Have a very basic truth this week that I want to share…
Growing up I would often hear, and I am sure stated many times, “I don’t get mad… I get even!” First of all, that was not true… I would get mad, really mad… so mad that when I was really young my older brother and his friends thought it was fun to get me going and then see who could stay up the longest as I tried to plow them over. As I got a bit older, and potentially could do some harm, my brother would simply lock himself in a room until I calmed down, so he didn’t have to beat me up to stop me. Point was, I had no desire to get even, I wanted to get ahead (a head)!
Same is true in hoops… I never played for a tie (getting even); when down, the goal was to not just catch up, but to get ahead!
Yesterday in church, my friend Nick taught on the problems we face with anger… he had some great points about how it can control us and lead us down the wrong path. He quoted a friend that had told him, “if you can’t say it in love, you can’t say it!” Nick shared the following verses from James 1:
19-20 …everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
Nick then made the following statement: “When you act out in anger, it is never right.” And to be perfectly honest, I initially bristled at the statement as I thought about all the times growing up I heard preachers talk about “righteous anger” and using the example of Jesus overturning tables in the temple… Therefore, I started looking up verses, word meanings, etc; what Nick was saying sounded wrong but also sounded right… and the verses from James seem very clear.
Then I got to thinking about a theme I have shared many times through my ministry… one that filters all Biblical mandates (law) through Jesus’ words that it all has to be subject to loving God and loving others (the Great Commandment)…
I then read the verses in James through that lens and it popped out that the “anger OF MAN” does not seek or show the heart of God… it seeks to get even or get ahead! It is selfishly motivated and causes us to fight for vindication instead of restoration. We end up more concerned with making ourselves right instead of making God right…
Ephesians 4:26 tells us to “Be angry, and yet do not sin…”
What is interesting is that the word for “angry” in this verse is a different form of the word for “anger” in James… this one actually means that we can be provoked to anger (a legitimate feeling) and yet not sin… it is based in the new mindset that is talked about a few verses earlier…
Ephesians 4:23-24 …and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
I love that… the “likeness of God”… a God that loves in spite of opposition… I think of Philippians 2 where we are told to have a mind like Christ… one that gives in spite of…
The theme at our church right now is “Love is Why”; and I
remind us all of the way services are typically closed, “we love you and there’s
nothing you can do about!”
Today, don’t worry about shining the light on yourself…
your rightness… but instead on Jesus and His rightness! Don’t strive to get
even or ahead, but to share the love of Christ in every circumstance!
Side note: you will seldom win an argument (especially on social media); BUT God's word/truth does transform lives!
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