Be Angry and Don't Sin

Life is a seeming continuous onslaught or frustrations and perpetual irritants.  Be it spouses, kids, work, driving, relationships, from the moment we leave our doors in the morning till we lay our heads at night, we are constantly bombarded with stressors that push our emotional buttons.  Scripture speaks directly to how we are to handle stress.

In Ephesians, Paul says plainly, "Be angry and do not sin (Eph. 4:26)".  It is interesting that Paul assumes the future reality of anger in his exhortation to not sin as a result of that anger.  Again, life is full of frustrations.  How we handle those frustrations is a matter of having discipline over ourselves to not react in anger, but in the grace that has been given us by Him who is gracious.

Another, more profound, clarification of anger is by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount when He wrenches up the requirements of the Law.  Jesus says that not only should we not commit murder, we should not harbor anger in our hearts (Matt. 5:21-22).  Again, Jesus presumes anger's possibility while prohibiting its sin effects.  Anger can touch us, we should not let it burn us.

In the Greek, anger or wrath has a fiery sense (orge).  In this sense, anger is a raging inferno that wells up from within.  This sense has some further implications in regards to Scripture.  Proverbs 6:27-28 speaks of lust and adultery in terms of a fire, "Can a man carry a fire next to his chest and his clothes not get burned?  Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?"

Anger should be understood like a burning coal that enters into our hearts and minds by the emotional irritants of the external world.  It is our responsibility to not allow the embers of anger to latch into our hearts and prompt us to sin.  This is the essence of Jesus and Paul's teaching: anger will happen; when it does, do not be consumed by it.

When life brings about anger, do not let that anger push us to sin.  Satan continually presses on us to give into sin.  One of his major tactics is to push us to the edges of rage and wrath.  This is sin.  Once we become Christians, we put away wrath, we put away anger in favor of love and grace found in Christ (Col. 3:8; Eph 4:31).  Therefore, when life causes us to be angry, we have a heavenly advocate to express our frustrations to and still not sin.

Look to Christ.  When angry, remember how easily Jesus could have been angry at the Jews who executed Him, but He wasn't.  Instead Jesus endured to the cross because He understood the truth that all wrath and vengeance belongs to God and is to be dished-out in His proper time.  Be angry and do not sin, simply look to Him.