Ephesians 4:22-27 - "Be Angry, And Do Not Sin"

Todaywe’re going back to Ephesians chapter 4, looking at the section toward the endof the chapter where the Apostle Paul instructs us to put off the old man andput on the new man. He tells us that we can be renewed in the spirit of ourminds, and then clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Christ’slife is now in us. We no longer live for ourselves, but Christ lives in us. Heproduces the fruit of the Spirit within us, and as a result, we experiencelove, joy, and peace instead of anger, malice, and bitterness. That’s what Pauladdresses at the end of this chapter. Paulgives us five sins that we are to put off. Back in verse 25, the first sin hementions is lying. At the root of all lies is the devil himself—he is thefather of lies (John 8:44). He plants the thought in our minds to deceiveothers so that we might look better in their eyes. Paul’s instruction is clear:put off lying and speak the truth, each one with his neighbor. Thenin verse 26, Paul addresses the second issue: “Be angry, and do not sin.”Now that’s interesting. He doesn’t say, “Put off anger,” the way hesays, “Put off lying.” Instead, he says, “Be angry, and do not sin.” At first,that sounds like a strange encouragement—especially since so many peoplealready struggle with anger. But God has created us as emotional beings. GodHimself is an emotional God. He has feelings, and He created us with feelingsso that we can experience love, joy, peace, contentment, satisfaction, andsecurity. These are good emotions. However,there are other emotions—like anger, fear, worry, malice, and hatred—that arenot good emotions. Yet God allows us to experience them. Why? Because they actlike a warning bell, an alarm that tells us something isn’t right. They alertus that we may be viewing a situation incorrectly or that something needs to beaddressed.  Sois it possible to be angry and not sin? Yes, it is. In itself, anger is not asin. Scripture tells us that God gets angry. We see this in Deuteronomy 9:8 and20, Psalm 2:12. We also see thisillustrated in the life of Jesus when He was angry in the temple, driving outthose who were greedily selling merchandise and exploiting God’s people who hadcome to worship and offer sacrifices. Wemust make the choice about what we will do with the anger we feel. Anger isoften compared in Scripture to fire—it is said to “being kindled” (Genesis30:2; Deuteronomy 6:15). It can flare up when someone says something thatwounds us or when something displeases us deeply. At that moment, we have achoice. Will we allow that anger to smolder within us and turn into malice—anintent to hurt or seek vengeance—or will we allow God to transform it intosomething good? Angeris a burst of emotional energy. We can used that energy to attack a person orproperty, or we can use it to attack the problem. That energy can be used toharm and damage others, or it can be used to drive us to God. We can pray,“Lord, help me understand what You are teaching me through this anger. Help mesee this situation through Your eyes.” We don’t see the way God sees. Godjudges perfectly and deals justly with every situation. We don’t. And that’swhy anger can easily lead us into sin if we’re not careful. Paulthen gives us practical wisdom: “do not let the sun go down on your wrath”.While we’re feeling that anger, we are to go to God. We are to go to bed harboringand feeding that feeling of anger. Instead we ask God to forgive us for oursins, and then we ask Him to help us forgive those who have hurt us. Otherwise,anger will grow into bitterness. Paul warns us about this later in verse 31,where he says: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speakingbe put away from you, with all malice.” Maythe Lord help us listen carefully to this instruction from Paul—not allowinganger to control our lives or lead us into sin, but instead, let it drive us toGod for the grace we need to respond rightly.