Marvel’s The Avengers: That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.

The Tesseract was set up atop Stark Tower. Iron Man attempted to destroy it, but the shield it generated was impenetrable. A short time later, a wormhole was created to allow the Chitauri army to come through and attack.

Five of the Avengers are in the City to do what they can to fight back.

Iron Man is flying through the City, destroying what he can.

After Thor fights Loki, he joins Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye outside Grand Central Station.

They look up in horror as a Leviathan flies through the wormhole.

As the Avengers regroup, Tony asks Cap if Banner has arrived. A few minutes later, Banner calmly arrives on a motorcycle amid the battle.

Tony steers a Leviathan toward the other five Avengers.

At this point, Captain America comments, "Doctor Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

Bruce Banner cooly replies, "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."

He then turns towards the Leviathan, immediately transforms into the Hulk, and punches it into the ground.

Should Christians Get Angry?

While Banner is "always angry" we need to very cautious about our anger.

It is not wrong to get angry. Jesus, Himself, got angry.

In Matthew 21:12 states, "And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons."

Mark 11:15 describes the scene as well. And John 2:15a adds this detail, " And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple."

James 1:19-20 teaches, "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

In John 2:17 the disciples remember the verse from Psalm 69:9, "For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me."

What Is Anger?

According to Strong's Concordance, the Hebrew word translated as "zeal" is "qinah" (spelled קִנְאָה and phonetic spelled "kin-aw."

The word is used more than 40 times in the Old Testament and has been translated as anger (1), envy (1), jealousy (24), passion (1), rivalry (1), and zeal (14).

Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:19-21a that, "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." (Emphasis added)

The phrase "fits of anger" comes from the Greek word θυμός, which is phonetically spelled "thoo-mos." It is defined as passion and used to express "an outburst of passion, wrath," per Strong's Concordance.

Ephesians 4:26-27 tells us, " Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil."

The beginning part says, "Be angry and do not sin." The word translated "be angry" is the Greek word "ὀργίζω," which is defined as "to make angry" and used as "I irritate, provoke, am angry."

And the sun should not go down on your παροργισμῷ or parorgismō, which means "irritation."

If we are provoked-irritated there is the possibility of not sinning. We should not let it stay within us. Otherwise, this initial response will linger and give the devil something to use against us.

What We Should Do

We should avoid all this by being filled with the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 explains, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Don't be like Doctor Banner who can, in an instant, turn from a mild manner man into a raging monster because of his anger.