Theme: BE YE ANGRY AND SIN NOT!
Text: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” – James 1:19,20.
Comment: James, an apostle and brother of the Lord Jesus was inspired by the spirit of God to admonish Christians against the vice of wrath – a sin that would prevent believers from inheriting the kingdom of God when fully established on earth. Saint Paul warned: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; … hatred, … wrath, strife, seditions, … and such like…that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” – Galatians 5:19-21.
There are people who are prone to anger. But if they fear God, knowing the evils of wrath, they, with prayer to God, would learn to govern their spirits so as not to be overcome by anger. “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger: and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” – Proverbs 19: 11.
In the Old Testament, King Asa’s ungovernable temper and his unbelief in God led him to error. To him, God sent Hanani the seer saying, “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is, the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand…Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house…” (2 Chronicles 16:7-10) Hanani did not deserve incarceration. Therefore, King Asa got a divine retribution for his anger on the man of God. He was struck with a disease in his foot which led to his death. – 2 Chronicles 16:12,13.