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The Greek language has different words for anger which vary from mild anger to furious, raging anger. One of these words is THUMOS. It has the sense of a raging anger. Another Greek word is PARORGISMOS. This anger includes the sense of embitterment. Another word for anger is ORGE. It refers to a general state of being angry.
Ephesians 4:26 refers to two types of anger. The first Greek word is ORGE and the second one is PARORGISMOS. The second Greek word in Eph. 4:26 warns us to not be PARORGISMOS when we go to bed (“do not let the sun go down on your anger”). Anger that includes bitterness towards another person or situation is sin and eats away at the insides. The first Greek word used in the verse (“Be angry, and yet do not sin”) is ORGE. That is, it is possible to be angry and not sin. Jesus was angry or ORGE, but He did not sin because He was angry at the cold hearts of the religious leaders. His anger was not a deep, settled anger that included rage, fury, or bitterness.
Jesus was ORGE, but He did not sin. He did not display His anger at the Pharisees. Instead he did something good. He healed the man. Matt 12:13 says that his hand “. . . was restored to normal, like the other.” What a great example for us! Instead of being angry, do something good for someone.
Pharisees Were Angry. Then the Pharisees responded with anger!
But they themselves were filled with rage, and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. (NASB) Luke 6:11 The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. (NASB) Mark 3:6 They were filled with raging anger. They had their evidence. Jesus had broken their rules, and now they actively started planning His death. The Herodians were a political group which wanted Herod’s rule to be established over an independent Israel. Normally, the Pharisees and Herodians did not like each other. But they now had a common purpose - to destroy Jesus. So they decided to work together.
Conclusion. It is amazing how people react to others when their written or unwritten rules of conduct are broken. Years ago I heard someone say that he was not going to have any “sacred cows” in his church. My response was that he had just established a “sacred cow” by declaring that he would not have any “sacred cows.” In general, every church, every home, and every individual has “sacred cows.” Every organization and individual has unwritten rules that others are supposed to follow. The Pharisees rejected Jesus because He broke their rules.
They were in battle with Jesus. They wanted Jesus to submit to them, but He would not do that. So we are not surprised that they wanted to destroy Jesus. We are not surprised that they were furiously angry with Him.
Are you angry with someone or something? Have they broken one of your unwritten rules - “a sacred cow”? Does your anger include feelings of rage, fury, or bitterness? Would you like to be free of your anger? If your answer is yes, then the only person who can help you is God. Sometimes counselors encourage people to confront the person that they are angry with, explain their feelings of anger to someone, or write out their feelings on a sheet of paper. But none of these approaches are biblical.
God never tells us to confront a person because we are angry. Instead we are to forgive the individual (Col. 3:13). We are to love our enemy.
The solution to anger in our heart starts by confessing our sin to God and asking the Holy Spirit to take control of us. Ask Him to help you stop sinning - to stop being angry! That is how you start. Then every time you feel angry, confess it as sin and ask the Holy Spirit to take control of you again. After a while your anger will disappear. The power to change does not lie within you. It is with God.
May the Lord Jesus bless you.
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