Topic: Anger

0:00 I'll bet you've heard of the word anger. I'll even bet that you know what it means. Maybe even how it's used. But even though it's a very common word, have you ever thought of comparing the earthly and Christian views on how we should even use anger? Hello and welcome to episode 18 of Talking About Topics. An informative podcast where we, the listeners and I, compare and discuss multiple thoughtful topics using both earthly and Christian viewpoints. A new episode is published every Monday. This week's topic, given away by the title, is anger.

0:39 Now, while we all understand this word, I am going to read a definition of anger so we are all on the right track. According to Miriam Webster, anger is a strong feeling of displeasure. Some examples would be a strong feeling of displeasure towards someone's actions. Or the feeling when you find out that your podcast was finally ranked in a country, let's say Bolivia, but it drops from the 50th spot in education to the 211th spot. I would not advise asking how I got that. That's anger in a nutshell.

1:14 But what does the earth think about it? Well, first of all, the viewpoint ranges mainly from two beliefs. The first one is what I like to call the therapy belief. The therapy belief is that is the thought that expressing your anger helps control it. These people basically believe that anger is just an overused emotion. An example would be a punching bag. A way to express anger would be to constantly punch it over and over and over and over again until your feelings are more controlled. Does this work?

1:50 Technically, no. It is scientifically proven that expressing your anger just makes you even more angry. But even so, many people still believe that the therapy belief is best. The second belief of anger from the world is what I like to call the reason belief. The people who believe this thought are people who dislike anger. And to get rid of it, they confront the person or think making them mad. The confronting method can come in many forms, from simple talking to desperate measures. But it's all in a part of the reason belief.

2:30 Now, the main difference to these two are their goals. Since the therapy belief believes that anger is good, since it's just a human emotion that can be controlled. While there's s while the reason belief dislikes it and confronts the problem head on. Now that we've covered the the belief of most of the earth, what does the Bible say about anger? Well, before we dive in, let's get a bit more knowledgeable about God's thoughts on anger. Using some common sense. When you're angry, what's the first thing you do?

3:05 Do you crash out and throw things around? Do you listen to music? Or do you pray for God's help and read the Bible, His Word? My guess is that most of you y'all take the first two paths. We don't tend to turn to God in these moments, since we're all usually filled with just rage. Now if you take the last path, great job. You are taking the right path to deal with anger. If you would like to start taking this path and don't already, building a relationship with God is a great start. Just praying and reading the Bible to understand God is an amazing way to do this.

3:48 Now that we've covered what to do with our anger, let's dive into what the Bible says about this word. To start, I have a passage about Jesus when he was actually angry. Yes, guys, Jesus gets angry too. This passage is John 2, verses 13 through 17. It says, When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up into Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove them all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle.

4:28 He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, he said, Get out of here. Stop turning my father's house into a market. His disciples remembered that it is written, Zeal for your house will consume me. For context, people were selling things in God's holy temple, which was meant for worship. These merchants were turning something holy and sacred into a mall. Jesus even called it a den of robbers, because the stores cause thieves, which steal things.

5:03 Stealing is a sin, and the stores were influencing that sin in the temple. And what did Jesus do? He poured all coins on the ground and flipped tables. Why? Because he was angry. But if Jesus is allowed to crash out when he's mad, doesn't that mean that others can as well? No. This brings us to our two main Christian viewpoint types of anger. This one is called righteous anger. Jesus had a genuine righteous reason to be angry. These shops were taking people's attention away from worshiping God in God's holy temple.

5:41 That is righteous anger. Well, what's the other type? The other type is anger of the flesh. Proverbs fifteen verse eighteen says a hot tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. This passage is talking about anger of the flesh, which is anything other than righteous anger. It's the type of anger we've discussed back in the earthly viewpoint. This verse basically explains that a hot tempered person, which is somebody who gets angry pretty easily, just causes problems, conflict.

6:19 And how does God want us to deal with anger of the frlesh? Well, I have two passages about this. The first one is Proverbs twenty nine verses nine through eleven. This passage says If a wise person goes to court with a fool, the fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace. The bloodthirsty hate a person of integrity and seek to kill the upright. Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end. This says in summary, that anybody who gives full vent to their rage is a fool.

6:59 Giving full vent means crashing out, and this only applies to the earthly anger, as righteous anger is holy and perfect. The last passage I'll read to to that ties to this is Ephesians four verses twenty five through twenty eight. This says therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. In your anger do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

7:46 Basically, do not let anger decide your choices. This passage says to never sin while you're angry. It also says to not let the sun go down while you're still angry, basically saying to never let it go unchecked. Find a way to calm down. Maybe have a fulfilling conversation with the person you're angry with. But not addressing your anger is a bad idea. In the passage, it says to not give the devil a foothold. When somebody's angry and leaves it unchecked, they tend to be reckless and make reckless decisions.

8:23 Anger, when left unchecked, leads to terrible thoughts and usually a way of revenge. Romans twelve verses seventeen through nineteen says Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. Basically, revenge is bad, especially because actions pointed toward it tend to be beneficial to the devil, not to the problem in the first place.

9:07 In fact, it tends to draw you away from God. Now we've covered most on this topic, but what do we do when somebody's angry with us? Believe it or not, the Bible says what to do in Romans twelve, verses nineteen through twenty one, which says, Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

9:44 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. When somebody's angry with you, usually an enemy, be nice to them, help them, even try to assess the situation. As a Christian, like I said earlier, we aren't supposed to let anger reflect our decisions. So be nice to those who show hate. When you do this, they'll usually feel guilt and shame for the things they've done, and might even want to repent. A Christian's gotta do what's most beneficial for our relationship with God and also for heaven.

10:21 In summary, earthly anger has two ways, which are faulty, for dealing with it. They are the therapy method, which is to express your anger in a usually negative way, and the reason belief, which is to confront the source of your anger. But this can get dark every now and then. For the Christian viewpoint, dealing with your anger means to pray about it, never let anger decide your actions, and to calmly assess the situation. There is righteous anger also, which is never valid for a human, since we aren't perfect and don't know everything like God does.

10:59 Thank you for listening to episode 18 of Talking About Topics. I hope you enjoyed and I actually hoped you learned something. If you have any questions, comments, or topic ideas, you can email my main email, talking about topicspodcast at gmail.com. Again, talking about topicspodcast at gmail.com. If you would like to donate to support the show, there will be a link in description. And one more thing, please share this episode with almost everybody you know, as it's a very important topic, and I'm really trying to get my podcast out to the Christian community.

11:38 Sorry about not releasing an episode last week, I was incredibly busy. With that, I'll have an episode next week on Monday. See you next week.