"In your anger do not sin, when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. 5. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord." (NIV)
The emotion of anger is not a sin. When the doctor whacked our backsides to get us breathing, or whatever, we did not laugh, we cried, or rather we howled in fury. The first emotion that we express after we are born is anger. Anger becomes a sin when it becomes a part of who we are, when we never get over things that happen to us. I have known people who have been angry over things for years. I've had people express anger for another person as if what occured to cause the anger had happened yesterday. In reality it happened years ago. That's different from getting angry, expressing it and getting over it. The problem with hoarded anger is that it turns into malice. Malice is anger that has "gone to seed." When anger is held onto until it becomes malice, it becomes a lifestyle. That is when anger becomes a sin. Paul gave us another explanation of anger in Ephesians 4:26-27: "In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry; and do not give the devil a foothold." (NIV) When we hold onto our anger, Satan loves to help us keep it going. For example, when we see the person with whom we are angry, Satan will remind us of the reason we are angry, and we will relive the situation that caused the anger. The name "Satan" is synonymous with the word "sin." Whatever Satan has a hand in is sin - period. I think that "when you are on your bed, search your hearts and be silent" means to think about the anger, get rid of it and keep your mouth shut. This might be a shallow interpretation, but it works for me. Verse 5 completes the thought: "offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord." By New Testament standards, this means to turn your anger over to Jesus and trust Him to help you overcome it. Do not hold onto your anger. Bro. Joe
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"In your anger do not sin, when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. 5. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord." (NIV)
The emotion of anger is not a sin. When the doctor whacked our backsides to get us breathing, or whatever, we did not laugh, we cried, or rather we howled in fury. The first emotion that we express after we are born is anger. Anger becomes a sin when it becomes a part of who we are, when we never get over things that happen to us. I have known people who have been angry over things for years. I've had people express anger for another person as if what occured to cause the anger had happened yesterday. In reality it happened years ago. That's different from getting angry, expressing it and getting over it. The problem with hoarded anger is that it turns into malice. Malice is anger that has "gone to seed." When anger is held onto until it becomes malice, it becomes a lifestyle. That is when anger becomes a sin. Paul gave us another explanation of anger in Ephesians 4:26-27: "In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry; and do not give the devil a foothold." (NIV) When we hold onto our anger, Satan loves to help us keep it going. For example, when we see the person with whom we are angry, Satan will remind us of the reason we are angry, and we will relive the situation that caused the anger. The name "Satan" is synonymous with the word "sin." Whatever Satan has a hand in is sin - period. I think that "when you are on your bed, search your hearts and be silent" means to think about the anger, get rid of it and keep your mouth shut. This might be a shallow interpretation, but it works for me. Verse 5 completes the thought: "offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord." By New Testament standards, this means to turn your anger over to Jesus and trust Him to help you overcome it. Do not hold onto your anger. Bro. Joe “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members of one another. 26.Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down on your wrath. 27. Neither give place to the devil.”
We all have to deal with anger. There is probably more misunderstanding about this emotion than about any other. In our text, Paul assumed that we would be angry about one thing or another. After all, the first emotion that we express is anger. Think about it, when babies are born the first thing that they do is cry. I think that this is because they were taken from a nice comfortable, nourishing womb, where they had a constant supply of sustenance. It is no wonder that they are angry. What Paul wanted to warn against was that anger not take over their lives. There are some people who are angry all of the time. These are not happy people. What can we, or should we, do with anger? The first thing we need to do is to admit that something, or someone, has made us angry. We are so afraid of our anger that we do not want to even admit that it is present. What happens in these cases is that we suppress anger, and it joins all of the other anger in our psyche, and it becomes part of who we are. If we are angry about something, we just need to admit it. We don’t have to act on it, but we do need to admit its presence. The second thing we need to do is to get over it. Paul wrote: “Let not the sun go down on your wrath.” What this means is that if we are angry with someone, we should pray about it, give it to the Lord, then go talk to the person that we are angry with. We need to learn to express our anger like Christians. If we hold in that anger that we have toward a person, it will grow and grow until it becomes hatred. We need to remember Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 4:15: “speak the truth in love.” This is why I wrote that we need to pray about the anger and give it to the Lord, then go and talk to the person about it. If we go in a spirit of hostility, we will just start a fight and nothing will be accomplished. The third thing is that we need to realize that when we do not deal immediately with our anger, it just festers and grows and takes over our lives. Think about some of the things that you have been angry about. At first, the anger might have been realistic and justified, but when it was held inside it grew until it was beyond justification. When anger is held in it becomes hatred, and as it piles up, it becomes malice. Malicious people are simply filled with hatred. We see it tragically portrayed in mass murders. People who go on a rampage and kill people are simply eaten up with anger that was not dealt with. I’m not hinting that you might go on a shooting spree, but I am hinting that your anger can make you do and say things that you will regret later. You have probably already experienced what I just wrote. The fourth thing is that we need to realize that the devil is aware of our anger, and it is he who makes it multiply in our lives. Paul wrote: “neither give place to the devil.” This means that if we “let the sun go down on our wrath,” we will make ourselves susceptible to the devil. When we are so angry that we want to do harm to people, say ugly things about and to them, or maliciously spread gossip about them, we have been used of the devil. When we give place to anger, we give place to the devil. He is lurking about in our lives, taking all of the events of our lives and trying to turn them into sin. Remember, anger is not a sin, but when we “give place to the devil,” it becomes sin. Think of all the harm that such anger has done to families, churches, businesses, schools, etc. We do not want to be a part of that. Take Paul’s advice: “Be angry and sin not.” Admit anger, deal with it and, by all means, get over it. Bro. Joe “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man holds it in check.” HCSB
Is anger a sin? It depends on what you mean when you ask the question. If you mean is it a sin to get angry, then your answer is no. If you mean is it a sin to harbor anger and keep it in until it becomes malice, then your answer is yes. Do you think that Jesus, who never sinned, was not angry when He cleansed the temple, or when He called the Pharisees a bunch of snakes and vipers? Ephesians 4:26-27 gives the answer: “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.” If a person tells you that he or she never gets angry, you need to ask him or her if they are zombies. I think that it is impossible not to get angry about some things. If one never gets angry, he or she has no feelings. The first emotion that we express when we are born is anger. How many times have you heard of a baby coming from the womb laughing? They aren’t laughing, and they aren’t laughing because they have been removed from that nice warm, safe environment in their mother’s womb, where they were constantly fed to a lot of light and noise. On top of that, they are whacked on the bottom to get their breathing started. It’s like they are saying, “How dare you take me from this warm environment and then whack me on the bottom?” Does this mean, then, that anger is a good thing? It is a good thing if it helps us to give expression to the frustrations, etc. of this life. I have not read one humorous article about the fellow who killed those children and teachers in Connecticut. I have not read one article that agreed that he needed to take his anger to that level. I have read plenty of articles in which the authors were angry – and they should have been. When I read about our service men and women being killed and maimed in Afghanistan by people who are supposed to be our friends, I get angry, and I think you do too. I can think of any number of things that I get angry about and you can too. We are not sinning when we get angry about such things. But the point is to get angry, express it to either ourselves or someone else, and get over it. Let’s go back to Ephesians 4:26-27, which reminds us that we can be angry and not sin. Then it reminds us that we are not to let the “sun go down on our wrath.” This is Paul’s way of saying “get over it.” Further, it reminds us that when we do let the sun go down our wrath we are giving “place to the devil.” Anger is a natural emotion, but the devil, who “walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,”encourages you to take that anger into your heart and let it control your thinking. The devil wants to use your anger to destroy you by turning it into malice. The American Century Dictionary defines malice as: “desire to harm or cause difficulty to others; ill will…harmful intent.” This is where we need to check our anger quotient. Is your anger causing you to have Ill will towards someone? Is your anger causing you to want to “harm or cause difficulty” to others? Has your anger reduced you to have “harmful intent“ toward someone? If so, it has become sin and you are giving place to the devil. I have never heard anyone say, “Gosh, I hope I am considered to be a fool by other people.” According to Proverbs 29:11, my inspiration for this article:“A fool gives full vent to his (or her) anger, but a wise man (or woman) holds it in check.” Whatever you are angry about or whoever you are angry at, GET OVER IT! That is what the Bible tells you to do. I think you will agree that if the world heeded the Bible on this score, we would have a better world. Make your world better and do not give “full vent” to your anger. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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