Wrath of the Rightous

Sin of Wrath versus Righteous Wrath

In the last blog post I covered temptation and sin in the temptation of Jesus in the desert. I also touched on the Seven Deadly Sins which are a teaching of the Catholic church and 3 of those sins were identifiable in the temptation of Jesus.

Jesus teaching is most often identifiable with the themes of love, tolerance, and forgiveness which makes the scene in the second chapter of John versus 13-16 even more shocking to read. 

John 2:13-16

And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:  And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.

This brings up the question of what does the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Prophets say about anger and wrath? I found a some teachings on anger and I these are the ones that I think answer the question the most.

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Wrath is something that God can and will express (see Garden of Eden, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Flood)

Lynn G. Robbins, General Conference April 1998 

"He damages and often destroys families within the walls of their own homes. His strategy is to stir up anger between family members. Satan is the “father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another” (3 Ne. 11:29; emphasis added). The verb stir sounds like a recipe for disaster: Put tempers on medium heat, stir in a few choice words, and bring to a boil; continue stirring until thick; cool off; let feelings chill for several days; serve cold; lots of leftovers.

A cunning part of his strategy is to dissociate anger from agency, making us believe that we are victims of an emotion that we cannot control. We hear, “I lost my temper.” Losing one’s temper is an interesting choice of words that has become a widely used idiom. To “lose something” implies “not meaning to,” “accidental,” “involuntary,” “not responsible”—careless perhaps but “not responsible.”

“He made me mad.” This is another phrase we hear, also implying lack of control or agency. This is a myth that must be debunked. No one makes us mad. Others don’t make us angry. There is no force involved. Becoming angry is a conscious choice, a decision; therefore, we can make the choice not to become angry. We choose!"

We can choose how we react, we can choose not to react in anger. We can choose to take a deep breath and react in love, we can choose to take a walk, go to the gym or any other way to get control and not say hateful things that we don't mean to people we love...or do even worse.

Matthew 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

We are commanded to forgive and to be slow to anger. That does not mean being an doormat and as Matthew says we should not be angry without a cause. There must be a valid reason to be angry..and even then we need to control our anger and not let it control us.

Gordon B Hinkley, General Conference October 2007

Anger may be justified in some circumstances. The scriptures tell us that Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple, saying, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13).

But even this was spoken more as a rebuke than as an outburst of uncontrolled anger.

Finally, what started this topic. Jesus had a justified anger and the men who had turned his Fathers house into a marketplace populated by thieves. Jesus drove them out of the temple, but he did not chase them down, he did not swear vengeance. He just fixed the situation. He rebuked them.

Anger and wrath must be avoided when possible, controlled when not. I highly recommend reading both of these talks in full. Anger is an emotion, it is not a sin. Sin follows when we don't control it, when we let it control us.