Moving from Unrighteous Anger to Righteous Anger: Bible Verses About Anger

Do you experience righteous or unrighteous anger? When you experience anger, it shapes how you relate to it and how you act when you’re angry. Having an angry parent that acts out can provide an unhealthy blueprint for how to deal with anger when you grow up. Thankfully, that blueprint isn’t something you’re destined to follow; it’s possible to overcome what’s been modeled for you and deal with life’s circumstances in a healthy way, with the help of these Bible verses about anger.

For some people, anger is a part of themselves that they keep shut away from public view. This may be because they struggle to deal with conflict, or because they fear what may happen if they get angry and let that anger loose. One possible result of holding anger back in this way is that it can affect their mental and physical health, and that’s to say nothing of the resentment toward others that often accompanies repressed anger.

For others, their anger is often in full view, and they hold nothing back. When they are angry, everyone knows it. Perhaps they regret the things they’ve said and done in anger, or they may feel justified for giving full vent to their anger and see nothing wrong with expressing that anger in colorful ways. Typically, venting your anger can cause you to say and do hurtful things, compromising or even breaking relationships.

Your relationship with anger may color how you read Bible verses about anger; maybe it strikes you as odd that God gets angry because you see anger as an evil thing. Perhaps being told to control your anger seems like an impossible command – one that you feel stifles a part of your identity.

Bible Verses About Anger

Whatever your history and relationship with anger, the following Bible verses about anger confront, challenge, and reshape the way we view ourselves and live our lives. Every one of us is compromised by sin in a multitude of ways. These Bible verses about anger help conform our lives to God’s purposes, and we learn anew what it means to be human beings created in God’s image (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; Gen. 1:26-27).

A tale about a king, a prince, and the king-in-waiting

Many places teach us about anger and its devastating effects on human lives when it’s allowed free rein and is motivated by sin. One of the key admonitions in the Bible concerning anger is that we ought to be cautious around our anger because what we desire is typically not what God wants, and our anger can be unrighteous.

We read, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (James 1:19-20, NIV). Human anger is often at cross purposes with the life of righteousness that God requires.

The first time we encounter anger in the Bible is in the story of Cain and his brother Abel. We’re not told exactly what was missing from Cain’s sacrifice – though we are given a hint in Hebrews 11:4 that Cain did not present his offering in faith – but, whatever the reason, it did not receive approval from God. Cain’s response was to get angry with his brother and murder him; this was the first instance of murder.

We read the following: “So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’” (Genesis 4:5-7, NIV).

Instead of correcting himself, ruling over his anger, and doing what was right, Cain nursed his anger and killed his brother. This is what happens when we try to live life on our own terms, apart from reference to God.

The story of King Saul, his son Jonathan, and David is another Bible story that presents us with human anger, but it is interesting in that it provides us with different kinds of anger and different ways of handling that anger. King Saul had been told that because of his disobedience, he would lose the kingdom that God had given him.

Rather than repenting of his sin, he became insecure, and that insecurity was amplified when a young man named David began to grow in prominence as he won key battles. To add insult to injury, Saul’s son Jonathan loved David, and Jonathan pledged his loyalty to David. The story unfolds over many years, and you can find it in 1 Sam. 16 and following. In it, we see King Saul’s unrighteous anger juxtaposed with Jonathan’s righteous anger.

The king’s unrighteous anger

Even though David had been anointed with oil and was therefore in line for the throne, he did nothing to try and usurp the throne from King Saul. However, the king grew suspicious of David, even though he admitted that his suspicions were groundless and that David was innocent (1 Samuel 24). We read this episode earlier in the story:

But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there.

If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.” Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?

As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!” “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. –1 Samuel 20:27-33, NIV

In his anger, King Saul wanted to kill an innocent man, and he destroyed his relationship with his son, Jonathan, because of the vengeance he wished to exact upon David. The king even went so far as to insult his wife, and he tried to kill Jonathan.

Prior to this, King Saul had attempted to spear David, but David had dodged the attack. The king was blinded by rage and refused to recognize that the only one with a problem was him. Jonathan wasn’t clinging to the possibility of being king; he embraced the fact that David would be the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 23:17).

Saul was unfaithful to God, and he was the sole reason the kingdom wouldn’t pass on to his son Jonathan. Rather than take ownership of his actions, just like Cain, Saul’s anger was motivated by sin, and was directed outward at others, resulting in threats and murder. This is unrighteous anger, anger that is directed at the wrong object for the wrong reason, and expressed in harmful ways toward others.

The prince’s righteous anger

King Saul’s anger is contrasted with Jonathan’s anger. We read the following after King Saul tried to kill his son Jonathan:

Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David –1 Samuel 20:32-34, NIV

Jonathan did not attempt to retaliate, nor did he treat his father with contempt. His response to what his father did was to leave the situation, and he was moved to grieve as well as enact further plans to protect David from his father. Jonathan’s anger was due to his father’s obstinacy and paranoia, and it was because of how shamefully his father had treated David, a man who had worked faithfully for the king and had done nothing wrong.

Jonathan wasn’t angry for his own sake, but because of the ill-treatment of another. This was markedly different than Saul’s anger, which was rooted in selfish ambition.

Cultivating righteous as opposed to unrighteous anger

There are several examples of what may be termed righteous anger in the Bible. We encounter God’s anger in the Bible, and it is His settled response to the sin and destruction we wreak upon each other and His good world. We see Jesus get angry when people refuse to see truth, preferring ignorance in ways that harm others (Mark 3:5).

We get angry, but the reasons we get angry, our degree of anger, whether it is under control, how we express it, etc., should give us pause because unrighteous anger steers us away from God’s purposes. A good example of this kind of unrighteous anger is the prophet Jonah who is angry with God for caring about people whom Jonah considers enemies.

Jonah enjoys God’s grace but doesn’t want it for Israel’s enemies. The book ends with an open invitation to Jonah. The point of the story is to call the reader to consider where we stand.

There are parts of who we are that new life in Christ demands we get rid of. The Bible sometimes expresses it as setting aside or putting those things to death. For example, consider the following Bible verses about anger:

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. –Colossians 3:5, NIV

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. –Ephesians 4:31-32, NIV

Anger is one of the emotions that God created us with, so the issue is not so much that we get angry, but why, when, to what degree, and how we express it. Allowing it to rule over us and guide our actions is generally sinful.

If you’re finding that your anger has control over you, and you either struggle to express your anger at all, or you express it in sinful ways that are damaging to yourself and others, consider anger management counseling at Loma Linda Christian Counseling in California.

At Loma Linda Christian Counseling, your counselor can help you understand the roots of your anger, and help you find healthy coping mechanisms, as well as help you learn constructive ways of expressing your anger that honor the Lord and cultivate healthy relationships with others.