Loving God by Loving Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Love (Agape) is not easily provoked- 1st Corinthians 13:5

Love is not easily provoked is the topic of our discussion today and is a topic that is self-explanatory. Therefore, we continue without any preamble to ask you whether you are easily provoked to anger?  Think about it and as I am asking you, I am asking myself also because easy provocation disrupts relationships and Christianity, and life are about relationships. We interact on this site to encourage Christian discipleship among each other.

We can become easily provoked by what people think, say, or do but the Bible encourages us to love each other as the Lord Jesus loved us John 13:34. But one thing that usually hinders our expression of Love (agape) to fellow believers is anger and especially when that anger can be easily triggered. It makes it difficult to maintain a relationship because many people are afraid to set off the release of the anger and some people are afraid to start a conversation and say something in the midst or end that will trigger the anger. It seems that people will be tiptoeing around the individual or behave as if they are walking on eggshells. It is not a good place to be and that will hinder brotherly relationship, and therefore apostle Paul encouraged us not to be easily provoked so that Christian love will flourish easily among us. I do understand that we must tolerate, bear, and accommodate each other, however because Love (agape) is very vital, Paul encourages us in 1^st Corinthians 13 to put out anything that will hinder that loving relationship while at the same time bearing with people that have any of the problems work through them and come out victorious by the help of the Holy Spirit. I am a witness.

However, some people that have anger of any sort as a problem are proud of it because they feel that people cannot “mess†with them since they know that they will unleash their anger at them. So, they use it as a weapon against fellow believers which they are unwilling to drop but anger the bible says does not work the righteousness of God –James 1:20 and is not encouraged by the scriptures.  Anger is a valid human emotion that should be controlled Ephesian 4:26 and when it is not controlled, it causes numerous problems which prompted the statement above that anger does not produce fruit that is pleasing to God. The scriptures encourage us to have self-control; to confront those that hurt us in humility and brotherly love (because we might be the next wrongdoer) and to be angry but sin not where we forgive others very easily. Mathew 18:15, Galatians 5:19-22, 6:1, Ephesians 4:22.  Also, James encouraged us to be slow to anger James 1:19 which is another way of saying do not be easily angered.

It is important to avoid blaming people for making you angry very easily because this is an attitude of your heart and as you prayerfully seek counsel from God, He will help you to understand the root of your anger. Please do not resist the Holy Spirit when he counsels you because anger is deadly and destructive.

Take practical steps to control your anger like taking a time out from the conversation on the phone, in person, from sending that angry text without even giving a second thought to the text message you received. I realized that when I calm down and reread the text, I understand it differently and see the angle the person is coming from which I was unable to see before because I was easily angered. Keep a journal and track your progress and as you continue to pray and ask God to transform your heart sincerely you will start feeling less and less easily irritated.

Our father in heaven is slow to anger otherwise we will all have been dead by now because of one sin or the other.

 “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.†Lamentations 3:22-23, KJV

“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” Psalms 145:8, KJV

So let us learn from Him and be slow to anger. Also let us extend grace to people and to ourselves because sometimes, the way you treat people reflects the way you treat yourself.

Also, some of us must have developed this attitude because we have been treated unfairly, disrespected, stressed out and we displace this aggression to anyone that comes close to us be. This is understandable and valid however, you do not want to continue in such angry attitude which produces bitterness, hatred and deep seated malice that can cause physical problems and holding such anger is displeasing to God. When we bring this to God in prayer, He will heal our hearts and help us gradually to release all the anger we are holding inside. But we must want to let go of the anger for God through the Holy Spirit to help us release them. As children of God, we want to please God first and that angry attitude is not pleasing to God.

Another factor that deals with being easily provoked is when the media, political figure, advocacy group, activist group, charismatic figure, “Christian ministerâ€, celebrity etc. play on our emotions and rile us up. We get easily angered and follow the individual’s narrative without passing the message through the lens of the Word of God the Bible. Also, we did not even research anything about the group, the individual or the narrative they are propagating, and we follow the crowd because we want to belong. The word of God should be the standard of a true Christian irrespective of what culture or anyone dictates and as mentioned before, we must pass such messages through the lens of God’s Words and prayer, and we will get authentic information from the word of God and the Holy Spirit will help us to make such discernment. We must be careful in our current culture to maintain seek to please God by maintaining godly standard instead of seeking to please culture and human being.

This scenario can also occur in any Christian group where there are strife, factions and divisions and ministers rile up the anger of members against other ministers; or members; Or members against members and we tear at each other and behave in a hateful manner. We must resist being easy targets of manipulation of our emotions that way. And this can occur if we allow ourselves to be easily angered without seeking God for counsel.  For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?  (1 Cor. 3:3b NKJV)

Righteous anger:

In Luke 19:45-46 “Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. 13 And He declared to them, “It is written: My house will be called a house of prayer. But you are making it a den of robbers.â€

The above scripture details the anger of the Lord Jesus against the worshippers of God at the synagogue who were more interested in doing business in the church than worshipping God. That made him angry because they changed the purpose of the service to catering to themselves thereby dishonoring God. As children of God, our anger should be directed at anything that dishonors God in our lives and in the lives of others. At the same time, we detest sinful behaviors but have compassion on the sinner so that we will have the right motivation to witness, pray and see people repent from sinful behavior including ourselves.

Our heavenly father Loves us with everlasting Love. let us make loving others our priority by letting go of easy provocation knowing that loving God is shown by how we love fellow believers in Christ Jesus. Also, stand against anything which dishonors God’s name in your life, in the life of others and in the church. May the Holy Spirit help us to overcome being easily provoked in the Mighty Name of Our Lord Jesus. Amen.