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Now let's start the show. In time, Christians have gotten really in touch with our emotions. But there's one emotion that we still don't know how to think about, and that is our anger. Wrestling with anger coming up today on the Clear Read Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis, and welcome to the Clearview Today studio right here in our space with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. For those of you who are joining us for the very first time, Dr.
Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor, Carolina University author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, welcome. It's good to be here. Good to see you.
Good to see you. You know, Dr. Shah, one of the things that we talk about on the show is how do we live with our emotions? How do we go through the Christian life? And anger.
It's one of those emotions that we really, really, really not only struggle with, like struggle feeling angry, but what in the world do we, or are we supposed to think about it? Is it a sin? Is it not a sin? God gave it to us, but at the same time, it gets us into so much trouble. I can't handle it.
What in the world? What do Christians do when they get angry? Ge become like a Hulk. Start going green around the gills. Christian smudge.
Now, full disclosure: I have never been angry. I've never struggled with anger once in my life. Never, ever lost my temper one time. But for the person out there who has. Right, right.
For the heathen. Right. For the heathen, the outcast, those who cannot control themselves. Absolutely. More base in their understanding.
Yeah, of course. How do we navigate, process, think about, and handle anger when it arises? We are made in the image of God. Which means we reflect who God is. Whether you're saved or lost, we reflect the image of God, which means.
If God Can get angry, so can we. He gets angry, but he doesn't sin because he is holy. He has righteous anger. We sometimes do, but many times we don't. Many of our anger is not from righteousness, it's from selfishness.
is because our feelings got hurt. If it's because somebody didn't give us our proper due, or they embarrassed us, or they hurt our feelings, so they took advantage of us. And at that moment, it's just anger for what you've done to me. And that's how we sin. Yeah.
Anger itself is not sin. Right. But unlike God, we are sinful beings. You just blew a lot of people's minds. Yeah, I know.
I know there are people out there thinking, like, you're not supposed to get angry. Being angry is a sin. Like, you can't be angry as a Christian, but you're 100% right. If God gets angry, then we have that capacity within us to experience that. That human emotion that's tied back to God's image within us.
That's true. We've been talking a lot about trials and temptations in the book of James, right? We were in the book of Job for a long time.
Now we're walking through the book of James. And these past couple of weeks have been exploring trials and how trials bring about temptations in our lives. And we've been kind of wrestling with that. But one of the things that we wanted to talk about was one of the most common responses when we go through trials is we get angry, right? It's almost like the knee-jerk reaction.
Why do you think that is? Why is it so hard for trials to come our way? And as Christians, we know they're coming.
So why do we always respond in anger? Because we feel like. That You know, you're obeying God, you're serving God, you're doing the best you can. You may not be hitting all tens every time, but you're doing the best you can. And then when.
Things happen or people do things that are wrong, we feel that it is so unfair. It is so not right what they did. And while you're doing the best you can, they're doing this. It's self-preservation, you can say, or just a sense of self-protection that rises up. Like, I'm going to fight back against this bad behavior.
And it comes out.
Now, those are, I would say, natural reasons why we get angry. But then there are other places where it's just dumb because we're tired, we're stressed out. Because we have other issues we're dealing with and hence anger comes out.
So there are those as well. But I think. At the root of it is just You know, feeling that this was unfair. This was just flat wrong, what you just did to me. I'm trying to get to work and you're trying to drive slow.
How dare you? I'm trying to get to work. I don't know what you're doing.
Some of us have places to be. That's right. Or, you know, a parking space.
Somebody just jumps in front of you. I mean, man, I'm sitting here. Yeah. How selfish can you be? I mean, I'll force anger.
Oh, you know, they you know they saw you waiting for that spot, too. Like you said, I know. Yeah, you sat there and parked. The other person's backing out, but they're like, I'm going to just get it real quick. Yeah, it's happened to me before.
Oh, it's happened to me. You talked earlier, Dr. Shah, about God gets angry and doesn't sin. And humans sometimes have that element of righteous anger, but most often our anger is sinful. What is the qualification?
What's the differentiation between righteous anger and sinful anger? What he's asking is, how do I have permission to get angry? How am I allowed to be angry?
Well, I don't know if I can give you reasons how you can be angry, but I can tell you what to do when anger. You know, when you have to deal with anger. Because that is something we can address. Because each one knows their own situation. And you know, something that may bother you may not bother me.
Something that may bother me may not bother you. You're like, I have no idea why you're so angry about it because it's not a big deal. But I think if each of us in our own situations would apply what James has to say, I think we would go a long ways in keeping our heads. In not blowing it blowing up, in not destroying relationships, in not in not creating bad memory marks. 'Cause that's what happens when we get angry and do things or say things.
then now we have this past. And the thing about the past is you can forgive it, you can try to forget it, but it stays there. Yeah, it's always there. It's there. It's embarrassing, it's shameful, it's you name it.
Yeah. Is this section we're about to read? This is James chapter 1, verse 19 on. AT Robertson, who was a Greek scholar. He was a Southern Baptist.
professor of New Testament and Greek, and he was a phenomenal guy. He wrote this massive grammar, which is sort of out of date, but is still very much used today for its examples. When he talked about James, he said this section, he said, nowhere. is James richer than this wonderful paragraph, in verses 19 through 27. And it is.
It is quite amazing. And I want us to walk through it. We may not be able to finish it all in this episode. We may have to come back again tomorrow. Yeah.
But I want us to walk through it. That's okay. Yeah, let's do it. I want to do it.
So the first thing he says is verse 19.
So then. Means therefore or wherefore, my beloved brethren. Or you can say cistern. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. There is a progression that leads to anger.
Anger begins when we fail to listen. Let every man be swift to hear.
Now, I'm not saying. that James is here discussing The reasons for anger, I mean Yeah, there are reasons, and we discussed a little bit of that. What he's discussing more is: these are the marks, the signs that should alert you to stop. I know personally, there have been many times I haven't. I've completely ignored the signs and kept on driving around that bend at 80 miles an hour.
Same. I've done absolutely the same thing. I have in my head a trajectory that things are supposed to go. And when one thing happens, I don't take in the. I don't take into consideration what that person is thinking or feeling or where they're coming from.
I'm like, no, that. What are you doing? You've messed up. We're headed here. Yeah, it's almost always because of something I missed.
Yeah. And it usually comes because I wasn't listening. Right. You know what I mean? I've missed something, not because it was withheld from me, which is usually what I think, but because no, I just missed it.
I just didn't listen to my mind. Yeah, we're so busy trying to explain ourselves or argue our point or complain about our troubles. that we're not listening. Proverbs 17, 28 says, Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace. Even a fool.
So if you have nothing upstairs, or one thing you can do. Stop and listen. I've never close your mouth. This is something that I think you've said to me, but I've never in my life regretted something I didn't say. Oh, yeah.
I've never regretted just being quiet and listening. Yeah, so many times that I have said things and there are times that you need to say things.
Sometimes we're just like, I'm just going to walk away. Yeah, there is a place to walk away, but make sure it's not a situation like Paul confronting Peter. He had to confront Peter in front of everybody because Gentiles were watching, and Peter had insulted them. Before the people from the Jerusalem church had come, Peter was good with eating with the Gentiles, but then the moment they came, he got up and he moved away. And Paul saw that and he said, No, no, no, I'm going to confront you now.
And he did. But that was A worthy cause. This was not just Paul being angry. This was Paul saying, If I don't say anything, those Gentiles will say, We see how this is. We see how this goes.
You all want to love us, and we're all one in Christ. There's no Jew nor Greek and all that stuff. But when it comes down to it, you guys stick together. That's right. You Jewish people stick together.
And Paul confronted Peter in front of them all. I mean, that was an angry, I would say, interaction. Yeah, I would say so. But in many situations, that's not what's happening.
So, if it's something like that, that something needs to be done here and now, something this is critical, okay, definitely speak up. If not, Take the time to listen To what is being said. I think Paul, like in Paul's, because people will bring that up, but Paul was not directly affected by that in the immediate. You know, Paul, there was no way Paul could have taken that personally. There was no way Paul could have taken personal offense to it and therefore reacted that way.
It was on behalf of the gospel. And I can't think of a single time I've ever lost my temper on behalf of the gospel. No. Yeah, I mean, this was a worthy cause. Of course, yeah.
And I don't, personally, there have been many times in my life, it was not a worthy cause. I spoke when I should have been listening. You know, Zeno, who was a Stoic philosopher. He said, We have two ears. and one mouth, Therefore, we should listen twice as much as we speak.
Great, great advice. And it's advice that served me well in life. I can think of all the times I've had something in my mind, and I'm like, if I say this, it's going to really turn the tide of the conversation. And I didn't say it. And within five to 10 minutes, I was like, thank goodness I didn't say that because I had no clue what I was talking about.
Yeah, there are times I have not listened. I listened to a little piece and then I just went with it. And. And it was not good. Yeah.
Yeah. There are plenty of times that I opened my mouth and regretted. What I said, because once it's out there, you can't take it back. There's no undoing what you've said. It's out there.
Absolutely. It's kind of cool how James kind of. With like Subtextually doubles back on himself when he talks about like we can't control our mouth. It's kind of fun because, well, not fun, but it's kind of interesting that we're now seeing the real world examples of that. Because we think of like a person that can't control his mouth, and it's like, no, I can control my mouth.
But now we're talking about anger. No, I can't. No, okay, I see what you're saying. But then he goes on to say, slow to speak.
So swift to hear, slow to speak. During times of conflict we often say things That are uncalled for. We don't listen. On a lot of boards and committees. And in my early years of being on those boards and committees, thank God, I mean, he allowed me to be on those commit boards and committees.
But in the early years, I was not listening. I was thinking about what to say. And then over the years Other than the fact that I have matured, hopefully, not in every way, but I'm in the process of maturing. One thing I've learned from good leaders I mean, I'm talking about good leaders, is they listen and they pick up things that the average person is not picking up. Mm-hmm.
And I often ask myself can I do that Hmm. Do I do that? Or do I just get bits and pieces here and there, and I'm just ready to go. Am I really listening to what all is being said? And am I truly grasping the essence, the heart, the m the motivation Behind what is being said?
Am I really able to grasp? And there are people who are. And then there are people who are completely the ball is hit in the right outfield and they're running towards the left. Is that something that people, is that something that leaders are born with, or can that be cultivated? I think it can be cultivated.
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think maturity, and I would say biblical maturity, is what is needed because this kind of stuff, it's not out there in the world. Mm-hmm. Okay, so yeah, Zeno said that one time, you know, and a few more have said here and there, but overall, the the whole spirit of listening to people.
Listening to God? It's something very b Biblical, very Judeo-Christian. But also slow to speak. Again, going back to A.T. Robertson, he says.
anger inflames one to hasty and unguarded talk. In turn the words act as fuel to the flames, The talk inflames the anger, and the anger inflames the talk. The more one talks, the angrier he becomes, like a spit fire. If one stops talking, His anger will cool down for a lack of fuel. That's a great point.
You know, I think about that not even, not even with just anger, but with just rambling. You know what I mean? I find so many times, like when I watch the stream of Sunday Morning Back. I'm so. Critical of how much I'm talking and saying nothing.
You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think when he's talking, James is talking about being slow to speak, how much wiser. You feel and are the less that you say. It does feel kind of unnatural at times to speak and to pause and to intentionally create spaces in between your words.
But what often happens is you give your brain time to catch up with your mouth.
Sometimes my brain is and my mouth are not moving at the same pace. And so I'll say something before I really, like, really think through, should I have said that? Or should I have said it that way? And so if you slow down and allow yourself pauses and allow yourself time to think between your sentences, you'll say things much more intentionally rather than just spouting off of the mouth. I think a lot of times, and tell me what you think on this, Start Deshaun, but I think a lot of times we also listen to respond.
I'm listening to what you're saying, but I'm filtering it through what I'm about to say. Oh, this is the mantra right now. This is the motto of our culture right now. Yeah. I'm listening to you, but I'm ready for another one.
Right, right, right. Are you going to process this? Are you going to process what's being said? Are you going to truly filter it through reason, through wisdom? Through the word of God?
No, I'm not, I'm not planning on doing any of that. No, I already know what to say back to you. Right. Yeah, like I see it in interviews. Like, they're not even supposed to be debates.
Like, I'll see it in interviews. Like, they'll ask a question. An interview will ask a question. And then the person answering it asks, answers it. Perfectly, perfectly well.
It's very reasonable. It's very interesting. Let me ask you another question. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Something else I wanted to run by you here. You said that. But you didn't respond to what I just said. Oh, I'm not responding, sir. I'm just asking questions.
Sounds like somebody right now says that. Yes, it does. It gets me so mad because I'm like, he just spiked that serve that you gave him. And it's like, I'm not going to acknowledge it. And when you point it out, that tactic becomes so obvious.
Before it's like rapid fire, like, oh my gosh, I have to respond to every single thing. But when you point out, this is a tactic, this is a rhetoric, this is a method. This is just a way to throw fuel on the fire so you will keep responding. With every response, your temperature starts boiling, your emotions are rising, and now you're going to slip up and do or say something that I can then hold. Say, what did you say again?
Yeah. I got you. I got you on my camera. I have you on my cell phone. I've got you.
Now I'm going to use this against you.
So I don't know if that's like a modern thing. Like, this is just the times we're living in, or if it's always been that way, that people want you to get angry because they know that the moment you get angry, you've lost. I think it's always been there. Yeah. It's always been there.
Yeah. And it's tragic because when we do that kind of behavior, Then we're going back to the Dark Ages. We're going back to barbaric. Times where reason and logic and explanations were. The way you resolve things and you build things And you built relationships and friendships and you created things.
But now it's simply about getting one up on you and then. Humiliating you or You know. you know, ha push you pushing you up against the wall with my words or with my half-baked logic. And that's not how a society functions, that's not how a culture flourishes.
So again, using Proverbs, Proverbs 15, verse 1: a soft answer turns away wrath. but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 10:19, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Means sometimes you have to just put a filter on your mouth, the Holy Spirit filter, that says, I can say this, and this will win. But just like Ryan said a few moments ago.
You know, there's a lot of times I walked away from situations. Thinking that was, I could have just not said it. It's so, it's so frustrating. It's frustrating too when you are. doing it right.
When someone says something, you say, you know what? Let me just keep my mouth shut. Let me just be wise, walk away. And almost all, not always, but a lot of times the person is like, and you know, you're quiet because you know that I'm right. You know, I'm right.
That's why you have nothing to say. I'm like, oh my gosh. But then it's when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, just stay quiet.
Now, again, I want to make it very clear: if somebody is beating up on somebody, somebody taking advantage of somebody, you better speak up. Right. Okay. Or do something about it. Don't say, well, I just, you know, me.
Don't know. No, you're being cowardly. But there are situations where it's not the same kind of Intensity or the you know there's nothing that critical that is hanging in the balance.
So, make sure you recognize what is at stake. And if it's something critical, important, and hurtful. Yeah, you better speak up. If not, Use your words wisely. I think about a story my dad used to share.
Where are these this This little boy. He was a rambunctious little feller. And he He just knew how to Make people angry. And he he saw this m this man walking by him. He was well dressed, professor like guy, you know, suit and tie, white shirt, nice pants, nice shoes and s suit on.
He's going to work. And this little kid is like, oh, I'm going to throw this mud right on you. I knew it was going to be mud. A little troll. I knew it had to be mud.
And he picked it up and flung it right at him, splat. And that professor looking man, he was like, I want to go over there and wring his neck. But if I did that, everybody watching around me will be like, Look at this man. He is educated, but he cannot control himself. It's just a kid.
Come on, you gonna beat up on a kid?
So Professor Dug in his pocket, found a quarter. He walked over the kid and said, There you go, son. And walked off. The kid's like, wow. Just confused.
This was the best decision of my life. I should do this more. I should do this more. Well, walks by a guy in a leather jacket. Oh, no.
He picks up a mud pie and throws it at him. And you know what happened. Of course. I guess the kid didn't get a quarter. No, he got something else.
I mean, it's a made-up story, but the whole point is, you know. Control your mouth. Yeah. Think about what will happen.
So, know when you need to keep your mouth shut. Like somebody said: a closed mouth gathers no foot. Oh, I like that. That might be the title. Closed mouth gathers no foot.
That might be the title of our episode tonight. Oh, I love that. I need that t-shirt now. Yeah, that's good. That's a t-shirt.
That's a coffee mug. That needs to be available for merch immediately. Check it out on the clearviewbc.org. Close mouth gathers no foot. Isn't that true, though?
I mean, I think everybody who is listening and watching this, you can relate to that. Like you open mouth and just before you know it, you've made a fool of yourself. And it's interesting, too, because there are times where it's like, yeah, that was embarrassing. I wish I hadn't have done that. But you'll forget it in a month or so.
Then there's times where you do it and it's like, I'll remember that. And the person I'm talking to will remember that for the rest of my life. And it's always a gamble. It's a roll of the dice. How do you know which ones you're going to forget and which ones will stay with you for life?
You don't. That's right. It's a scary thing. And I've said things to people who are no longer in my life that I'm like, man, if I could go back, I would definitely say that. I'd stay different for sure.
I'd probably just keep quiet. Yeah, I might not say anything at all. But going back to James, you know, swift to hear, slow to speak. and slow to wrath. The Greek word there for wrath is orge, which is not explosive anger, but a deep seated inner resentment.
What I've found in my life is people who get like explosively angry, they're wrong. I mean, all anger is like this kind of anger, is wrong. But explosive anger. I can understand. It's like you got angry about something and but I know this person They will be like I'm sorry, it was I was dumb.
I was I was tired or I was Stressed out, or I don't know. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. You can see that. The deep-seated resentment type of anger.
That's something to worry about. Yeah, I think you're right. That is reflecting.
Something deeper, sinister, evil that is inside. And we need God's grace to get over those kinds of things. We need. To pretty much immerse ourselves in the Word of God. To allow God to do a deep surgery in our heart.
This is not an overnight fix. This is not going to be like a one, two, three, and you're done and you're able to get over this kind of anger. This is something that requires. I would say even years of Learning and growing in the word, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the person of Jesus Christ to become that person.
And even then, you make some mistakes and you have those moments that you fall flat. It's like. You know, you're transported back to 30 years ago, and it's like, what just happened? Yeah. But what happened was you forgot.
To lean upon Christ, you forgot to draw upon His Spirit, His power, and you started. you know, trusting in your own self. And immediately the old dead man came back to life. I mean, not really, but it's it's kinda like that. You're resurrecting the old Adam.
Inside of you when that is done.
So daily walking with Christ and in his word will allow you to keep that that old dead self, Held in a position of death. There are people who are listening to this right now, and they're like, I'm that person. I've got some deep, deep, resentful anger in me. And now they're looking at the time left on this episode and they see we only got two minutes left. There's some disappointment.
Dr. Sean, I'm angry right now, and I don't know if I can wait till tomorrow's episode. Just tell me what I can do to get me through until tomorrow morning. P-R-A-Y, pray. Pray in those moments when you're about to go over the edge, in those moments that you're about to do something.
You're about to take action? And it may be words, it may be you know, hands, whatever that action is, stop at that moment. You can. We know that we have more self control than we claim to have. We know that when we're going through an intersection, No matter how fast you're trying to get through, we will stop.
Means we have self-control. We will be going 85 miles an hour. And the moment you see those lights, or you see those cars sitting up on the hill. The police or the state troopers, we slow down. Why?
We have self-control. That's right. Yes, you can. In those moments, stop and give it to God and say. Help.
That's all you gotta do. You don't need a long prayer. Help. and God will help you. That's right.
Amen.
So hopeful for those who are listening out there and struggling with anger right now, pray, give it to God, and trust that He will do a work in you. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow, same time, same station. We're going to dive further into this topic of anger through the book of James and how we as believers can rightly handle it. Make sure you're following us on all of our platforms and you're following us wherever podcasting content can be found. Big thanks to our sponsors for making today's episode possible.
And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show. First of all, sharing the episodes with your friends, but also by supporting us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give. That's right. Got a big, big, big apologetics conference right around the corner, March 28th. That's very, very soon, just a couple of weeks from now.
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