What Does the Bible Say About Anger?
“Be ye angry, and sin not” — Scripture allows the feeling and disciplines the fuse. The Bible's teaching on anger, temper, and self-control.
The Bible permits anger but sets it a curfew and a boundary: “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). It consistently praises those slow to anger — a quality it ascribes to God himself — and warns that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).
Anger allowed, sin refused
Ephesians assumes anger will happen — the command is not “never be angry” but “in your anger, do not sin,” and do not let it stay overnight. Anger in Scripture is like fire: legitimate in the grate, destructive on the carpet. Jesus himself was angered by hard hearts, yet without sin — proof the feeling and the fault are separable.
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Slow fuses are praised
Proverbs returns again and again to the same comparison: the person slow to anger is mightier than a conqueror of cities, and a soft answer turns wrath away. Self-mastery, not self-expression, is the Bible’s measure of strength. Tellingly, “slow to anger” is first of all a description of God — the patience we’re called to is family resemblance.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Putting wrath away
For anger that has hardened into bitterness, the New Testament prescribes removal, not management: let it be “put away from you, with all malice,” and let kindness and forgiveness take the vacated room. The cure for settled anger, in Scripture’s reckoning, is remembering the forgiveness you yourself live on.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Quick answers
- Is it a sin to be angry?
- Not in itself — “Be ye angry, and sin not” (Ephesians 4:26) treats the feeling as real and the response as the moral question. Nursed, vented, or vengeful anger is where Scripture draws the line.
- Was Jesus ever angry?
- Yes — Mark 3:5 records him looking on the synagogue crowd “with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,” and he drove the traders from the temple. His anger was grief at evil, never loss of control.
- What does “let not the sun go down upon your wrath” mean?
- Deal with anger quickly — the same day where possible — rather than letting it lodge and sour into bitterness, which Ephesians 4:27 warns gives “place to the devil.”
