Be Angry, but do not Sin

Have you ever imagined what the world would be like if it was completely devoid of all hope and more importantly, without Christ? In today’s world, you don’t have to look too far unfortunately. If you look around you will see the decay and the despair or war torn cities, the depressing human condition, people fleeing religion to find “their truth” and a whole host of other things.

When thinking about these things, it is easy to get discouraged and even be driven by anger and to fight back with rage against these things. However, anger (aside from righteous anger) only add fuel to the fire. We see this in the character of Eren Yeager in the anime series Attack on Titan.

The world of Attack on Titan is fueled by the old saying of “an eye for an eye” mentality. Titans have destroyed and caused many deaths within walls of the cities where people thought they were safe. It is now up to the Scouts (military force of some sort) to take out these titans and take back the world for the humans. Though Eren Yeager wants to do the right thing but for the wrong reasons it appears.

Eren’s mother was killed by a titan and his home city destroyed. This drives Eren to join the ranks of the Scouts in order to take out the titan’s once and for all. Later on in the series. Eren makes a speech at a tavern surrounded by his fellow scouts. He says something to the effect of  “Are we going to let all those deaths be for nothing? Until every last one of the titans is dead, we aren’t finished”. While Eren’s speech is motivational and seems to have an affect on those around him, it is not coming from the best of places.

Eren would probably do well to heed Proverbs 29:10. As it also says in Ephesians, be angry, but do not sin. Simply put, you can be angry and go about doing things for the right reasons, but do not add fuel to fire by repaying evil with evil.

If you would like to hear more about Attack on Titan and our thoughts on the character of Eren Yeager, listen here.