Pastoral Letter 23 Oct 2022

My dear readers,


Slow to Anger, Always!

Proverbs 19:11: “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”

Anger was an emotion given to Adam and Eve when God made them in His image. The reason for this understanding is that God has shown His anger in Holy Scriptures. Exodus 32:7-10: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.”

The problem with seeing anger as a sinful emotion to be gotten rid of permanently at all costs is that very often man gets angry for the wrong reasons and it results in pain, hurt and destruction. Thus, the world attempts to get rid of angry completely by meditation and the emptying of the mind of all thoughts. Such attempts are futile. They may provide only temporary relief. It is impossible to get rid of anger because anger is part of man’s humanity together with all the God-given attributes at His creation. These attributes include love, joy, compassion, and all human traits. The problem is that when Adam sinned against God all these attributes were corrupted by sin. Therefore, we lust rather than love. We are angry for the wrong reasons and react violently as a result. Every emotion in man is corrupted. All these corrupted emotions are repaired by God in Christ if we receive Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Saviour. Every child of God will be able to feel and express all these emotions rightly, with the Holy Spirit’s help. Anger is one such emotion that has also been restored.

Every believer is able to feel righteous anger. We were not able to do so before our salvation in Christ.

The structure of Proverbs 19:11 is synthetic parallelism. The second line adds a new thought to the teaching of the first line. The first line says that we must defer anger. The word “deferreth” means “draws out.” Anger is an emotion that stretches into a long emotional line. It begins with simmering. When this angry feeling wells up within us, it intensifies into an outburst of harsh words or a bad behaviour. Very often the harsh words can be loud. The bad behaviour can be catastrophic, resulting in injury, and even death in some instances. From the time we begin to feel anger to the outburst, Proverbs 19:11a says let the anger line be long. The moment we let it be short, the feeling of anger to the outburst will only be a matter of seconds. We call this being short tempered. Another way to understand how we can defer the anger is to make room for the anger to grow. The larger the room the slower the anger will burst forth. The issue is how to enlarge the “room” in our being?

Only born-again believers are able to accomplish this. It is the work of God in Christ. Thus, the word “discretion” is used to describe the man who has this ability. The word “discretion” means “to have spiritual intelligence.” In other contexts, the Hebrew word is translated as “understanding” or “wisdom.” Proverbs 12:8: “A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.” And Proverbs 13:15: “Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.” [Emphasis added to both] Only a believer is given this discretion by God.

The moment anger begins in the believer’s heart, he will ask himself if it is sinful or righteous anger. If it is sinful, then he must ask God for forgiveness and strength and grace to let this anger die. He must rule over it and not let this anger rule him. If it is righteous anger, then he must control it even though he has the right to be angry. For example, if the Word of God is attacked (eg: some said that the Bible has mistakes), the believer must be angry to defend the honour of His Holy God. In his anger, he can write to respond to the attack so as to defend God's honour. However, the danger is that his response might be filled with emotive words that will be regretted later on and will not help the attacker. In fact, it might even make the attacker more resolute in his attacks. However, if the believer “sleeps on” what he has written and re-reads his response calmly and with much prayer, he will probably change many portions of his response. He will realize that his aim ought to be to help the attacker see the errors of his way. He will see that this is a spiritual battle and thus the response has to be Bible-based, logical and convincing and not be emotionally charged to run down the attacker. This approach can only happen if he gives room for his anger to grow, thus not giving way to a destructive outburst.

The second line of Proverbs 19:11 adds that it is glory to the man with discretion if he were to pass over a transgression. The word “glory” means “beautiful ornament.” It is something that he does repeatedly so much so that it is like a beautiful necklace that he wears around his neck. People will see him as a wonderful discreet believer. The question is: what kind of transgressions ought to be passed over?

We are to be our brother’s keeper. This means that if we see our brother in sin, we need to help him repent so that he will get rid of his sin. This will help him to return to holiness. We cannot pass over our brother’s sin. We must prayerfully confront. Sins against God must be dealt with and not passed over. Cowards will keep silent and not rise up to defend attacks on God's holy Word. The only transgressions that we can pass over are sins committed against each other for Christ’s sake. Jesus taught us these truths in Luke 6:27-30: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.” (cf. Matt 5:38-42)

The discreet believer who gives a large room for his anger to grow will finally say to his own soul that for Christ’s sake he will suffer wrong. He will let his anger and the feeling of injustice settle and slowly ebb away completely. He will replace his anger with the love of Christ. His prayer is that this might help the attacker see the love of God in Christ in his life. He knows that his life in Christ includes suffering for Christ.

Conclusion – Anger can be sinful or righteous depending on what is it that cause us to be angry. But either way we as believers must not sin. In the case of sinful anger, we must get rid of it the moment it begins to rise within us. In the case of righteous anger, we need to give a large room for it to grow so that we have time to respond. In the case of personal sufferings for Christ, we will feel the anger and the injustice in our lives. But for Christ’s sake, the transgression against us must be forgiven and forgotten so that others will see Christ in us. May our loving heavenly Father help us to be slow to anger always.



Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,
Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew
Advisory Pastor


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