Introduction
According to the ancients, anger is a brief madness. This is certainly true if we are talking about carnal anger, about the anger of man. This kind of anger is akin to an eruption, and when it erupts, there are no boundaries. We use expressions like “blind with rage,” or “seeing red.” When in the grip of this kind of anger, we lose all sense of proportion. But the wrath of God is different. It is righteous, and everything about it is proportional. We must therefore consider two sorts of anger, just and unjust. Hinged and unhinged.
The Texts
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:19–20).
“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26–27).
Summary of the Text
Our first text rejects a carnal anger. And why? Because man’s anger, the wrath of man, does not work out the righteousness of God. The anger of man is contrary to the righteousness of God, which is why we must categorize it as unjust (Jas. 1:20). One of the characteristics of this unjust anger is that is it quick. It is on a hair trigger. It comes on in a flash. We know this because of the introduction that James gives us—the just man is quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (Jas. 1:19).
In our passage from Ephesians, we see an instance of righteous anger, but even here, it is surrounded with cautions. There is a command, an imperative—be angry. Get angry. It is a citation from Psalm 4:4 in the LXX: “Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah” (Ps. 4:4, NKJV). But even if the anger is righteous, you need to be very careful with it. Do not let the sun go down on it. Righteous anger is like manna . . . it goes rancid overnight. Over time, a righteous anger can turn into sinful bitterness. Righteous anger should be treated like potato salad at room temperature.
The Lord Jesus Showed the Way
In the gospel of Mark, we have the story of a man with a withered hand, whom Jesus healed in a synagogue, on the sabbath (Mark 3:1-6). Jesus had the man stand up, and He asked His adversaries whether it was lawful to save life on the sabbath, or to kill. They were silent, and we are told that Jesus looked around on them with anger (v. 5). Notice that the end result of His anger was that a man’s withered hand was healed. Man’s anger results in a hole in the sheetrock. Notice also how the Pharisees answered His question about whether it was lawful to kill on the sabbath day in that they went out and “straightway” began plotting on how to destroy Him (v. 6).
Another episode records the anger of the Lord, this time at the raising of Lazarus. In the KJV, we are twice told that Jesus groaned in spirit (John 11:33,38). B.B. Warfield argues (I think correctly) that the verb is best rendered as enraged. Jesus was going into battle, and a martial spirit was upon Him. He was also deeply affected by the grief that was around Him, but the central thing was the fight that was in front of Him. Again, what was the result of His anger? Life from the dead.
When Coaching Steps Up a Stumbling Block
No coach wants his players to go into the game with a lackluster attitude. He wants them to get “fired up.” No coach wants to be trying to motivate Ferdinand the Bull. He doesn’t want his linebackers to be thinking “I’m a lover, not a fighter.” But just as there are two kinds of anger, there are also two ways of getting fired up. Part of coaching means instructing athletics on the sharp distinction between the two. If a coach doesn’t do that, he is actually training his athletes for their future displays of folly during unwarranted episodes of road rage. Any kind of mental tricks that involve hating, or maiming, or destroying need to be promptly rejected—rejected out of principle.
Let us treat this first way of “getting fired up” as the little brother of one of the two kinds of anger. The little brother of unjust anger shares certain characteristics with it. It runs on a short fuse. While it is running, there are no boundaries. The rule book vanishes. A sense of fair play goes up in smoke. The attitude of anger, while it lasts, provides the only justification that it needs.
In contrast, the little brother of just anger keeps its head. It is not a blind fury. It is taken up as a tool or an instrument that will enable the athlete to accomplish a good and noble end—in this case, fair competition and winning the game. The Christian athlete walks into such a mindset as a matter of obedience. The driver is always in control; the reins are taut in his hand.
Temptations to Anger in Sports
There will be three main areas in athletic competition where there will be grave temptations to give way to anger. You should be watchful in all three areas regardless, but especially if any of these three areas have been a point of stumbling before. And of course, more than one of them can be going on at one time.
- Getting angry when you are wronged: This is the sort of thing when the refs are clearly in the tank against you. When they are in charge of maintaining justice, and are manifestly unjust, there will be a temptation to carnal anger. But note: a ref is not unjust simply because a call went against you. This kind of anger can also occur when a coach sits you down, or doesn’t start you, or blames you for something you didn’t have anything to with. Your grievance against the coach might all be in your imagination, or he might really have broken his word. In either case, carnal anger is a snare.
- Getting angry when you are hurt: To quote Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. When you get physically hurt, this can be a moment when your lizard brain wants to take over. You want to retaliate, you want to hit back, and are not too concerned over the fact that the whistle blew.
- Getting angry when you are humiliated: Say that the person you are guarding is just plain better than you, and he smokes you over and over again. Say that he fakes left and drives right, and your gym shorts are on the floor, and all the spectators laugh. Not only that, but you are the best player your coach has got for that position, which means that you are in for the longest evening of your life. When you have been humiliated, whether at your position, or on the scoreboard, there will be pressure to distract from that by blowing up and starting fights in the last two minutes of the game. But it doesn’t actually distract anybody—the whole world sees what is going on.
Like the Lord Jesus
We are Christians, which means that we are called to imitate Christ. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). The Lord was in numerous conflicts, and He got angry in some of them. But when He got angry . . . the withered hand was made whole, the brother of Mary and Martha came out of the tomb, and the defiled Temple was made clean again. In short, the Lord Jesus went about “doing good” (Acts 10:38). In your zeal to win the game—and it should be zeal—make sure that you are one of the players out there doing good (Tit. 3:14). You should want much more than to be doing well. You need to hunger after doing good.