Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”
This last Sunday, Pastor Herk at Bass Lake’s Little Church in the Pines continued in has sermon series through the Pauline Epistle of Ephesians with a timely message for us all on “anger”. There are a couple keys to understanding this passage. The first is to consider the context in which it was written. The Apostle Paul is writing to the church (the body of Christ) as practical instruct both individually and corporately. The conventional wisdom is to take this passage and use it as a platform for a message on how to deal with anger in our individual lives. Paul deals with this more in Ephesians 4:31-32 for our individual lives saying, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” The Word of God is always multi-faceted for the intended audience of the spiritual message and in the divinely practical and purposeful application.
The Apostle is giving practical instruction on how to dress the part and walk in this journey according to what Believers/Disciples already are in Jesus Christ, putting off the old things that characterized our previous “dead in sin” lives, prior to repentance, believing conversion of the soul and regeneration of the spirit, which reconciled them with Almighty God, by Christ’s atoning and redemptive work on the Cross, through saving faith. The Child of God’s transformational putting on of the “whole new you” characterized by our lives in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ in truth. Psalm 4:4 “Be angry, and do not sin.”
Secondly, we need to consider the actual text. Is this passage a command or is it a condition? The Greek word for the phrase “be angry” is “orgizō”, meaning to be provoked to anger, be wroth (very angry; much exasperated). In proper context, we have to understand this phrase plainly as a command. Some translation use conditional language because we have been taught that anger is wrong. It doesn’t seem right that we would be commanded to “be angry”. This is interpreted as “righteous anger or indignation. It is an anger that is an abiding, settled attitude against that which is sinful. Be angry at what angers sovereign God. Psalm 5:4-5 says, “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity.”
Sin is defined as: the voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by Creator God; any voluntary transgression of the divine Moral Law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act; iniquity. Iniquity is defined as: a particular deviation from rectitude; a sin or crime; wickedness; any act of injustice. The Greek word for “wrath” in this passage is “parorgismos”, meaning indignation, exasperation, or wrath. This wrath deals with the underlying provocation cause of that anger.
Now that we’ve determined what the background for the passage this, let’s see if we can identify the principles that God wants us to learn from in this passage. Let’s continue Pastor Herk’s message on Christian Anger Management in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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