I recently preached on Psalm 4 , and mentioned in my sermon that the emotion of anger is not always sinful (see Psalm 4:4 and Eph. 4:26; this was certainly Paul’s view of the issue). Anger itself is simply a strong feeling or emotion of displeasure brought about by a real or perceived unfulfilled desire (see James 4 for a description).

While it isn’t always sinful, our flesh very often turns the emotion into a sinful response. This is the danger with anger.

In an article on anger in The Journal of Biblical Counseling David Powlison provides an excellent list of tests to ask and apply in order to discern if your anger is righteous from beginning to end, according to biblical guidelines.

Click here to find out what they are!

Our brother Mark has posted an encouraging brief review of John Piper’s book The Future of Justification. In that book Piper has a chapter where he explains some principles that should govern the hearts of Christians as they engage in disagreement and controversy with fellow believers. I agree with Mark that Piper presented his disagreement in a “scholarly, practical and loving” way, and “exemplified a godly approach to controversy” without compromising truth in any way. He is a marvelous example to Christ’s people.

Because controversy is unavoidable in our age of compromise and typically shallow understandings and presentations of truth, I think reproducing Piper’s chapter “On Controversy,” which is part of the introduction to this book, is a helpful exercise. You can read the chapter, with footnotes, at Piper’s Desiring God website.

We’re making the text of the introductory chapter available here. Read on for godly encouragement for how to be loving as your engage your Christian brothers and sisters controversy.

James gives us a sobering reminder about our responsibility to avoid being only “hearers” of the Word, while neglecting our obligation to put it into practice. “In humility receive the word implanted… prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers” (see James 1:21-25).

In this short post we discuss the necessity and the blessing of obedient hearing, and draw attention to a helpful blog by Dan Phillips on the consequences of being “hearers only.”

Read on for some practical encouragement…

Does right doctrine yield right living? Yes, unless that right doctrine is only an expression of a dead faith (James 2:14 reminds us that this is a sad possibility). We have to admit that true information can be inserted in the mind, without it being truly recieved for the life-transforming purpose for which God inspired it (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Phil Johnson provides an excellent comment on this topic on his blog Pyromanics. That qualification in hand, it is still true that every pattern of moral obedience is informed by a right understanding and embracing of the truth, and that every violation of God’s standards for living are a result of a wrong understanding or rejection of some truth (doctrine) of God’s Word.

I would like to illustrate this truism with one example. It is the moral obligation and command to “honor all men” (1 Peter 2:17)…

The world says we need to have a high self-esteem. Psychologists say it all the time and attribute many of the problems people have to the problem of low self-esteem. Even many Christians think it is important to have high elf-esteem. This is sad. It is sad because, according to Scripture, we all esteem ourselves too highly.

Let’s look at some biblical support…

Does the peace of Christ rule your heart? In the past the command to let the peace of Christ rule your heart in Colossians 3:15 was a challenge for me to understand. I want to offer some help in understanding and applying this command from God.

The peace of Christ is the peace which Christ gives. Jesus said…

John 14:27
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Peace is a gift from God. True peace cannot be found outside of Christ. God told His people that He would send His Messiah, the Prince of Peace. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, would establish His kingdom and bring true peace to the subjects of that kingdom.

Humility is found when a man recognizes that all things are by God, through God, and to/for God (Romans 11:36). As long as a man truly recognizes these things (or “embraces” these things), he can think he is better than someone else and still be humble.
Consider the example of ChristJesus Christ is the perfect example […]

If I think I am better than someone else, does that mean I am proud? I have discussed this issue with many people.

What does we mean when we say we are better than someone? We need to clarify that a bit. We could be better at playing soccer than someone, or we could be more consistent in the spiritual disciplines than someone else.