To Cause or Be Caused to Anger

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

TO CAUSE OR BE CAUSED TO ANGER

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

NIV

It is time to come to grips with having anger issues. What we need to examine is the reason we would become angered, and to get that way so easily. We do wonder about the Greek word and how it is translated. The word is parozunoo and has a direct meaning to make sharp, to sharpen, and is also used to stimulate, spur on, urge, and to irritate, provoke, rouse to anger. This word is used only in one other place in the scripture. It was when Paul arrived in Athens and was stirred in his spirit seeing the whole city was given to idols. In this case, something caused Paul to be easily angered, if we apply the same meaning that he used here to define love. We think this could be used in two different ways in regard to anger. The first is how it is used in Paul’s response to all the idols he saw. It was all the idols that provoked him to be stirred in his spirit. In this sense, we would then get angry because of what someone did or said to us. The problem is that we would get this stirring in our spirit, this anger so quickly, which would mean that we did not love that person. If we love, which we are commanded to do, as in, love our neighbor as ourselves, then there could be no reason whatsoever that we would ever get easily angered by them.  The prime example is how God loves us and He is not easily angered by our behavior, in fact, He provided a way for all our bad behavior or our sins to be forgiven. However, we still must deal with being angered, and that takes us down the path of thinking about the easily angered. What if it took something that was really grinding on us, constantly pushing our button, so to speak, always before us. We try with all our might not to get upset, but finally, we just had too much, and we become angered. Is that alright? We think not, for we are of the impression that if we love someone, we will not become angered by whatever the situation. On the other hand, we wonder if this Greek word which is used to irritate, provoke, and rouse to anger should not be seen as we are the one who is irritating someone, provoking them, and rousing them to anger. If we are to love them, then it would be completely inappropriate to do anything that would provoke them to become angered by what we did or said. This means we all have a responsibility in loving each other to not provoke and not be provoked to anger. Simply put, if we love others, we will not cause them to sin, and if we love others, we will not allow them to cause us to sin, for anger and especially getting easily angered is sin. But love covers it all, and we would not either cause or be caused.