Ephesians 4:26-27 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, (27) and give no opportunity to the devil.

I often here this verse quoted as an example that anger is an acceptable way to respond in various situations as long you don’t sin. Sometimes the verses about Jesus turning over the tables in the temple to throw out the money changers is also used as an example of “righteous anger.” Since we know that there are places in the Bible that show us that God himself gets angry, it is safe to say that if we are made in the image of God, then there must be times that are also appropriate for us to get angry too. Not only are there times we might get angry, but Paul actually tells us to be angry. And shortly after these words, Paul tells us in 5:1 that we are to be imitators of God.

So what sort of things should cause a Christian to become angry? The list could go on here, but as I ponder on this verse there are some specifics that come to mind for me.

• Human Trafficking – One of the biggest issues in today’s cultures is human trafficking. Whether it be child slave labor which is numbered to be over 9 million in the Middle East and Africa to the sex slave trade which numbers near 21 million.
• 90-100 million Christians are under persecution all over the globe right now.
• Over 700,000 babies are never given a chance at life in the United States every year.
• Men and women all over the world not giving God the glory He deserves and living sinful wicked lives. (Jer 30:23, Rom 1:18)

These, in my opinion are the things God would be angry about. Not whether or not a driver cut me off, or the grocery line is too long, or I got a bad haircut. Yes, those things can be frustrating, but are they worthy of getting angry about. Be angry and do not sin to me means that the reason for my anger needs to be something that is truly at the heart of being an offense to God rather than my own nonsensical issue of the moment.

Then Paul reminds us to not let the sun go down on our anger. I think he says this because it is easy to take an issue to heart with such passion that we can’t let go of it once we slide under the covers at night. We fret and fuss and find ourselves unable to sleep… If we allow the Lord to be in his rightful place, we have sought Him in our anger understanding He is the one who will ultimately bring it to justice, we should be able to let it go at the foot of the cross for the night. As the heat of the day cools into night, so should those things that we have become angry over cool down in our hearts and minds.

Should we find ourselves getting angry and sinning in it, we are opening up our lives to opportunity for the devil to trip us up. This allows the enemy to not only cause us to possibly lash out at someone else, but if we do, then we may live in the guilt and frustration that comes from this. Being angry at the things God is angry at when we are in Christ will bring us to a place of action as we passionately defend those who are defenseless. But when we get to a place of anger that causes sin, we give a foothold to the devil.

Lord, I know I have struggled with and sometimes even now struggle with anger. I don’t want to be angry at the simple challenges that come my way, rather, I want to have your heart Lord that shows me when I should engage in a way that will not only cause action toward those things that anger you, but bring you glory in it first and foremost. Lord, forgive me today for my anger that causes me to sin and help me to put on the new self that Paul talks about in the previous verses so I can be an imitator of Christ. Amen