Be Angry

In his section on Christian living, Paul gives the church in Ephesus permission to be angry (Eph. 4:26-27). As he does in other letters, he describes the Christian life in terms of "your new self." He urges believers to put off their "old self," which has been corrupted by deceitful desires. And put on their "new self," which is created in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. As part of this new self, Paul doesn't just give Christians permission to be angry; he actually commands it.

Some translations say, "In your anger do not sin." Be a more accurate translation would be "Be angry and do not sin." The phrase "Be angry" is in the imperative form.

We often think that anger is a bad emotion, and those who are truly righteous rarely, if ever, experience it. Later on in this passage, Paul tells the Ephesian church to get rid of their anger. But when we look at the breadth of scripture, we see that God gets angry, so does Jesus. Here Paul clarifies, it's not so much about being angry but not being controlled by anger.

The real question we have to ask is, what triggers my anger? Is it trivial things like getting cut off in traffic and having your team lose the big game? Or is it triggered by the same things that trigger God's anger? Things like injustice and unrighteousness? People not having their basic needs met? The neglect of the orphan, the fatherless, and the widow? All too often, our anger is self-absorbed. It surfaces from inconveniences, like slow lines at the store and bad cell phone service.

When these things trigger our anger, sin has already taken root. In order for us not to be mastered by unrighteous anger, we need our heart's desires to mirror God's heart. This requires submitting our full selves to God and being concerned about others before ourselves.

So, be angry. But don't sin.