How To Deal With Negative Emotions

HOW TO DEAL WITH NEGATIVE EMOTION

How many feel if we are prayed up and walking with the lord and just had our devotions that we wouldn’t get angry? If a person is where they need to be spiritually will they be getting angry? Is it wrong to be angry? Did Jesus ever get angry?

To find the answer turn with me to John chapter two starting with verse 13. Read 13-15 Jesus made a scourge. Most of us don’t know what a scourge is. It was a mean looking whip that was used to beat people. A lot of people like to think Jesus made a whip for the animals, but a staff was used to direct animals. The Greek word here is a whip used to beat men. The changers’ had piles of money and He scattered it onto the floor. Jesus picked up tables, I am sure full of stuff and turned them over. I think to even the most casual reader you can pick up some pretty aggressive stuff here.

Read 16-17 These people were misusing the House of God. From the other three Gospels we get the addition statement that,

…,but ye have made it a den of thieves. Which gives the idea that the traders and sellers were cheating the people. The disciples saw Jesus’ zeal and knew He had some strong emotion.

Now, let us look at another passage. Turn with me to Mark chapter 3 start with verse one. Read 1-2 There was a man with a deformed hand. The they were the Pharisees. They were watching Jesus to see if He would break one of their rules. Jesus never broke any of the Old Testament laws, but He broke the Pharisees rules many times. According their rules a person wasn’t allowed to do a whole list of things on the Sabbath. Read 3-5 With anger there are the exact words of Jesus having anger. Jesus was angry at the hardness of their hearts. Here were the suppose religious leaders of the day and they cared more about their stupid rules they made up than people. Jesus was angry at their lack of caring.

Let us look at one more passage on this subject. Turn to Mark 10:13. And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. The disciples were saying Jesus is for big people he isn’t for children. Over here we have a youth worker for them or something.

14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

The main thing I want to look at here is the meaning of the phrase much displeased. This is a very interesting Greek word. It is a compound word taken from two roots one meaning pain and the other oneself. Put the two together and you have personal pain. This word means strong personal pain. It is actually the strongest word in the Greek language to express anger. It is used seven times in the Greek New Testament. Each time it has the meaning of How dare they.

In my New Scofield Reference Bible, which has notes on different passages, it reads, “Literally, this word means moved with indignation. It goes on to say this is an unusual expression relating to the Lord Jesus.” The writer of the notes can’t figure out why such a strong word for anger is being used to describe Jesus. My question is why is this so unusual? Is Jesus any different from His Father who has the most references to being angry than anyone in both the Old and New Testaments? Jesus was and is perfect and He got angry. God is perfect and He gets angry. If Jesus got angry and never sinned then we to can get angry and not be sinning.

The central passage on anger in the Bible is found in Eph 4:26a

Be ye angry, and sin not: The phrase be ye angry is in the imperative tense in the Greek. This is the command tense. Imagine Scripture is commanding us to be angry. How can the Bible command us to be angry if anger is a sin? The verse follows with and sin not. If anger is a sin then the verse would be saying I command you to sin but don’t sin. That wouldn’t make any sense. We have seen that Jesus got angry and that the Bible commands us to be angry. You may be thinking doesn’t the Bible say anything negative about anger? Yes it does the second half of this verse says, let not the sun go down upon your wrath: We should get angry but we shouldn’t stay angry. Eph 4:31, reads,