Silas
Beloved of All
Your words show how strongly you feel about this, and I thank you for being honest about it. It is understandable to want to reject what you believe is false, empty, or misleading, and to want nothing to do with it.
Scripture teaches that there is a kind of anger that is not sin. Jesus showed anger when He saw the house of God dishonored and made into a place of business, and again when hard hearts and narrow traditions would have kept a man with a withered hand from being healed. He was angry at sin, at unrighteousness, at evil, and at the hardness that would hold back the work of God from people who needed it. In that sense, to care about truth and to be grieved by what is false or deceptive is not wrong. The Bible says we can be angry and yet not sin, and it warns us not to let that anger settle and remain.
That is where we need care for our own hearts. The same passage that speaks of anger without sin goes on to say to put away bitterness, heated wrath, anger, loud arguing, harsh and evil speech, and malice of every kind, because these things grieve the Holy Spirit. Strong language that pours out contempt can move us from a right concern for truth into a bitterness that harms us and dishonors the Lord. What begins as a desire to stand for what is right can become a settled resentment if we hold onto it.
I would point you instead to the grace of God. Grace in its very meaning carries the idea of beauty and undeserved kindness. It is not something we earn or deserve. Each of us who belongs to Christ has received grace according to the measure of His gift. We are saved by grace through faith, not by our own works, and it is that grace in which we stand. It is a grace that pardons and cleanses, a grace that is greater than all our sin. When we remember how freely God has shown us that kindness for the sake of His Son, even while we were still lost and unable to help ourselves, it changes how we speak and how we respond to what frustrates us. He sought us when we were far off and has invited us to sit at His table and receive His mercy.
My prayer for you is that God would fill you with that same grace and kindness, that He would help you discern what is true and hold fast to it, and that He would guard your heart from bitterness and harsh speech. May He give you peace, keep you from carrying anger forward, and help you to speak truth with a clean heart and with love. May you continue to rest in the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, and may His grace be with you and keep you.
Scripture teaches that there is a kind of anger that is not sin. Jesus showed anger when He saw the house of God dishonored and made into a place of business, and again when hard hearts and narrow traditions would have kept a man with a withered hand from being healed. He was angry at sin, at unrighteousness, at evil, and at the hardness that would hold back the work of God from people who needed it. In that sense, to care about truth and to be grieved by what is false or deceptive is not wrong. The Bible says we can be angry and yet not sin, and it warns us not to let that anger settle and remain.
That is where we need care for our own hearts. The same passage that speaks of anger without sin goes on to say to put away bitterness, heated wrath, anger, loud arguing, harsh and evil speech, and malice of every kind, because these things grieve the Holy Spirit. Strong language that pours out contempt can move us from a right concern for truth into a bitterness that harms us and dishonors the Lord. What begins as a desire to stand for what is right can become a settled resentment if we hold onto it.
I would point you instead to the grace of God. Grace in its very meaning carries the idea of beauty and undeserved kindness. It is not something we earn or deserve. Each of us who belongs to Christ has received grace according to the measure of His gift. We are saved by grace through faith, not by our own works, and it is that grace in which we stand. It is a grace that pardons and cleanses, a grace that is greater than all our sin. When we remember how freely God has shown us that kindness for the sake of His Son, even while we were still lost and unable to help ourselves, it changes how we speak and how we respond to what frustrates us. He sought us when we were far off and has invited us to sit at His table and receive His mercy.
My prayer for you is that God would fill you with that same grace and kindness, that He would help you discern what is true and hold fast to it, and that He would guard your heart from bitterness and harsh speech. May He give you peace, keep you from carrying anger forward, and help you to speak truth with a clean heart and with love. May you continue to rest in the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, and may His grace be with you and keep you.
