I love it when Ralphie says his dad works in profanity like an artist works in clay (or whatever medium he said). It is there that I find my old man (that old man is me before I got saved, not my father). Folks, I was an angry son of a gun before I knew Christ. I would, like Ralphie's dad, use foul language, raise my voice, slam things around, throw things, and feel justified in doing so all at once. I am so glad that the blood of Jesus atones for all sins.
Our text comes from 1 Corinthians 13,
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - NIV)
Before I knew Christ, I did not know love. I knew emotion, feeling, raw and unchecked. What I knew is how I felt at the time in my heart. But read this:
"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9.
By following my heart and believing that this was the correct thing to do, I was consistently harming myself, and those around me. I was quick to anger, and those closest to me saw it and heard it most often. And I was following my heart. I was doing what my heart told me. You see, brothers and sisters, if you follow your heart you are following after wickedness, because your heart is wicked.
Being angry is natural for me. It is natural for me to get irritated with the girl at the Food Lion who cannot seem to keep up with the volume of customers in her line. It is natural for me to fly off the handle when someone keeps me waiting. How dare they! Thank God for His grace and wisdom that has taught me to die to myself. Thank God for his mercy that has forgiven me of my anger, and delivered me from the same.
What my anger told the ones I professed to love was that I love you when you please me, otherwise, I want to kill you! You may say, wait a second, slow down. Anger doesn't mean you want to murder. Read this:
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: Matthew 5:21-24.
Jesus has likened anger to murder. Who are you to say differently? When Paul writes that love is not easily angered, he is saying that we must not be so selfish as to put our needs above others. One may ask the question, what does anger have to do with selfishness? My answer to that is everything. We become angry when others cause circumstances in our lives to be contrary to what we desire. Anger is the self following after what it wants. It contradicts agape love, which demands the displacement of the self in favor of others.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that the world has become an angry place because it has become a selfish place. We have every inclination catered to all day every day. We want what we want when we want it, and when we don't get it we become irate children throwing temper tantrums.
The remedy for such detestable behavior is the remembrance of the love of God. While God has every reason to be angry with us (I've given him several reasons already today), he allows his grace and mercy to abound more than his anger. He loves us so much that he does not give us what we deserve. Instead of death, he has given us life through His son Jesus Christ. Therefore brothers and sisters, instead of being angry, let us all be gracious toward our fellow man as our lord God has been with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?