A few years back, I had a chance to sit down with some friends of ours at CCEF, the Christian

Counseling and Educational Foundation in Philadelphia.

I had a chance to sit down with Dr. David Paulison, a Biblical counselor and one of my favorite

authors.

And I asked Dr. Paulison, what is sinful anger and what does it express?

Here's what he said.

The sinful anger is an expression of the fact that I am not pleased with what is going

on right now with you, you jerk, or whatever is the variant thereof.

Sinful anger presumes a, and the mythology, the Greek, or Norse mythology is just great

in this.

I mean, it presumes a Zeus or a Thor or some guy throwing thunderbolts because the world

is not going the way he wants.

And the Bible just so enters that metaphor that the mythology is captured and just puts

us right in the seat of the kingdom builders, the ones who attempt to live for my way.

And the ones that when my almighty will get crossed, I throw lightningbolts at all offenders

or I sulk or I pass of aggressive in some way demonstrate that you are not giving me what

I want and you are in the doghouse in some way.

So the Bible has these absolutely unmistakable heart-searching, pride-devastating analyses

of sinful anger.

One of the ones that I have found most convicting and that in the long, and then from conviction,

the most nourishing is in James 412 where James says, and it's in a context of anger and

interpersonal conflict and all kinds of fussing and fighting and quarreling.

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