The apostle Paul gives us some steps for getting good and angry when he writes, "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil" (Eph. 4:26-27).

1. Be Angry.

My sister's husband left her and his congregation for another woman. When her counselor asked, "What are you doing with your anger?" she replied, "I don't have any." What she meant was, "I'm not supposed to have any, so I am repressing it." When I get upset at my wife and she says, "Well, don't be so angry," I sometimes respond (with much conviction), "I'M NOT ANGRY." She may ask the question, "You're not angry, are you?" as if anger were a terrible sin. I am learning to say, "Yes, because I wasn't treated with respect."

According to a newspaper article, "The average person feels some degree of anger or its lower-grade cousin, frustration, ten to fourteen times a day." All the more reason to identify and accept it.

If anger were a sin, we had better tell God to count to ten and cool it because He gets angry every day. Ninety percent of the Scriptures dealing with anger are referring to God's anger. Where God's love is refused or God's holiness mocked, God cannot remain indifferent. To do so would put Him beyond feeling; it would make Him impersonal rather than compassionate. The more you appreciate God's love, the more you can respect His anger. And God's love is just as true in the Old Testament as God's anger is in the New. The Bible doesn't apologize for the anger of its author.

The ability to be angry is a God-given emotion. Florence Nightingale was known for her anger against inadequate hospital care. William Carey was angered by the inhumane slave trade in Africa. The anger of Lincoln brought the Emancipation Proclamation. The anger of blacks riding in the back of the bus led to much-needed civil rights. Today, communities are rising up in anger over the violence caused by gangs and are seeking to do something about it. Positive anger can be motivation for dealing with personal and social wrongs. It can make civil wrongs into civil rights.

Parents need to rear their children in an environment in which they are free to express anger in appropriate ways without being demolished. People who grew up with the admonition "Don't be angry" didn't obey it; they just hid it. Repressed anger is the number one source of depression. The Bible says, "Be angry ...." It must be all right. So be angry, folks. (You are anyway.)

2. But Do Not Sin.

If God gets angry, then it can be godly to get angry. Jesus got angry, so it must be possible to be angry without sinning. The problem is that our anger often leads to sin. Anger is an emotion, a response to a threat -- whether to our life, our character, our opinion, our property, our time. What we do after that emotional response of anger determines whether we sin or not. All too often we say or do something, and that's when we get into trouble. God warned an angry Cain to get a hold on himself because sin was crouching at his door (Gen. 4:7).