If Anger is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, how could Jesus have been angry yet still be sinless? (Catholicism) Anger is one of the Seven Deadly Sins recognized by the Roman Catholic Church (the origins of which are described at this question). However, Jesus was shown to be angry.


  He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. — Mark 3:5 (NIV)


While the passages don't specifically say it, it certainly seems like Jesus was also angry during the cleansing of the Temple.

Despite this, Jesus was without sin.


  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. —2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)


If Anger is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, how could Jesus have been angry yet still be sinless?
The short answer is, “anger” in this context refers to two distinct, but related things.

What Jesus showed (literally) in the cleansing of the Temple, and God (metaphorically)* when the Israelites forged the Golden Calf is the passion that we experience when we are face-to-face with an difficult evil. (See Summa theologiae [S.Th] Ia-IIae, q. 23, a. 3, corpus.)

A passion, however, is not sinful, in and of itself; and (as Jesus shows) the passion of anger is very much appropriate when we are faced with an injustice.

On the other hand, when we are talking about the sin of anger, we mean either acts of disproportionate anger (as in the desire for revenge referred to in the O.P.) or else the so-called “capital sin” or “deadly sin” of anger, which is, strictly speaking not a sin exactly, but a habit of sin, or vice. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] no. 1866.)

So there is nothing wrong with the passion of anger, provided it is directed to a proportional evil or injustice. “Anger” is a sin when the passion is fostered out of all proportion to the evil, especially when it leads one to desire revenge.



*God, in His Divine Nature, is pure spirit, so, strictly speaking, He does not experience the passion of anger. “Anger” is how Israelites experienced the punishment imposed by God.