“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)
The moment I knew the huge man sitting in front of me at the movie theater was “hot tempered” was when someone asked him to be quiet and all of his friends got up and moved away from him. They knew what was coming next. Short version: He left with the cops.
Friends of explosively angry people often lose. Either they get caught in the crossfire between him and his latest blowup – or they become the target of his wrath themselves. Today’s verse mentions the third trap; mad guys’s friends learn to be angry people, too.
You can’t always avoid angry people – especially those in your family – but wisdom warns us not to get into new friendships with obviously hot-tempered people. Give them grace and show God’s love, but build some distance; guard your heart; let them answer to God, above all.
Think: How many of your friends would you say are angry people? Has someone else’s quick anger ever gotten you in trouble? Do you think it’s wrong to limit a friendship because the other person gets angry too quickly and easily?
Pray: Ask God to help you not to be easily angered or hot tempered. Ask him for wisdom about how deeply to invest in ongoing friendships with angry people.
Do: On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most “hot tempered,” how would you rate your quickness to get angry? Write that number down. Then write down the average anger number for your closest group of friends.