So let's get started with a question, is anger a sin? It depends. Our human anger, which is sinful anger, is wrong. This is because we get angry about things affecting us. It is a selfish anger. A few examples include if something doesn't go my way, if my feelings are hurt, if my boundaries are crossed, or if I don't get what I want…and so forth. The whole community is me…myself…and I. In other words, we make ourselves the judge, jury and witness. We become god and think that all else must serve us. You see, we become angry when people, places and things don't bow to our leadership.

You may not believe me, but when I become angry with someone and yell at them, I just think, "Why did I yell at that person?" I found out that it always has something to do with me or someone not doing what I wanted them to do, and so forth. This sinful nature comes from the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They chose their own opinions instead of God's instructions. Look how that turned out for them—not so good. They thought they knew better than God, the God who created the world in six days and had a day to rest (and maybe watched Sunday football).

Yet we look at them and say, "Why would you do that? Look at what you did! Now we all have to suffer." When you think about it, we do it all the time. I know I do. I do it all the time and I feel terrible afterward. People replaced God. That's the problem. We play God. So when the world doesn't obey, we get angry at it or with God for not doing what we want, for not bending to our awesome will. So how is God's anger different?

God's Anger

God has righteous anger, anger with justice. It's crazy because God knows everything—what I have done and what I am going to do, what this world is going to become—but it angers Him because we have basically given Him the finger. We just brush Him off our shoulders. His anger is different because He is without sin—pure, life, loving, joyful…

So when people go around living from "me, myself and I," they are separated from God. They just stink up the place. So God eventually gets rid of them. I know this sounds crazy, but it's true. This is called God's wrath. So imagine God cleaning a house and putting all the junk in the garbage can or dump. The Bible calls this the lake of fire or hell. Because God loves us, He doesn't want to see us get cut off from Him. We are lucky that our God loves us. Thank goodness our God loves us so much. That is what the gospel is—the story of God sending Jesus to die for us. Jesus is God's answer to the problem. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." He even sent His Son for those people who don't care, the people who spit on His Son and the people who beat Him and killed Him. I don't know about you, but I would think He was angry. He was sad for Jesus' suffering, joyful at His resurrection; but I am positive God also was angry.