Are we led by anger or by love?
A Simple Message
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Perhaps one of the most difficult concepts of this passage is found in these three words: “is not provoked.”
It’s a simple matter of humanity that anger is an emotion we all possess in spades.
Try hard as we might, we simply can’t completely abandon our innate human tempers.
For some, it’s easier to restrain than for others, although we all, at some point, struggle with moderating our words, actions, and choices when being provoked. Fortunately, God does not require us to abandon the emotion of anger.
Indeed, anger does exist for a reason. Anger serves as a motivator to action. Had the Founding Fathers not been angry about British rule, the U.S.A. likely wouldn’t exist.
God Himself has been angry multiple times in Scripture, Christ’s turning of the money changers’ tables being a prominent example.
So, the challenge we face isn’t to somehow remove anger from our existence; but rather to learn when, where and how to focus that anger appropriately.
I’ve heard it said that if you truly want to know where someone’s heart is, see what provokes them to anger. Does a person become deeply offended, B and combative when personally insulted?
Of course, we all would be annoyed by such a thing. But for the person whose heart latches on to such an insult, we can see that their heart is heavily invested in their own ego. If one can be insulted, irritated by it, but ultimately let it go and move on, we see that that person’s heart is not overly invested in their ego.
Likewise, if a person is angered by lies, we can assume their heart is invested in honesty. A heart invested in one’s family is going to be more likely to be provoked if their family is threatened.
By learning to love as Christ does, we learn more and more about how anger can be appropriately applied.
As our love aligns more with Christ’s, we find that selfish, egotistical, ultimately unimportant provocations no longer spark the anger they once did. As our love grows, we also find that even when a topic of genuine importance does provoke us to anger, our love still guides us.
Not being directed by anger, we still are able to say, do, and choose the most loving and godly responses in the face of provocation.
In the end, are we led by anger or by love?