Slow Down Your Anger – Words of Grace Blog – May 16, 2025

We may have angered some people this week by installing speed bumps in the parking lot at Grace Community Church, especially those who use it as a short cut to avoid the traffic light at the intersection. Anger may be too strong a description of people’s reaction to the new impediment to their speed, so we’ll go with irritation. Either way, anything short of being grateful for the warning to slow down means someone missed the point, which is that cars are bigger than people and can cause great harm.

We all know that at higher speeds we have less time to think and respond to what we encounter on the road. We know that slowing down enables us to make better decisions and gives more time for those decisions to play out and prevent accidents. And yet, we like our speed. We ignore the signs, bumps, and even the cars around us and accelerate on with little thought about the power and potential of the machine we are driving.

Let’s be clear, accidents happen even when we are doing our best to be careful. I’ve been in a few that were the result of mistakes, not foolishness. But foolishness is a good description of choosing not to heed the warnings to slow down.

This is the message of Proverbs when it comes to our anger. “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly” (Proverbs 14:29). This proverb is a speed bump for our anger. And in case we ignore the first one, another is given in James 1:19-20, “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Why does the Bible tell us to slow down our anger? Because left unexamined and ungoverned, anger can cause great harm. We are called to examine our anger to discern if it arises from selfish motive or genuine concern for righteousness. We are called to control our anger by repenting when it’s selfish, or by expressing it appropriately when it’s righteous. A quick temper doesn’t allow time for examination or good decisions regarding anger. Slowing down does.

The wise will heed the warnings, fools will not.

The Bible isn’t a book of virtues, it’s a book about God and the gospel. It tells us that he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:6 and numerous other Bible passages).

This truth about God is essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ. God’s anger is justifiable because it is against the unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth and rebel against his rightful Lordship over all things. God reveals his anger by giving sinful people over to the freedom they want which is the very thing that leads to their destruction. But God dealt with his anger toward sin by sending his Son Jesus Christ to bear the penalty for sin and his wrath upon sinners. Those who repent and believe in Christ will be saved and set free. All of this is laid out clearly in Romans 1-3.

Christ calls us to yoke up with him by faith as disciples. His Spirit conforms us into his image. His word provides warnings, slowing down our anger so we will wisely live in this world on our way to the one to come.

Let’s be grateful for the warnings and heed them.

We will talk about these things Sunday.

-Scott