Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
-Matthew 21:12
When anger is properly controlled it can motivate us to go beyond what we might normally have done and strive harder toward some positive accomplishments. The Lord Jesus was so motivated by His righteous anger that He refused to pass through the Temple and ignore the fact that greedy men had turned the Temple into a market place. In response the Lord drove them out and truly He got the peoples’ attention. Righteous anger is anger that is properly directed. It is not directed at people, but rather towards the evil which people are doing. Such anger can bring about positive results. For example, it can motivate a group of ministers to come together to encourage and pray for one another because they are so concerned about the number of their brother pastors falling into immorality. Anger that is properly directed can motivate parents to take radical steps to try to keep their children on the right track. Righteous anger can motivate believers to do something positive about all the ills which exist in our society.
When we feel ourselves becoming overwhelmed by all of the evil in the world we can get so angry about it that we can do something positive: pray, reach out, volunteer to help with some youth organization, or volunteer our time in leading Bible meetings at the local jail. It’s one thing to sit back and be disgusted about all the evil in the world, but it’s another matter to be motivated to rise up and do something about it. This is righteous anger properly directed. Righteous anger, properly directed, can motivate a person to action in the name of the Lord.
Faith in Jesus motivates us to rise up and confront the evil that exists in the world today.
