Subverted Scriptures 4

"Be angry but do not sin"  Ephesians 4:26 is subverted by being taken out of context, which in this instance is the broader context of scripture as a whole  given that other passages on the subject of wrath are scattered throughout the Bible.

The implication taken from this verse read alone, and I have been told this  by those subverting the verse in the very manner I am writing about here, is that anger is not sin.

This is usually untrue. The Sermon on the Mount is most clear

He who is angry at his brother is a murderer, and elsewhere it is written that the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Likewise is wrath listed as one of the fruits of the flesh.

Of course they are keen to subvert the scripture here in order to justify their own anger. But it is not an anger in love for it is not an anger for those who do evil such that they earnestly long for their reconciliation to God and their restoration, even though many will tell bare faced lies concerning their own motive here. For the anger of man requires vengeance first, while for the wrath of God, longsuffering, that is to say patient, anger is the last resort.

Indeed even when as an unbeliever I was under wrath of God  the Holy Spirit himself reached down in love  to save me one dark night almost exactly 38 years ago. This is not the anger of men

There is righteous anger but one must be spiritual to be righteously angry.

And the fruit of the Spirit I have never seen in any living person, Oh, I know some Christian who would count as commonly decent, but as Jesus said if you love those who love you, which is te basic meaning of the term common decency,  there is no merit in it.

(I will return later to provide biblical references for the quotes made here)

Being a good person: the unplatable truth of human nature

The way it goes and I have seen certain questions become litmus tests for this very thing, is that if one wants to show oneself to be a good person then one either seeks to love something, which is difficult for it requires commitment, a love in fact, and effort and even what may be called sacrifice; or one finds something evil to hate. This latter is much easier and I see it time and time again, I have even done it myself. But as scripture says our righteousness is filthy rags, in other words it simply does not count, for it is self righteousness. Righteous anger is not what evil you are angry at but how you are angry at it, otherwise the destructive raping and murdering anger of the Soviet armies as they plunged into Germany at the end of World War II was righteous. Think so? I assuredly do not, and feel it necessary to regard the view I hold here as the only  alternative to such I can find.

When Social Justice Warriors go berserk at an evil, even a real and manifest evil, and riot, throw tantrums, or a preacher rants about executing homosexuals simply because of an out of context misuse of a  verse in the Law of God, we see, independent of any objective truth about the evil, an evil response.

Righteous anger, I assert, is angry not  at the evil doer so much as is  angry for them, deeply desiring their restoration, where human anger simply wants heads to roll in order to make the bad go away for the convenience of the angry person. Hence virtually all the demonstrations against evil I have witnessed over the years, from those against football matches with an apartheid nation, as in 1981, one of which I saw as  a student then, to those for or against homosexuality or abortion are all the anger of men which does not work the righteousness of God (James 1:20), for   even when the issue has no personal connection with the protester, it has become a litmus test for goodness  but it is pointless, being a shibboleth to identify friend from foe not an expression of loving one's enemies

It is a bitter irony that the only people who say that man is evil are great saints, and I know none, or misanthropes, which I have been. However I suspect that misanthropes are embittered because they see perhaps only dimly, but it seems to me clearer than most, what they cannot accept

But as the Spirit leads me to repent of further man pleasing and idolatry I will come to accept what I begin to see, namely that as I am evil I do not need to conjure up a hatred of evil which is self righteousness, nor hold certain positions on certainly litmus questions in order to be seen as good by pothers, nor force good works which are invalidated as good works by their motives (see I Corinthians 13).

That my righteous is filthy rags is unpalatable to all of us. But being honest about it as well as seeking the Lord the Spirit concerning it makes for a much easier life and will contribute to gaining the peace  which surpasses all understanding