Title: The Weeds of Anger (part 1) from the series Respectable Sins
Scripture: Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8
Speaker: David Lawson
Event: Sunday School
Date: January 11, 2015
Weeds of anger are similar to weeds found in a garden. If left in you, it will choke out your relationships with other
people and with God. We tend to think of them as “natural” reactions when they happen in our lives, but we as
Christians need to be having “supernatural” reactions. The spirit of God needs to be shown in our lives and how we
react to situations is the number one way to show it inside of us. People watch us and how we show ourselves during
trying times. Some can choose to get bitter and angry over a situation in the church and they’ll blow up and leave.
Others pray about it, wait patiently, and forgive. When we blow up over things, it takes a lot longer to fix them than
it did to cause the damage from the explosion. Anger is a strong emotion and if you let it hang around, anger keeps
some bad company. In both of the following verses, notice that anger isn’t the only emotion involved. Wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy communication, clamour [shouting], evil speaking, etc. are all mentioned.
Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away
from you, with all malice:”
Colossians 3:8 “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth.”
Ephesians 4:26 is generally used to excuse or reason angry feelings. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go
down upon your wrath:” However Paul was talking about controlled anger. Think about when you get mad – what’s
the first thing you normally do? Most of us fly off and say things we don’t mean and do things we wouldn’t normally
do. This is not a justification for anger. Paul says to get rid of anger quickly when it arises. Deal with it in a suitable
manner and let go of it.
Weeds of Anger
1. Resentment: an anger that is held on to. It is internalized. It arises in the heart of a person who is ill-treated
in some way but who does not feel in a position to do anything about it. An employee may feel ill-treated by
his boss but doesn’t dare react in an outwardly angry fashion, so he internalizes it in the form of resentment.
A wife may react similarly toward an overbearing husband. Resentment may be more difficult to deal with
than outwardly expressed anger because the person often continues to nurse his wounds and dwell on his
ill-treatment. Resentment that is left untreated will turn to bitterness.
2. Bitterness: is resentment that has grown into a feeling of ongoing animosity. Whereas resentment may
dissipate over time, bitterness continues to grow and fester, developing an even higher degree of ill will. It is
usually the long-term reaction to real or perceived wrong when the initial anger is not dealt with. Bitterness
frequently occurs within a local church family. Someone is ill-treated in some way, or at least she thinks she
has been. Instead of seeking to resolve the issue, she allows her hurt to fester and over time becomes bitter.
Or it may be that she has sought to resolve the issue and the other person does not respond. Regardless of
the actual or perceived ill-treatment, bitterness is never a biblical option. We can be hurt, and acknowledge
that we have been hurt, without becoming bitter.
3. Enmity and hostility: these emotions denote a higher level of ill-will or animosity than does bitterness.
Bitterness may be to some degree be marked by polite behavior, enmity or hostility is usually expressed
openly. Often it comes in the form of hateful speech toward the objects of the animosity. Enmity or hostility
usually spreads outward to involve other people. This tends to happen when one person is mad at another
and is trying to get an outside party to agree with them or get on their side.
Title: The Weeds of Anger (part 1) from the series Respectable Sins
4. Grudge: (as in holding a grudge) Leviticus 19:18 says “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against
the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” This is God telling us
not to hold a grudge. In Genesis 27:41 we see this: “And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith
his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I
slay my brother Jacob.” Esau hated Jacob and planned to kill him. Joseph’s brothers were afraid he would
hate them and pay them back for all the evil they had done to him (Genesis 50:15). In the New Testament
Herodius had a grudge against John the Baptist and wanted to put him to death (Mark 6:19).