I may need to tattoo this question on my person…. Because, at the end of time, it won’t matter how right I am, but rather:

How well did I love Jesus and others?

In this season of wide-spread Church exposure, Bride purification, and all-around crazy culture, God calls us to a love that’s higher and purer than what is…well, humanly possible.

“So this is my command: Love each other deeply, as much as I have loved you.“

John 15:12 TPT

We don’t have an excuse for not living with super-human love, because Christ calls us to this. And whenever he calls us, he empowers us!

We can’t get away with being angsty, cranky Christians when he gives us everything we need to love like him. Yes, even in a time when people are more over-the-top in love with their own opinions.

God calls us to a compassion that crosses the political and denominational divide. He asks us to passionately love our enemies and pray for them. This includes (gulp) loving those who feel so threatened by or jealous about our differences that they lie, slander, and gossip against us.

I confess that when I first saw videos exposing pastors and leaders, my knee-jerk reaction was to judge the judgers. Perhaps a better thought would have been, “I don’t know the full story. But this is an opportunity to love and pray for everyone involved.”

What felt like “righteous anger” stole my time, emotional energy, and focus—basically exposing places in my heart that needed more Jesus.

“Don’t allow the actions of evil men
to cause you to burn with anger.
Instead, burn with unrelenting passion
as you worship God in holy awe.”

Proverbs 23:17 TPT

Crazy how Satan manages to use something like anger, which can feel so spiritual, justified, and loving, to stop us from stepping into God’s best story for us.

Anger dresses up spiritually and feels right, but it’s still anger. And the last I checked, God’s love fuels my prayers better than caffeine, adrenaline, and you guessed it, hot-blooded anger.

Because of what Christ did for us, we get to pray from an amazing place where we rule and reign with him. A higher, more secure grace place—safe in the heavenly realm where we are co-seated, cooperating with him. (Ephesians 2:6)

Some of us are flat-out lost. Our GPS is stuck in the wrong dimension. We have forgotten where we are located positionally in Christ. Newsflash: When we settle into the truth of our life-union, we become more proactive and less reactive (OK, I’ll say it. Less obnoxious.) Rather than panic-fighting our defeated foe from the second heaven, we wage joy-fare warfare from our secure position in the third heaven where we rest in our royal authority with Christ, our eternal bridegroom.

From this throne zone, we love what is good and we hate what is evil, but we don’t stop loving people, Christ’s inheritance and ours. We hate evil because it hurts people. Yes, even those blinded by the enemy (like we used to be!)

Whenever our anger is aroused against the sin that so torments our brothers and sisters, we must run to God with the problem first (because he is our solution.) We don’t first run to our phones and social media and become judges and juries of the whole broken universe, asking everybody (our friends and friends of friends) to side with our opinions and hammer-hitting verdicts (as if this is debate class and we’re hunting for a good grade and a pat on the back.)

We don’t settle for OK and permissible when we can grab hold of great and beneficial.

“You’re familiar with the commandment taught to those of old: ‘Do not murder or you will be judged.’ But I’m telling you, if you hold anger in your heart toward a fellow believer, you are subject to judgment. And whoever demeans and insults a fellow believer is answerable to the congregation.”

Matthew 5:21-22 TPT

The Subtlety of Anger

Anger’s grey scale shows up in a variety of flavors, including irritation, harshness, impatience, or even discernment without tenderness. (Note to self: Don’t spiritualize anger.)

“Human anger is never a legitimate tool to promote God’s righteous purpose.”

James 1:20 TPT

Anger feels powerful, but what beats the power of 1 Corinthians 13 love?

Anger is a good indicator of what goes on inside me, but a lousy juror of my interpretation of what goes on inside you.

Personally, I’m rather angry at anger. It’s done nothing good for me (other than give me frown lines). Anger is Devil fuel. And it’s the worst blind guide for our relationships—the subtle little manipulator. (Err! I’m breaking up with you, anger!)

“But don’t let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin! Don’t let anger control you or be fuel for revenge, not for even a day. Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the Devil, an opportunity to manipulate you!”

Ephesians 4:26-27 TPT

Since spiritual problems require spiritual solutions, we need the Holy Spirit, our lifeline, to deliver us from this sneaky judgmental vice, and here’s how that works:

“So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you.
For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.”

John 15:4 TPT

Ever wish you could just wake up and be instantly more patient, kind, and envy-free? Me too! But the last time I checked, human exertion only takes us so far around the track. It does not produce good fruit. It’s only when we stay intimately connected to Christ, our vine, that we see our best friend, Jesus, use life’s stormy elements (including people) to miraculously turbo-boost our spiritual growth.

Maturity Versus Immaturity

The irony of maturity is how it best reveals itself when it collides with others’ immaturity. (Immaturity, what an opportunity!)

The question remains: How do we love others in the middle of their mess without getting messed up ourselves?

There’s only one way, and it’s Yahweh. We empty ourselves of ourselves and become immersed (fully submerged) into the Way, Truth, and Life.

“My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives; and now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me.”

Galatians 2:20 TPT

Goodbye, old thoughts and (Facebook) opinions. I sever the old ways I used to cling to you. You are no longer a comfy cozy security blanket that gave me lots of likes and kudos. Farewell, flash-flood emotions that try to lead like a boss. I instead go to the cross where I have been crucified with Christ. Therefore, I no longer live, but Christ now lives in me!

I declare: It’s time to align with nothing less than God’s righteousness—found in his thoughts and opinions! Thankfully, his thoughts are big enough to swallow my less than supernatural tendencies.

When my last strand of maturity feels tried and tested (for example when it brushes against my husband’s angst), the good news is: I don’t need to wake up the old dead reactionary me! (Stay, sleeping, you!)

In the Bible, death is compared to sleep. So, I decree: What’s dead in me shall not be anything close to “woke!”

We keep our dead self in the grave where it belongs, and we arise with the power of the resurrected Christ. We keep in step with his Spirit, fully and completely enwrapped in him—hallelujah!

Coming Back to the Church and Exposure

As we remain focused on pleasing Jesus more than anything, the granddaddy questions shift from being all about who is right or wrong, pure or unpure, repentant or unrepentant, to instead become:

What is happening in my own heart? What are my own motives?

Am I thinking and acting like Christ? Am I loving like him? Have I made my opinions idols? Am I learning from others’ failures? Can I respect people’s differences? Am I staying in the Spirit or reacting in the flesh? Do I need the Holy Spirit’s log-in-the-eye removal service? Do I even have a clue?

God wants us to invite the light of his loving gaze to probe every nook and cranny of our hearts. Let his truth dismantle the subtleties of our loveless, conscience-numbing anger that blocks our hearts from God’s BEST story for us!

“God, I invite Your searching gaze into my heart.
Examine me through and through.
See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on,
and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way.”

Psalm 139:23–24 TPT

The Real Danger

“But don’t let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin!
Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the Devil, an opportunity to manipulate you!”

Ephesians 4:26–27 TPT

The reason I’ve harped about anger so much is because of how Satan’s big goal is to stoke anger’s flames and break our connection with God and the Body. The enemy earnestly desires to destroy our effectiveness, our witness, and our heavenly trademark as being his beautiful, united, spotless Bride.

To unleash anger in its various forms is to take matters into our own hands, to open wrong doors, and to give the enemy a hold that only belongs to Jesus.

Harshness hinders prayers and makes them less effective. Our enemy, who doesn’t play fair, waits for us to be down and spiritually famished before he swoops in like a hungry vulture, eager to gobble his prey.

Every fallen person is just another one of God’s beloved creations who has fallen victim to Satan’s ploys and deception. Failure happens in varying degrees to each one of us. So, we must never think we’re better or exempt.

We must instead repent and learn to think like Jesus, our first love. Forget our kryptonite and past failures. Leave them buried with our old self in the grave. We are now fully reborn, and our greatest superpower is found in our life-union with Christ, who is our number one pursuer and pursuit—so help us, God!

“So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 TPT

A Closing Prayer

Holy Spirit,
Search my heart—not to shame me, but to heal me.
Expose anything in me that does not look like you.

I lay down my subtle anger.
I set down my stones.
I choose to abide in the Vine.

Let your love flow through me—
patient, kind, gentle, and strong.

Lead me in the way everlasting.
Amen.