Anger

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

ANGER

Eph 4:25-28

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

NIV

Because we are living in this new attitude and we have put off all falsehood and speak only the truth, we now need to deal with anger. It is clear that anger can lead to sin, in  fact, unless we have the same righteous anger that Jesus demonstrated regarding the house of God, anger is a sin. It is also interesting the verbiage of this admonition, “In your anger” Paul is implying that they, and us, engage in anger. It is what we do with anger that is the important issue. But why would ever get angry in the first place? The Greek word, orgizoo, can either mean, to provoke, enrage or become exasperated. However, when we are admonished not to let the sun go down while we are still angry, this Greek word is, parorgismos, meaning rage, indignation, exasperation, and sometimes used as wrath. However, the truth is still the same, when we do become angry because of what someone did, or said, or that they did nothing and said nothing when we were expecting them to either say something, do something, or not say anything and not do something, it is all about us. We think we have been either offended or our feelings were hurt, and we become upset that leads us into this anger. But it is still about that fact we think more highly of ourselves than we should and think others either owe us something, or should do what we expect them to do, or to keep their promise. First, we must admit that it happens, but we have the responsibility to get rid of that anger before the sun goes down. For those who are married, and anger gets a grip on us, all of that wrath must be put to bed, so to speak, and it is not a matter of trying to justify why we became angry with our spouse, thus putting the fault of our anger on them. We simply must put it away period, leave it go, seek forgiveness, from the other person, and most of all from God, and return to our non-angry state before we lay our heads down. For the single, it becomes same thing, but a married and a single person who has become angry, must go to God and get it fixed before the setting sun. this issue of anger is between us and God, and no one else. However, it is possible to become angry without sinning, but that anger must be a righteous anger, upset because God is offended, that people have offended our Lord. But when we are enraged because we have been offended, we have sinned, and that must be talked out with God and God alone, and it must be done right away for we should never hold on to any angry for any amount of time. Let us always walk with God, keeping in step with the Spirit so that any anger is dealt with immediately with the Lord, freeing us to live in harmony with each other based on our common love for all the saints.