What Does God Say About Anger?

God tells us to master our anger, not to be ruled by it: "Be angry, and sin not" (Eph. iv. 26). The Bible does not forbid every movement of anger, but it condemns sinful wrath — one of the seven capital sins — while permitting the righteous indignation that hates evil without hating the brother. What the Bible says about anger, read with the Church and not as scattered verses, is a single teaching: the passion must be governed by reason and charity, and its remedy is meekness and patience. This is one of the questions we answer in our series on what God says about the things that trouble men.

What does the Bible say about anger

Scripture treats anger soberly, neither pretending men do not feel it nor excusing them when it masters them. Saint Paul gives the rule in one line: "Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your anger" (Eph. iv. 26). The movement of anger is not yet the sin; the sin is to let it rule, to nurse it, to carry it into the night. Saint James warns where unbridled anger leads: "Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God" (James i. 19-20).

The same Word that allows a holy indignation condemns the wrath that springs from wounded pride and seeks revenge. Our Lord raises the precept above the letter of the old Law:

But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matt. v. 22)

The Roman Catechism, commenting on the Fifth Commandment, draws the line plainly: he who is angry with his brother, "even if he keep his anger shut up in his heart, ceases not to be guilty"; and his sin is graver still when he lets it burst out in harsh words and insults (Catechism of the Council of Trent, on the Fifth Commandment). This is the wrath God condemns.

Anger as one of the seven capital sins

Anger stands among the seven deadly sins — pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. The Catechism of Saint Pius X explains why these are called capital: "because they are the source and the cause of many other vices and sins" (Catechism of Saint Pius X, On the Capital Sins). Anger is capital not because it is the worst, but because it breeds a whole brood of further sins.

The Roman Catechism shows the chain: from anger long nourished come "rash and unjust judgments, angers, jealousies, detractions and other like sins," so that "a single sin engenders many others" (Catechism of the Council of Trent, on the Fifth Commandment). The man who will not let go of his wrath, it warns, "thirsts in some sort for the blood of his enemy," passing his days and nights "always taken up with thoughts of murder." This is why hatred, the hardened form of anger, is so grave: Saint John writes, "He that hateth his brother, is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes" (1 John ii. 11). Capital anger is the seedbed of gossip and detraction, of grudges, and of the refusal to forgive.

Sinful wrath and righteous indignation

The Church has never taught that all anger is sin. There is a wrath that is disordered, and an anger that is according to God. The Roman Catechism distinguishes them exactly: sinful anger is that which we conceive "without reason," from "the senses" and "the emotions of passion"; but "there is a legitimate anger and one according to God," the anger that reproves fault in those placed under our charge, an anger that "proceeds not from the senses, nor from the emotions of passion" but "comes from the Holy Ghost" (Catechism of the Council of Trent, on the Fifth Commandment).

Scripture itself shows this holy zeal. Our Lord drove the buyers and sellers from the Temple, and His disciples remembered the word, "The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up" (John ii. 17). The Psalmist makes the test of righteous anger plain: "Be ye angry, and sin not" (Ps. iv. 5) — the very words Saint Paul takes up. The difference is not in the feeling but in its source and its object. Righteous indignation hates the sin and seeks the good of the sinner; sinful wrath hates the brother and seeks his hurt. The first is the servant of justice and charity; the second is their enemy. We must be slow to claim our anger is the holy kind, for fallen nature flatters itself, and what we call zeal is often only wounded self-love.

The remedy: meekness and patience

Against the capital sin of anger the Church sets the contrary virtues. The Catechism of Saint Pius X states the rule of spiritual combat: "One triumphs over the capital vices by the exercise of the opposite virtues" — and over anger, it says, "by patience" (Catechism of Saint Pius X, On the Capital Sins). Patience bears the wrong; meekness keeps the soul calm under provocation.

Scripture gives the practical means. The first is the soft word: "A mild answer breaketh wrath: but a harsh word stirreth up fury" (Prov. xv. 1). The second is self-mastery valued above conquest: "The patient man is better than the valiant: and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh cities" (Prov. xvi. 32). The third is to give time to anger before it acts: "If the spirit of him that hath power, ascend upon thee, leave not thy place" (Eccles. x. 4). Above all stands the example of Our Lord, who calls us to learn meekness from Himself: "Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls" (Matt. xi. 29).

This is the daily work of the spiritual life: not to feel no anger, but to refuse it consent, to break it with a mild answer, to forgive before nightfall. Anger that festers is best brought to confession, where the priest, by the power Christ gave him — "whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven" (John xx. 23) — looses the soul from its grudge. Closely bound to this is the duty to forgive, for the man who will not pardon cannot ask to be pardoned: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us."

Anger and the peace of the heart

The opposite of mastered anger is the peace Our Lord promised the meek. The man ruled by wrath has no rest; the man who governs it keeps his soul his own. Where anger feeds anxiety and disturbs the home, meekness restores order — within the soul, and in marriage and the family especially, where Saint Paul commands, "Fathers, provoke not your children to indignation" (Col. iii. 21). The whole of God's word on anger gathers into one counsel: hold the passion under reason, return good for evil, and "let not the sun go down upon your anger" (Eph. iv. 26).

Frequently Asked Questions

What does God say about anger?

God commands us to master anger rather than be mastered by it: "Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your anger" (Eph. iv. 26). The movement of anger is not itself the sin; the sin is to nurse it, let it rule, or carry it into revenge. Anger must be governed by reason and charity, and its remedy is meekness and patience.

What does the Bible say about God's anger?

Scripture speaks of God's anger as His just judgment against sin, never as the disordered passion fallen men feel. It is the righteous indignation that hates evil while willing the sinner's good, as when Our Lord drove the buyers from the Temple and "the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up" (John ii. 17). God's anger is the holy zeal of justice, which the Roman Catechism says "comes from the Holy Ghost" and "proceeds not from the senses, nor from the emotions of passion" (Catechism of the Council of Trent, on the Fifth Commandment).

Is anger always a sin?

No. The Church has never taught that every movement of anger is sin. The Roman Catechism distinguishes sinful anger, conceived "without reason" from "the emotions of passion," from "a legitimate anger and one according to God" that reproves fault for the good of souls. The feeling becomes sin only when reason and charity no longer govern it.

Why is anger called a capital sin?

Anger is one of the seven capital sins because, as the Catechism of Saint Pius X teaches, the capital sins are "the source and the cause of many other vices and sins." Anger long nourished breeds rash judgments, jealousies, detractions, grudges, and the refusal to forgive, so that "a single sin engenders many others" (Catechism of the Council of Trent). It is capital not because it is the worst, but because it is a seedbed of further sin.

What is the difference between righteous anger and sinful wrath?

Righteous indignation hates the sin and seeks the good of the sinner; sinful wrath hates the brother and seeks his hurt. The first is the servant of justice and charity; the second is their enemy. The difference lies not in the feeling but in its source and object, and we must be slow to claim our anger is the holy kind, for fallen nature often dresses up wounded self-love as zeal.

How does the Catholic Church say to overcome anger?

The Church overcomes the capital vices "by the exercise of the opposite virtues," and over anger "by patience" (Catechism of Saint Pius X). Scripture gives the means: the soft word that "breaketh wrath" (Prov. xv. 1), self-mastery prized above conquest (Prov. xvi. 32), and the example of Our Lord, who says, "Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart" (Matt. xi. 29). Anger that festers should be brought to confession and undone by forgiveness.

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Sources. Douay-Rheims Bible: Ephesians iv. 26; James i. 19-20; Matthew v. 22; Matthew xi. 29; 1 John ii. 11; John ii. 17; John xx. 23; Psalm iv. 5; Proverbs xv. 1; Proverbs xvi. 32; Ecclesiastes x. 4; Colossians iii. 21. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the Fifth Commandment. Catechism of Saint Pius X (1908), On the Capital Sins.