Together in Christ: 'Short Fuses and Devious Schemes' — Proverbs 14:17

We have seen warnings similar to our verse today in previous devotionals. One that immediately comes to my mind is from James, the half-brother of Jesus:

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. ^[1]

I love that James reminds us that human anger does not produce what God desires in us. We must get rid of the moral filth and evil in our lives to stop this flow of anger-producing sin from entering our hearts. Our proverb today adds a truth we know from other Scripture: Anger leads to foolish and hurtful behaviors and gives rise to evil schemes. ^[2] When our lives become marked by these practices, we begin to isolate ourselves from others and become more and more controlled by the evil one and his schemes. ^[3]

As followers of Jesus, we must guard against having an evil and unbelieving heart that leads us away from God. ^[4] We cannot excuse our anger because it is in our family heritage, personality type, or racial or social background. Anger is destructive and ungodly. We must address it on two levels.

• We address the root causes of our anger with the help of the Holy Spirit's transforming power. ^[5]
• We sincerely apologize and ask for the forgiveness of those we have wounded. ^[6]

With the help of the Spirit, the love of Jesus, and the power of God, we can achieve our freedom from the enslaving power of anger and find ourselves becoming more and more like Jesus! ^[7]