Verse of the day: Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the
sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.
Is it
possible to be angry and not sin against God or others? The short answer is, “yes”.
Where anger becomes sinful is when it is fueled by our selfishness and pride.
When anger rises from personal bitterness and a refusal to forgive, it will
inevitably end in sinful behavior. Verse 31 tells us to put away bitter hatred,
and violent anger that leads to speaking wickedly about others. Anger that
manifests itself in a way that is harmful to another is anger that crosses the
line to becoming sin; this is when our anger grieves that Holy Spirit. Not only
does this out of control anger grieve the Spirit, but it also gives way for the
devil to use it to destroy our testimony and effectiveness in sharing Jesus with
others. The enemy loves nothing more than to fuel our anger so that we are
lashing out at one another, causing unnecessary church splits, broken
relationships, and making the church look no better than being in the world. Anger
that hinders our walk in the Spirit is anger that is provoked by something that
is insignificant or out of measure for the situation at hand; an overreaction.
Anger that causes us to seek revenge, further driven by unwillingness to
forgive, is an anger that will lead to much destruction within the body of
Christ. Too often we hold on to this type of anger and it begins to fester and
grow until it comes out in a vicious and wicked way against someone who we
should either be leading to Christ, or comforting in Christ. It often comes
out, in a destructive way, in personal relationships (spouses, parents and
children, close friends). For this reason, we must not allow the sun to go down
on our wrath. In other words, we must do all that we can to resolve conflict so
that it does not linger and grow into bitterness and wrath within us. Too often
sinful anger is excused because of what has happened in a person’s past or
society is blamed because someone lived or grew up in a harsh environment. We
must take responsibility for our attitudes and actions; and as born again
believers we have the Lord to help us overcome our past hurts. This is not to
be insensitive to what any of us have experienced in life, but we must stop using
the excuses the world gives us as crutches to hold on to our sinful anger. We
have One who wants us to bring our “unresolved issues” to Him. Sadly, in our
churches we see many people get hurt and leave the church and Christian
fellowship because they have stumbled and the response has been an angry one
justified as “holy indignation”. Even sadder is the fact that many of these
people have used Jesus cleansing the temple as their example of this “righteous
indignation” (Mt 12; Mk 11; Jn 2). Let me say right now that although Jesus was
angry at what happened, He died for every single person in that temple and
would give any one of them eternal life if they came to Him believing and with
a repentant heart. Jesus’ anger was not directed at the people in the temple;
it was rather directed at their actions because they had turned the temple into
a den of thieves. In another instance Jesus was angry at the people in the synagogue
for their lack of sympathy in respect to the person with the withered hand that
needed healing; because they were more concerned with their legalistic attitude
about keeping the Sabbath than they were for the man’s well-being. The Scripture
tell us that Jesus looked on them with anger, and being grieved by what He saw,
rather than lash out at them, He healed the man with the withered hand (Mk
3:5). Our anger for what has happens should drive us to do something about the
situation. When a brother or sister stumbles in sin, the knee jerk reaction is
that we immediate take it upon ourselves to be the “holy” people that need to
correct them and set them straight about what they did. The problem with this
is that it is often done in an angry, hard-hearted, and harsh manner. If the
sin is against us or someone in the church we know, that manner in which we
approach the person who sinned can be even more vicious. There is a process in
place, in Scripture that helps us to correct sinful behavior in the church (Mt
18:15-17; 1 Cor 5); and even if someone is to be put out of the church for
disciplinary purposes, it must be done in love and humility. Galatians 6:1-5;
instructs us to examine ourselves and approach the sinful situations with
humility. In other words, we can be angry about what was done, but the best
revenge we can take in a situation like that is to seek to reconcile the person
who sinned so that the one who gets the “black eye” is Satan, and not the person
that the Lord desires to bring back into fellowship with His children. Our
anger must be intermingled with grace, mercy and forgiveness; only then will we
be able to approach a situation that makes us angry with the right mindset to help
us seek the proper response. Will we lose our tempers? Yes we will. However,
for the Christian this should be the exception and not the rule. If our anger
causes us to be known as a person who becomes unapproachable, we become
ineffective for Christ; and this too will be grievous to the Spirit. In our
personal relationships we need to stop and consider our responses before we
seek to resolve an issue that makes us angry. Are we angered because it was
done against us personally? Was our ego or pride hurt? Are we willing to
address the issue in humility and love, with a willingness to forgive? If not,
it may be best to stop, pray, and approach the situation once we have spent
some time with Jesus. Ultimately, our ability to refrain from crossing the line
of sin when we get angry can be used by God to open many doors to share Jesus
with others, and to comfort those who are hurting because they have been sinned
against or are mourning because they have sinned and have a desire to be
reconciled. The best response to a situation that causes our anger to be
stirred is to draw near to God, so that He can draw near to us, causing the
devils to flee so that they cannot further provoke the situation in a negative
and sinful way (Jm 4:7-8; 1 Pt 5:8-9).
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