Mind Your Posture

Remember when your mom used to remind you to sit up straight? She was right. Poor posture can lead to neck pain and curvature of the spine. But did your mom ever warn you to avoid people who are a pain in the neck?

A friend told me recently, "Everyone seems angry these days!" It's hard to disagree with him. Augustine said, "Anger is a weed; hate is the tree." Our culture is so full of hostility that we've had to invent new words to describe it, like "going postal" and "road rage." Unholy anger fills the airwaves. It's creating tension in our homes and workplaces, and even in the church.

The Bible employs a number of words to describe the unhealthy expression of anger.

Orge means anger or wrath. This can be a good thing, for it refers to the righteous indignation Jesus showed when confronted by stubborn hearts (Mark 3:5) and the holy wrath of God in response to sin (Romans 1:18). When misused, however, it degenerates into unholy anger that "does not bring about the righteous life that God desires" (James 1:19, 20). A variation of this word, orgilos, means "inclined to anger" or "quick-tempered"—a quality that disqualifies a man from being an elder in the church (Titus 1:7).

Thumos refers to passionate fury—the kind King Herod displayed when outwitted by the Magi (Matthew 2:16). It's used to describe the hostile throng in Nazareth who became so infuriated by Jesus' Bible lesson in his hometown synagogue that they wanted to throw him over a cliff (Luke 4:28, 29). It's used for the mob in Ephesus who instigated a riot when Paul's teachings about the true God threatened their silver statue industry (Acts 19:28). It's translated "outbursts of anger" in 2 Corinthians 12:20.

Echthra means enmity or hostility. It describes the bitter attitude that caused Herod and Pilate to be estranged from one another (Luke 23:12), and the alienation that separated Jews and Gentiles into two warring camps—hostility resolved through reconciliation in Christ (Ephesians 2:14, 16).

Eris is the word for strife, contention, or quarreling—the worldly discord Christians should rise above instead of "acting like mere men" (1 Corinthians 3:3). When the church becomes embroiled in unproductive controversies, it's a serious matter. Paul urged that the contentious and divisive brother should be warned and removed from fellowship if he doesn't repent (Titus 3:9-11). A similar word, eritheia, refers to selfish ambition or rivalry, which leads to "disorder and every evil practice" (James 3:14, 16).

Several of these terms appear in Galatians 5:20, where Paul lists the deeds typical of our old life of sin: "hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions." Such attitudes stand in marked contrast to the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22, 23). What kind of attitude have you seen demonstrated around you recently? Even more important: What attitudes have you and I been demonstrating?

Unhealthy anger is a bad posture. It reduces its victim to a pain in the neck—and who wants to have (or be) one of those?