What it means
Paul’s word comes from the Greek for sharp. It means to be sharpened, stirred up or provoked, and English gets the word ‘paroxysm’ from it. The ESV says love ‘is not irritable’. The NASB says it ‘is not provoked’. The King James reads “is not easily provoked”, and some modern Bibles keep the ‘easily’. Paul’s Greek simply says love is not provoked.
This line is not a ban on all anger. Jesus once faced men who were watching to see if He would heal a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, so they could accuse Him. Mark says He looked at them “with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart.” What Paul rules out is the short fuse. It is the snap, the sigh, and the edge that comes out over small things. It is usually sharpest with the people closest to us, at the end of a long day.
The line sits right beside “it keeps no account of wrongs” for a reason. Irritation feeds on a list of old grievances, and the list keeps the edge sharp.
How John Chrysostom read it
John Chrysostom preached often and plainly about anger, and on this line he went looking for where anger starts.
“For he said not, though provoked, she overcomes, but, is not provoked.”
John Chrysostom, Homily 33 on First Corinthians
“For just as where friendship is, even grievous things are light, so where enmity lies beneath, very trifles appear intolerable. And however simply a word be spoken, it is surmised to have been spoken with an evil meaning.”
John Chrysostom, Homily 16 on Matthew
“Though he that is beloved should grieve him who loves him, anger no where shows itself; but tears and exhortations, and supplications; so far is love from being exasperated”
John Chrysostom, Homily 32 on First Corinthians
Chrysostom noticed that Paul did not describe love fighting its temper and winning. Paul said love is not provoked at all: the anger never gets going. How can that be? Chrysostom traced anger to its spring. Most flare-ups begin with a guess about what the other person meant. They did it on purpose. They don’t care. They’re doing it again. He called that guess “an evil surmise” and said it is “the fountain of wrath”.
Love refuses to suspect the worst, so the anger has nothing to drink. That is why, in Chrysostom’s Bible, the line is followed at once by “thinks no evil”. And when someone we love really does hurt us, he says, love answers with tears and pleading, not with a raised voice.
What it looks like
- Your child spills a drink at the end of a long day, and you reach for the paper towels before you reach for your voice.
- A friend cancels at the last minute, and your first reply asks if they’re okay.
- You read a curt email twice, decide they were probably busy, and answer the question they asked.
- Someone cuts you off in traffic, and it is gone from your mind by the next light.
What missing it looks like
- “I’m not angry. I’m just tired, and everyone keeps pushing.”
- “They do it on purpose, just to get to me.”
- “It was a small thing, but it was the tenth small thing today.”
- “I have a short fuse. That’s just how I’m made.”
Learn from David
The warrior king who kept putting his anger down.
King Saul was hunting him. In the cave David could have ended it, and said instead, “I will not lift my hand against my lord.” 1 Samuel 24:10
The strongest man in that cave was the one who put the knife away.
Read about DavidOne step to try
Drop your voice when you feel it rise.
Chrysostom’s rule of thumb: “never cry aloud at all, and then will you never be angry at all.” John Chrysostom
Questions and answers
What does ‘love is not easily angered’ mean?
It means love is not touchy or quick to take offense. Small things don’t set it off, and it doesn’t carry irritation around looking for a target. Other Bibles say love ‘is not irritable’ (ESV) or ‘is not provoked’ (NASB). It does not mean love never feels anger at real wrong. It means the people it loves are not living beside a short fuse.
Is all anger a sin?
No. Scripture says, “Be angry, yet do not sin. Do not let the sun set upon your anger.” Jesus Himself was angry at hard hearts. John Chrysostom put it simply: “Being angry then is not a transgression, but being so unseasonably.” The right time, he said, is when anger stops a wrong being done. The wrong time is “when we do so as avenging ourselves”.
Is the word ‘easily’ in the original Greek?
No. Paul’s Greek simply says love “is not provoked”. The King James Version has ‘easily’, and some modern Bibles, like the NIV, keep it. John Chrysostom, who read Paul in Greek, took the line at full strength. Love at its fullest does not win a fight with irritation, he said. The irritation never takes hold, because love will not first suspect the worst.
