26Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27Neither give place to the devil.
Anger can be one of our biggest enemies in life.Not that anger is bad – but often the way we approach anger is where the sin results.The Bible teaches us about anger, and how we can deal with it in a holy fashion in our lives.It is important to always remember that God must etch His spirit, His desires, and His will in our lives.We can try to pretend to be like God, and it is good to obey His commandments, but more important is to spend time soaking in the presence of God.Being in His presence will transform our desires from something unholy to something holy.
Let’s take a look at some of these words, and try to understand what is being said.The word “angry” (Eph. 4:26) means “to provoke or enrage” and its root meanings come from a word that means “to stretch oneself, to reach out after, to desire”.Anger has many facets – it is an emotion - it is a desire – it is a thought – it is a feeling.It can be like being on a roller-coaster ride – you begin going up the ramp, ready to go into an intense downward plunge, and begin your travel through the turns and loop-de-loops.Suddenly, you are back at the beginning of the ride – and it is time to do it all over again!There are other ways to describe anger, but often the “ride” that you take results in harmful repercussions – either for you, or for someone else.
This is the point behind the unholy anger versus holy anger – what is the end result?Even in holy anger, there is a good outcome.For instance, there are times when God brings us through situations that cleanse us.We must remember that He loves us, but He hates the sin that destroys us, so very carefully, He deals with us level by level, working to purge out that which is unholy in our lives.He deals with us as with children.His anger is still based around love – He loves us, and aims to help us grow.Therefore, His anger is holy.
On the other hand, our anger is not always based upon love and edification, but upon carnal justification, pride, hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, etc.There is quite a list that describes why we become angry.We become angry because we don’t get our way, because someone hurt us, because someone likes someone else more than us…because – because – BECAUSE!WE always have a reason to justify our actions – but that doesn’t make them holy.We can end up using our tongues to destroy others in anger, we can say things we don’t mean in anger, we can destroy things that belong to others when we are angry… there are so many things we could list.I bet if we took the time to think about what happens when we get angry, we would realize that our anger is often the unholy type!It is not based upon God’s love, but rather man’s carnal reasoning, which is in DIRECT opposition to God!
Remember, when mankind fell into sin, we inherited many traits of the devil in our will – it is passed down through the blood.God, as a loving parent, seeks to help us learn that which is right, and He deals with us on a personal level daily, so that we don’t become “hateful”.
Sometimes it feels like we are totally justified in our anger.Whenever something happens that we don’t like, we feel our blood begin to boil, and our mouth gets ready to run a hundred miles an hour, and we are ready to fight.Yet we fail to realize how this is bondage!If you cannot have something happen to you without getting ready to pitch a fit, then you are in bondage to anger!You have not yet learned how to overcome the unholy anger that reigns in your life.Remember – you are not the only one who has this fight!All of us war against anger everyday.Most of the time, it stems from things not going the way we think they should go.We don’t realize that God is in control of all things!He allows things to happen for a reason – sometimes it is to teach us to pray, and how to overcome situations and circumstances in our lives.God wants to bring us to a place where every little thing in life doesn’t tick us off.
Hopefully this helps us to realize that we all need help in this department, and God has exactly what the doctor ordered – the blood of Jesus!1 John 1:9 - 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.That word “unrighteousness” simply means “not righteous”.When we acknowledge that we have things in us that are not right, and that God can help us with those things, we can proceed forth in God’s plan of redemption – redeeming us from the wickedness that controls our thoughts and actions.Remember – without God’s redemption, there is no salvation.But we must also remember that God’s redemption is a daily process – He is purging out the old carnal man day by day, to make room for the new spiritual man.He is making us into the image of Christ.
Back to Ephesians 4:26-27.The word “sin” means “to miss the mark” – it is a word we hear all the time, but sometimes we lack understanding on the pure meaning of the word.Sin is much more than just lying, cheating and stealing.It is anything that goes contrary to the will of God, even to the tiniest degree.When we realize that, we realize how truly wicked we are, and how desperately we need a Saviour.Even in our best intentions, we can never truly match up to the perfect will of God – we can only do it step by step.So God is very gracious towards us, and extends His grace as a platform to help us grow in our fight against the sin that tries to defeat us.He knows exactly where our heart is, and honors our faith in Him, and our desire to follow Him, as righteousness.In Genesis 15:6, we see that God counted Abram’s faith as righteousness.Without faith, we cannot have righteousness – we must first believe in Him, and then obey Him.
The word “wrath” (Eph. 4:26) means “rage” and comes from a root word which basically means “surrounded by anger”.Wrath, in a sense, is a very strong form of anger – anger is at one level, and wrath is a stronger level!Let’s make a scenario.You go to work, and your boss says something nasty to you.You become very angry – full of wrath.You feel like your boss is a jerk, and you would like to tell him off!You may even get to a point where you actually do that, or instead you go home and take it out on the dog.Your anger has gotten out of control.You are not in control of your life – the anger has control over you!It may not always have control over you – but all it takes is something to set you off.Does this scenario sound familiar?You have wrath in your life!It is time to bring it to the feet of Jesus, and let His blood wash you clean of any unholy anger and wrath.
The word “place” (Eph. 4:27) means “a spot, an occupancy, a license, a room”.Who do we give room to?The devil!Remember what is written in Ephesians 4:27 – “Neither give place to the devil”.Have you ever heard the old saying, “You act just like the devil”?There is a nugget of truth in this saying.The reason is that we have given the devil a place in our heart, and He will operate through our lives.If we choose to retain our wrath, and not bring it to the feet of Jesus, it will continue to rule our lives.We think we are free to tell people off, but the sad truth is that we are in bondage to our anger, and we have been deceived by the devil, who continues to harm us and others around us by our acts of anger.
Remember, anger can be like a fire.If you have ever seen someone go into a rage, you well know that they will do things that they never would have dreamed of doing.This is the devastation that can be caused by wrath.Have you ever heard of road rage?How about a crime of passion?Manslaughter?Things happen in the heat of the moment, and if we have not given Jesus permission to cleanse us of these desires, we are truly a slave to our anger.
So why would we want to continue in our anger?It feels good!It feels great to tell someone off who has hurt you – but would Jesus like that?Would we want them to tell us off?Would Jesus tell them off?This is the hard thing about parting with our unholy anger – it feels good, like a drug.We are justified in our anger – at least to ourselves. But in God’s eyes, we are setting ourselves up for destruction.Remember, if you do not forgive others their sins, you cannot be forgiven either.
To wrap up this message, I would like to give some scriptures that we can dwell upon to help us realize that anger in its unholy form is a curse and a sin, but it can be overcome through the blood of Jesus!
Romans 12:19-21 / 19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Ephesians 4:31-32 / 31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Proverbs 30:8 / 8Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
Matthew 7:3-5 / 3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
8-21-11 / Be Ye Angry, and Sin Not
Ephesians 4:26-27 /
26Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27Neither give place to the devil.
Anger can be one of our biggest enemies in life. Not that anger is bad – but often the way we approach anger is where the sin results. The Bible teaches us about anger, and how we can deal with it in a holy fashion in our lives. It is important to always remember that God must etch His spirit, His desires, and His will in our lives. We can try to pretend to be like God, and it is good to obey His commandments, but more important is to spend time soaking in the presence of God. Being in His presence will transform our desires from something unholy to something holy.
Let’s take a look at some of these words, and try to understand what is being said. The word “angry” (Eph. 4:26) means “to provoke or enrage” and its root meanings come from a word that means “to stretch oneself, to reach out after, to desire”. Anger has many facets – it is an emotion - it is a desire – it is a thought – it is a feeling. It can be like being on a roller-coaster ride – you begin going up the ramp, ready to go into an intense downward plunge, and begin your travel through the turns and loop-de-loops. Suddenly, you are back at the beginning of the ride – and it is time to do it all over again! There are other ways to describe anger, but often the “ride” that you take results in harmful repercussions – either for you, or for someone else.
This is the point behind the unholy anger versus holy anger – what is the end result? Even in holy anger, there is a good outcome. For instance, there are times when God brings us through situations that cleanse us. We must remember that He loves us, but He hates the sin that destroys us, so very carefully, He deals with us level by level, working to purge out that which is unholy in our lives. He deals with us as with children. His anger is still based around love – He loves us, and aims to help us grow. Therefore, His anger is holy.
On the other hand, our anger is not always based upon love and edification, but upon carnal justification, pride, hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, etc. There is quite a list that describes why we become angry. We become angry because we don’t get our way, because someone hurt us, because someone likes someone else more than us…because – because – BECAUSE! WE always have a reason to justify our actions – but that doesn’t make them holy. We can end up using our tongues to destroy others in anger, we can say things we don’t mean in anger, we can destroy things that belong to others when we are angry… there are so many things we could list. I bet if we took the time to think about what happens when we get angry, we would realize that our anger is often the unholy type! It is not based upon God’s love, but rather man’s carnal reasoning, which is in DIRECT opposition to God!
Remember, when mankind fell into sin, we inherited many traits of the devil in our will – it is passed down through the blood. God, as a loving parent, seeks to help us learn that which is right, and He deals with us on a personal level daily, so that we don’t become “hateful”.
Sometimes it feels like we are totally justified in our anger. Whenever something happens that we don’t like, we feel our blood begin to boil, and our mouth gets ready to run a hundred miles an hour, and we are ready to fight. Yet we fail to realize how this is bondage! If you cannot have something happen to you without getting ready to pitch a fit, then you are in bondage to anger! You have not yet learned how to overcome the unholy anger that reigns in your life. Remember – you are not the only one who has this fight! All of us war against anger everyday. Most of the time, it stems from things not going the way we think they should go. We don’t realize that God is in control of all things! He allows things to happen for a reason – sometimes it is to teach us to pray, and how to overcome situations and circumstances in our lives. God wants to bring us to a place where every little thing in life doesn’t tick us off.
Hopefully this helps us to realize that we all need help in this department, and God has exactly what the doctor ordered – the blood of Jesus! 1 John 1:9 - 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That word “unrighteousness” simply means “not righteous”. When we acknowledge that we have things in us that are not right, and that God can help us with those things, we can proceed forth in God’s plan of redemption – redeeming us from the wickedness that controls our thoughts and actions. Remember – without God’s redemption, there is no salvation. But we must also remember that God’s redemption is a daily process – He is purging out the old carnal man day by day, to make room for the new spiritual man. He is making us into the image of Christ.
Back to Ephesians 4:26-27. The word “sin” means “to miss the mark” – it is a word we hear all the time, but sometimes we lack understanding on the pure meaning of the word. Sin is much more than just lying, cheating and stealing. It is anything that goes contrary to the will of God, even to the tiniest degree. When we realize that, we realize how truly wicked we are, and how desperately we need a Saviour. Even in our best intentions, we can never truly match up to the perfect will of God – we can only do it step by step. So God is very gracious towards us, and extends His grace as a platform to help us grow in our fight against the sin that tries to defeat us. He knows exactly where our heart is, and honors our faith in Him, and our desire to follow Him, as righteousness. In Genesis 15:6, we see that God counted Abram’s faith as righteousness. Without faith, we cannot have righteousness – we must first believe in Him, and then obey Him.
The word “wrath” (Eph. 4:26) means “rage” and comes from a root word which basically means “surrounded by anger”. Wrath, in a sense, is a very strong form of anger – anger is at one level, and wrath is a stronger level! Let’s make a scenario. You go to work, and your boss says something nasty to you. You become very angry – full of wrath. You feel like your boss is a jerk, and you would like to tell him off! You may even get to a point where you actually do that, or instead you go home and take it out on the dog. Your anger has gotten out of control. You are not in control of your life – the anger has control over you! It may not always have control over you – but all it takes is something to set you off. Does this scenario sound familiar? You have wrath in your life! It is time to bring it to the feet of Jesus, and let His blood wash you clean of any unholy anger and wrath.
The word “place” (Eph. 4:27) means “a spot, an occupancy, a license, a room”. Who do we give room to? The devil! Remember what is written in Ephesians 4:27 – “Neither give place to the devil”. Have you ever heard the old saying, “You act just like the devil”? There is a nugget of truth in this saying. The reason is that we have given the devil a place in our heart, and He will operate through our lives. If we choose to retain our wrath, and not bring it to the feet of Jesus, it will continue to rule our lives. We think we are free to tell people off, but the sad truth is that we are in bondage to our anger, and we have been deceived by the devil, who continues to harm us and others around us by our acts of anger.
Remember, anger can be like a fire. If you have ever seen someone go into a rage, you well know that they will do things that they never would have dreamed of doing. This is the devastation that can be caused by wrath. Have you ever heard of road rage? How about a crime of passion? Manslaughter? Things happen in the heat of the moment, and if we have not given Jesus permission to cleanse us of these desires, we are truly a slave to our anger.
So why would we want to continue in our anger? It feels good! It feels great to tell someone off who has hurt you – but would Jesus like that? Would we want them to tell us off? Would Jesus tell them off? This is the hard thing about parting with our unholy anger – it feels good, like a drug. We are justified in our anger – at least to ourselves. But in God’s eyes, we are setting ourselves up for destruction. Remember, if you do not forgive others their sins, you cannot be forgiven either.
To wrap up this message, I would like to give some scriptures that we can dwell upon to help us realize that anger in its unholy form is a curse and a sin, but it can be overcome through the blood of Jesus!
Romans 12:19-21 / 19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Ephesians 4:31-32 / 31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Proverbs 30:8 / 8Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
Matthew 7:3-5 / 3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.