Ian Martin taught about anger as set forth in Chapter 15 of the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. 

 He pointed out that quite often we can delude ourselves into thinking that our anger is “righteous. The subject of our anger doesn’t determine whether our anger is righteous, because anger over actual unrighteousness and evil can still be unrighteous. The unrighteous anger we need to avoid does not produce the righteousness that God desires, and keeps us from a right relationship with God and with others.

 He clarified that unrighteous anger isn’t just an obvious “blow up” of anger or yelling or fighting or verbal abuse. It can be manifested as resentment, bitterness, giving someone the “cold shoulder,” rude social media posts, or being hostile. It can even be turned inward, as self-pity. 

 He taught that anger is so destructive because it can break our relationships with those closest to us, such as our family and friends, those in our church, workplace, and most importantly, our relationship with our Lord.  Unrighteous anger can also dishonor the Lord by impeding our ability to properly witness for Christ.

 To deal with and prevent unrighteous anger, we need to:

• Recognize our sin
• Repent before God and others
• Look for situations our anger stems from

Most often, our anger comes from an inflated sense of self and pride, where we are unsatisfied because we aren’t getting what we want or think we deserve.  With these steps, we can seek to be men who, as set forth in James 1:19 -20, are “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”