You Got Under My Skin
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:5
Love…is not irritable…
We have various metaphors that we use to describe an irritable person. They have a short fuse. They fly off the handle. They are hot under the collar. Their blood is boiling. They blew their top (like a volcano exploding). Steam is coming out of their ears. Or, the one I used as the title for this devotion, you got under my skin.
You might be able to think of others, but we have a lot of them in the English language.
The word Paul uses here is one that means to be “easily angered.” Some translations say it that way. The ESV just uses the word “irritable.” Paul is not suggesting that anger is always wrong. He tells us in another place that we can “be angry and sin not.” There is a place for righteous anger. Jesus expressed anger.
The problem Paul is addressing is not anger generally, but the kind of anger a person has when they erupt at every minor provocation. The volcano metaphor is a good one to describe this person. They already have a simmering cauldron of lava boiling beneath the surface. Their anger, in any given situation, isn’t as much about the situation that gave rise to their expression of anger as it is about the underlying condition of their heart. They are angry people looking for an excuse to vent their anger.
To use James’ expression, when we are “quick to wrath” we aren’t acting in love. Love settles the heart. It puts out the flames of inner wrath. It gives us space to think rationally and reasonably about life. It makes room for other people’s imperfections and gives them the grace to make mistakes. It is ready to forgive and forget. It puts things in perspective, allowing us to distinguish between important and unimportant issues in life.
May God give us the grace of love that delivers us from irritability.