Causes of Anger Today

➡ Paul, the voiceover for a ministry called Your Daily Bread, discusses the causes of anger and the importance of teaching obedience to children. He emphasizes that lack of discipline and love can lead to anger and hostility in children. Paul also talks about the importance of dealing with sin in the church, stating that it should be addressed with strict discipline according to God’s law. He criticizes the modern society for its lack of shame and moral relativism, which he believes weakens the church and society as a whole.
➡ The article discusses how society, including the church, has lost its sense of shame, especially regarding immoral behavior. The author suggests that this lack of shame is visible in media and that the church is no longer upholding its moral and spiritual standards. The writer also argues that the church’s neglect of discipline has weakened its influence and effectiveness. The article concludes by encouraging readers to maintain their faith and continue to make a positive impact in the world.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God Is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry, focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today’s focused discussion will be on causes of anger today. Now the first thing I think about, and I don’t want to get clinical on you here, but the first thing I think about when I read about one of these kids going into a school and taking a gun and just firing bullets in all directions is, here is a very, very angry person.

Anger has totally overwhelmed that individual. What makes them angry? Read the Bible. Read in Ephesians what it says about how you can exasperate your child, how you can make your child angry and hostile. How? By not teaching your child obedience. Because if I teach my child obedience, then my child knows how much I love that child, because I want them to live in such a way as to be blessed and enriched in all the best that life has to offer. And that comes to those who learn how to discipline themselves and control themselves.

These are children whose parents didn’t love them enough, didn’t demonstrate that love, maybe didn’t love them at all, who didn’t demonstrate that love by disciplining them so that they could learn what it is to have the rich reward of obedience, to be embraced as obedient and affirmed, and to enjoy the fruits of discipline and obedience. Outrageous, angry, hostile behaviour is a reflection of an utterly undisciplined child who was an utterly unloved child. And nothing creates greater hostility than that. Paul says, I love you too much not to be concerned about that which destroys you and that which destroys the life and power and testimony of the church.

So Paul says, end of verse 2, I will not spare anyone. The verb here is facemae. It’s a very strong word. It’s used to describe a battle situation. And it means to spare the life of a captured enemy. You have every right to take his life because he’s the enemy. To spare means not to kill him when you have the opportunity to do so and the right to do so. The idea is to have mercy on an enemy who deserves death. Well, Paul says, when I get there, I’m not going to have any mercy. When I get there, I’m not going to spare anybody.

You’re going to get exactly what your sin calls for. This is no idle threat. Paul’s going to do this. He’s going to deal with sin. And he wants the Corinthians to know that this is his concern. Beloved, when this becomes the concern of pastors, then the church will become what God wants it to be. We’ll start moving in the right direction. When we take the technology and the methodology and put it out of the picture and get consumed with the holiness and purity of the people in the church and concern ourselves with the sin of the church, when that is the consuming burden of the pastor, then you’re going to see the church moving in the right direction.

If you look at the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation and the vision in chapter one, where he’s moving in his church, what’s he doing? Rearranging the technology. Is he checking out the lamps to see if there might not be a better lamp? What’s he doing? He’s got white hair which speaks of his wisdom. He’s described as having laser eyes that penetrate into the very depths of everything, which indicates his omniscience. He knows everything that’s going on. And he moves through his church with perfect wisdom and perfect understanding of every single thing going on.

And it describes his feet as blazing, burnished, bronze, like they’d been heated in a furnace. What is he doing? Why does he have feet like that? Feet always speak of the authority of a monarch. His power, because you always saw the monarch elevated and people were below him. His feet were the symbols of his elevated authority. And Jesus moves through his church with burning, blazing, chastening authority. That’s the picture there. He penetrates, he sees the sin, and he comes with blazing heat to deal with it. That’s how the Lord’s moving in his church.

I would simply say, if you don’t have church discipline in a church, you thwart the work of Christ. One writer said, if you’re not exercising church discipline, a church without church discipline is a church without Christ. Paul says, I’ll show no mercy. I’m responsible to the Lord of the church for his concerns, which are the purity of the church. Well, they could have been terrorized at this point. Paul’s coming, and he’s really mad. When he gets here, folks, you better duck, because it’s going to fly in every direction. Well, Paul’s very careful.

So go back to verse one. He said, let me give it to you straight. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. And he quotes Deuteronomy 19.15. Don’t worry. This is not irresponsible. And this is not unbiblical. I’m coming to carry out the chastening and the judgment according to God’s law. The word fact, rema, is the word that can be used for allegation or accusation. It’s used that way in Matthew 18, 16, Matthew 27, 14. Wherever there’s an accusation, wherever there’s an allegation, wherever there’s an indictment, believe me, every one of those is going to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

This is an affirmation of the Old Testament law. That Old Testament law was that nobody could be held guilty for a crime if it couldn’t be supported by two or three witnesses. Numbers 3530, Deuteronomy 17.6, and in this direct quote out of Deuteronomy 19.15 affirms that. Otherwise, you could run around making horrible accusations against people, and they would be held guilty without any confirmation. But Paul says, we’re going to do an examination, and there’s going to have to be verification in the mouth of at least two or three witnesses that in fact this condition of unrepentant sin is reality.

So you who are right and living righteous lives don’t need to fear this. We’re going to go by the book. Jesus, by the way, affirmed this Old Testament law in John 817. He says, even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. Jesus affirmed that and then went on to talk about both his testimony and the Father’s testimony affirming him. 1 Timothy 5.19 says, you never bring an accusation against an elder except before two or three witnesses. Again, the Apostle Paul affirms what Jesus affirmed. But the most notable affirmation of this Old Testament principle is in Matthew 18, 15, and 16, where it says, if you go to a person and they don’t repent, then take two or three along so that you can confirm their repentance or non-repentance in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

Matthew 18. The New Testament affirms this principle. So Paul says, look, we’re going to do it by the book. We’re going to do it by the law of God. We’re going to do it right. We’re going to do it fairly. Nobody’s going to get ground up in some indiscriminate action. Paul is saying, when I come, the first thing I’m going to do is church discipline. Isn’t that interesting? He says, I’m going to come and the first thing I’m going to do is church discipline. Why? Because the issue in the church is sin. What destroys the church is sin.

I mean, nothing is as important as that. He didn’t say, when I get there, I’m going to rearrange the furniture. When I get there, we’re going to try to figure out a new methodology. When I get there, I’ve got a great new technology for unrolling scrolls. No. When I get there, I’m going to deal with what has to be dealt with and that’s sin. And we’re going to deal with it the way scripture says to deal with it. We have a generation today of pastors and churches who have never experienced church discipline. They don’t even know what it is.

Is it any wonder the church is weak? Confession of sin is outdated in this age of moral relativism. The very notion of shame has been discarded by a self-esteem generation. Shame, they say, is unnecessary and a repressive hindrance to personal fulfillment and self-esteem. This is a shameless culture, isn’t it? What are they ashamed of? What is this society ashamed of? They’re not ashamed of anything. James Twitchell, secular observer, writes, We have in the last generation tried to push shame aside the human potential and recovered memory movements in psychology, the moral relativism of audience-driven Christianity, the penalty free all ideas are equally good transformation in higher education, the rise of no-fault behavior before the law.

The often outrageous distortions in telling of history so that certain groups can feel better about themselves. And the I’m shame free, but you should be ashamed of yourself tone are just some of the instances wherein this can be seen. He’s right. There’s no shame in this society. No shame for anything. The most bizarre, indescribable, perverted, twisted, freakish people parade their perversions across the screens of our television constantly, shamelessly. The same writer, James Twitchell, says, and this is interesting from a secular observer, the church is aiding and abetting this. The church is aiding and abetting this abandonment of shame.

Shame, you see, is a natural result of sinful behavior, but sinful people want to get rid of it because it causes pain. So that’s the effort that society is making, but the church abetting it? Listen to what he says, quote, looking at the Christian church today, you can see only a dim view, a dim representation of what was once painted in the boldest of colors. His point is that there was a time when the church had its moral standards and its spiritual standards out front in crystal clear form. He says, Christianity has lost it.

It no longer articulates the ideal. Sex is on the loose. Shame days are over. And then this interesting statement, the devil has absconded with sin. In other words, he’s robbed the church of it. It’s gone. It’s not an issue. Go and sin no more, he writes, has been replaced by judge not, lest you be judged. Carl Laney wrote a book called A Guide to Church Discipline. He said, the church today is suffering from an infection which has been allowed to fester. As an infection weakens the body by destroying its defense mechanisms, so the church has been weakened by this ugly sore.

The church has lost its power and effectiveness in serving as a vehicle for social, moral and spiritual change. This illness is due, at least in part, to a neglective church discipline. End quote. He’s right on. Until the church gets serious about holiness, it’s not going to have any power and its people aren’t going to be blessed. They may be having fun, but they’ll miss spiritual blessing. The profounder, deeper things. Have you noticed that as the church has abandoned a concern for holiness, it has trivialized itself? Its music has become shallower and shallower.

Its expectations shallower and shallower. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of causes of anger today. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].