work off pent-up emotions! “As a city broken through, without a wall, is the man that has no restraint for his spirit.” (Prov. 25:28) So God’s Word does not agree with those beliefs that a quick temper may sometimes be a proof of strength of personality and that it may be good to release pent-up emotions in a fit of angry temper. Temper explosions do not cleanse the atmosphere; they poison it. The poison may contaminate others, so Jehovah warns: “Do not have companionship with anyone given to anger, and with a man having fits of rage you must not enter in, that you may not get familiar with his paths and certainly take a snare for your soul.”—Prov. 22:24, 25.

21. What is the prime reason for a Christian’s becoming slow about wrath, and how do the Scriptures show this is the course of wisdom?

²¹ It is not merely to avoid injuring one’s own health that the Christian avoids quickness about wrath. Primarily he is interested in doing the divine will, living according to the righteous principles found in the Holy Scriptures. Though some persons may not be ashamed of their bad tempers and may even be quite proud of them, the true Christian takes the course of wisdom and becomes slow about wrath: “A man of discernment is cool of spirit.” “All his spirit is what a stupid one lets out, but he that is wise keeps it calm to the last.” “He that is slow to anger is abundant in discernment, but one that is impatient is exalting foolishness.”—Prov. 17:27; 29:11; 14:29.

22, 23. (a) Being slow about wrath guards against what tendency? (b) What is needed for curing a quick temper?

²² Being slow about wrath also means being slow about taking offense. This guards against peevishness—undue sensitivity to trifles, annoyance at them far beyond what their real significance warrants. The new personality does not and can not possess an oversensitive spirit, a spirit that is ready to fly into a rage over fancied or real affronts. No, the new personality, created according to God’s will, does not become easily offended: “Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones.” (Eccl. 7:9) If some unkindness really does come our way, we are still at fault in God’s sight if we are swift to take offense, swift to become angry: “The insight of a man certainly slows down his anger, and it is beauty on his part to pass over transgression.”—Prov. 19:11.

²³ What, then, is the cure for the quick temper? It is the same remedy as for the ear that is not swift to listen and the tongue that is not slow about speaking. It is this: The firm desire to do God’s will and to have his approval. Such a person will put on the new personality and do his “utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace.”—2 Pet. 3:14.

Religious Hunger

After analyzing hundreds of people the psychoanalyst Donald Slesinger observed: “Religious hunger is as strong and universal as that for sexual union. . . . The worship of God is man’s need, not God’s.”—Cosmopolitan, December, 1958.