“First, we should deal biblically with our anger for the sake of our personal health. Long before the advent of modern medicine, the Bible described the psychosomatic (or “spirituo-somatic”) connection between sin and sickness, and between righteousness and health.”

Why should we seek to uproot our sinful anger and replace it with godly fruit? In one sense, we must deal with it simply because God commands it (Matthew 5:21‑22; Ephesians 4:22‑24, 26-32; Colossians 3:8). Additionally, as we study the Scriptures, we find three compelling motives.

Reason # 1: Sinful Anger Ruins Our Health

First, we should deal biblically with our anger for the sake of our personal health. Long before the advent of modern medicine, the Bible described the psychosomatic (or “spirituo-somatic”) connection between sin and sickness, and between righteousness and health. Proverbs 14:29‑30 declares:

“A patient man has great understanding, but a quick‑tempered man displays folly. A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (see also Psalms 32, 38; Proverbs 3).

The Hebrew structure suggests that the “patient/quick-tempered” antithesis parallels the “life to the body/rots the bones” antithesis. Anger damages the body; patience and peace bring health.

Centuries ago, the Puritan pastor-theologian Richard Baxter addressed this connection between anger and poor health:

“Observe also what an enemy anger is to the body itself. It inflames the blood, and stirs up diseases, and breeds the strength of nature, and has cast many into acute, and many into chronical sicknesses, which have proved their death.”

Modern physicians and research psychologists have observed the same correlation between anger and physical illness, including hypertension and stroke, heart disease, gastric ulcers, and bowel diseases. As one man confessed to me, amid his anger at his wife:

“I’m discouraged. I’m not sleeping, I’m losing weight, and I’m very tired physically and emotionally. My work is suffering….I want my walk with the Lord restored and these stomach pains to go away.”

He was a walking (or limping!) testimony of Proverbs 14. Sleep loss, weight loss, tiredness, and stomach pains attended his angry way.

Reason # 2: Sinful Anger Destroys Interpersonal Relationships

A second reason to deal biblically with our anger is that it injures and alienates others. It hinders our relationships and keeps us from loving our neighbors.

In Ephesians 4:26–32, Paul calls us to get rid of our anger. What do these commands have to do with interpersonal relationships? They emerge in the contexts of “one another” relationships (Ephesians 4:1-6; 4:25-5:2; also Colossians 3:5-17; James 3:13–4:12). Failure to get rid of anger prevents the proper unity, functioning, and growth of Christ’s body. It divides and cuts the Lord’s church. Perhaps no single Bible sentence strikes this point more forcefully than Luke 15:28, “The older brother became angry and refused to go in.” In his anger, he distanced himself from his friends and family.

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