"A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment" (Proverbs 19:19)
The man of habitual temper is both sick and sinful. He has developed a pattern of behavior and in a sense he has done it deliberately. Good psychology and good theology both hold him responsible. No one angers us. We respond to people and situations by taking a position or attitude of anger.
Along with fear, frustration, and guilt, anger (or temper, as it should be called) is one of the prominent causes of emotional and mental illness. Seldom is any neurosis simple. Usually it is somewhat complex. And nearly always anger is part of the complex cause. It is always foolish to court sickness, and temper is no exception. "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools" (Eccl. 7:9). That means that a wise man will seek help from God to control his feelings, he will never deliberately promote a "habit of temper."
The man of temper is in line for both trouble and punishment. "A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife" (Prov. 15:18).
The last half of our text warns us that "if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again." He gets into trouble and if you come along and get him out of it, you haven't really helped because he will just get angry again in a few minutes and get into more trouble. His real trouble is not the trouble that comes to him because he has shown anger promiscuously. His real trouble is his anger itself. He needs deliverance from his temper. In other words, he needs salvation and a new nature with a new set of attitudes and new emotional patterns.
"The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression" (Prov. 19:11).
"Put off...anger" (Col. 3:8).
(Rev. Roger J. Andrus)