2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. New International Version (NIV)
We have no alternative but to heed them. We have to change. God expects change. That's why we have the Bible. There is this insistence in Christianity on changing people by the Scriptures.
Be slow in becoming angry. Stop ! Think ! Why are you so angry ? Analyse your life in terms of your anger. What is it that makes you angry ? How many minutes are you angry in a week, and why ? Much of our anger is caused by our being in a hurry. We might have to slow down physically. When you are in a hurry to get to church, or to get to work, and traffic is slow in pulling out of your side-road, you become angry. At what ? An inanimate object like a red light, or a cautious old lady going to church ? You are just angry, and you are the loser.
The key idea for handling anger is simple: we should be slow in becoming angry. Of course ! When you feel your irritation rising, you have most of the battle won if you can buy some time for yourself by introducing slowness into the situation. Because once you do that the anger itself vanishes or it takes a form so different from what it was earlier that you don't recognise it. You see, one of the major characteristics of our anger is the sheer speed with which it makes its appearance. We speak of anger 'flaring up' and 'igniting' - like a match put to some paraffin. We say that someone 'erupted' with rage, or 'he exploded with anger.' There are certain people who are nice one minute and the next have flown off the handle. Suddenly you are furious. All our emotions are fast but the fastest is anger. So when the Bible talks about being slow to anger it is talking about an approach that will control anger, and defuse it, and help us to avoid the destruction that anger can cause. If we slow things down, for example, we can avoid misunderstandings. We think we know what people are going to say because we have known them so long, and so we jump to conclusions about them and that makes them angry with us. Go slow. Don't jump to conclusions and say some things you may live to regret.
Get rid of all the sin in your life. "Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent”. The verb is the same one used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament book of Zechariah where the High Priest discovers himself to be covered in dirty clothes, and he is being accused by Satan. Then an angel speaks; "Take off his filthy clothes" (3:4). If all your clothes are stinking you can't be selective and take off some of them, and put on fresh clean clothes. They all need to be removed, and you need to be washed before you put on clean clothes.
So it is with this particular sin of anger. The apostle Paul has shown us that it is part of a whole family of sins and they all have to be dealt with. The greatest of all English theologians, John Owen, points out that we will not get rid of any sin unless we sincerely and diligently seek to deal with every sin. We are not given the option of deciding which sin in our lives needs to be got rid of. Unless we are committed to dealing with each and every sin in our lives we will never succeed in getting the victory over any of them. Imagine a foolish medieval yokel going into battle and saying, "I am only going to worry about arrows," and he pays no attention to spears, and swords, and crossbows, and maces, and bludgeons, and cannon, and knights with lances. That man will be a dead man before he knows it. He is battling with many dangers not one.
Imagine a young Christian who has brought into the Kingdom of God with him a fearful temper, and this troubles him. It repeatedly defeats him and plagues him so that he longs for complete deliverance. Not only that, but he actually strives against it, prays and mourns when he is defeated by his anger. But at the same time there are other duties in the Christian life that he doesn't take very seriously, and other sins to which he is turning a blind eye. He is attempting to kill some sins only. What he has to learn is to hate sin as sin, not only the disturbing consequences of his anger. Our Saviour bore all the guilt of all our sins and shame. When we love the Christ of the cross we will declare war on all the sins he bore. Otherwise to select anger only is to be moved by self-love, because our anger is bothering our peace and our sense of well-being. You are just battling with your anger simply to regain your composure.
There are other sins in your life other than anger. Jesus bled for those sins too. Why don't you make an effort to conquer them also ? Don't live at peace with any of them. Do you really expect the Holy Spirit to help you get rid of anger when you show no concern to deal with the other sins that grieve him as much ? If you concentrate all your efforts on one sin because that troubles you then God will leave you to struggle on in your own strength
The commandment is "get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent." That is the theme of all Scripture, for example, 2 Corinthians 7:1 "let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."
I think God can employ sinful anger in a Christian as a means of chastening him. Anger can become a plague and a burden to us and the reason is that we have grown careless and lukewarm in the faith. We are not taking seriously the warnings of Scripture. God is using our sinful anger to chasten us for our disobedience, and he is awakening us to consider just where are we spiritually, "You, a Christian, behaving like this ?" he is saying. God is calling us to get rid of "all moral filth and the evil that is prevalent." Then there are actual times when God may even use the plague of a sinful temper to prevent or cure some other evil. The apostle Peter was left to shout and swear in a rage denying his Lord as an indispensable means of correcting his over-confidence in himself.
So to be delivered from anger and to achieve the righteous life you must know that every other sinful desire is like a piece of filthy clothing in the nostrils of God.
John Owen says, "As long as there is a treacherous heart that is prepared to neglect the need for obedience in every area, there is a weak soul that is not allowing faith its whole work."
