This essay discusses the deadly vice wrath and the contrasting biblical virtue forgiveness. It describes the differences between the sinful anger and the justifiable anger of man and it describes the justifiable anger of God. Furthermore, it discusses how wrath and revenge cause problems in our postmodern society. It illustrates this by considering a current issue that affects the United States. It reflects on the issue of school shootings and how they are often linked to the desire for revenge. It discusses how postmodern thinking promotes these types of problems in our society. Additionally, it discusses how forgiveness can combat revenge and wrath. And it discusses how a Christian should resist the deadly vice wrath and pursue the biblical
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Anger is not always bad. There are instances where anger is justified (DeYoung 124). Per DeYoung, justifiable anger or “the holy emotion” of anger is expressed when someone we love is endangered or is injured (121). In his book, Deadly sins and saving virtues, Donald Capps describes justifiable anger as an appropriate response toward injustice (30). Justifiable anger intends to do something good and seeks to do justice (DeYoung 121). For instance, the effort to advocate on behalf of someone who is beings mistreated and to lawfully pursue punishment for the one doing the mistreating is an expression of good and justifiable anger (130). Aquinas asserts that anger is an appropriate response toward wrongs committed together with an appeal to correct those wrongs (118). He asserts that “anger is the instrument of justice”, as long as it is modeled after Jesus Christ (118). There are occasions when Jesus demonstrated his anger. Matthew 21:12-13 tells us how Jesus went into the temple of God and knocked over all the moneychanger’s tables and threw out all the buyers and sellers in the temple, and then Jesus said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (KJV 963). The moneychangers were robbing the Jews by manipulating the exchange rate for the temple money and this angered Jesus. “When we transgress justice—what is owed to God or our neighbor—we arouse God’s anger” (DeYoung 128). In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards describes God’s justifiable anger as furious and fierce and tells us that it is only God’s grace and willingness to forgive that keeps mankind from being immediately plunged into the depths of hell
Anger is not always bad. There are instances where anger is justified (DeYoung 124). Per DeYoung, justifiable anger or “the holy emotion” of anger is expressed when someone we love is endangered or is injured (121). In his book, Deadly sins and saving virtues, Donald Capps describes justifiable anger as an appropriate response toward injustice (30). Justifiable anger intends to do something good and seeks to do justice (DeYoung 121). For instance, the effort to advocate on behalf of someone who is beings mistreated and to lawfully pursue punishment for the one doing the mistreating is an expression of good and justifiable anger (130). Aquinas asserts that anger is an appropriate response toward wrongs committed together with an appeal to correct those wrongs (118). He asserts that “anger is the instrument of justice”, as long as it is modeled after Jesus Christ (118). There are occasions when Jesus demonstrated his anger. Matthew 21:12-13 tells us how Jesus went into the temple of God and knocked over all the moneychanger’s tables and threw out all the buyers and sellers in the temple, and then Jesus said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (KJV 963). The moneychangers were robbing the Jews by manipulating the exchange rate for the temple money and this angered Jesus. “When we transgress justice—what is owed to God or our neighbor—we arouse God’s anger” (DeYoung 128). In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards describes God’s justifiable anger as furious and fierce and tells us that it is only God’s grace and willingness to forgive that keeps mankind from being immediately plunged into the depths of hell