting those who wanted to serve God. We can't clear the temple, so to speak, but we can pray and ask God for change and His hand on our leadership.
Anger is a trap that leads to nothing good. We are never instructed to hang onto our anger because it is so good for our inner health. Anger is a leading cause of health issues. It's poison to our inner life. And if we hang around angry, raging people, we stand a good chance of learning their ways.
APPLICATION
I try to limit the angry voices in my life. Working with a church staff, I am not surrounded by angry people. So, the angry voices from media and social media are two groups I just don't go with. This became clear to me during the pandemic, and I have cut back on the raging media now for three years. I am still informed, but I am not nearly as angry.
Avoid angry voices and avoid the trap for your soul.