Useful Bible Studies > Ephesians Commentary > chapter 4

Christians and anger

Ephesians 4:26

In our world, sometimes people choose, on purpose, to do evil things. Those actions may be against other people, or they may be against God himself. Perhaps they cause poor and weak people to suffer; perhaps they try to bring shame upon God’s holy name.

Such behaviour makes God angry (John 2:13-17; Romans 1:18). Sometimes it should also make Christians angry, too. Christians should care about the honour of God. They should also care whenever people are suffering. However, Christians must try not to become angry about their own personal troubles. In every situation, they should be trusting God to work powerfully on their behalf (Romans 8:28). Therefore, they can learn to be calm and content even when their troubles are severe (Philippians 2:14-15 and 4:11-12).

When Christians do become angry, there should be a limit to their anger. As the guarantee for a loan (in other words, to make sure that a person paid his debt), God’s law permitted a lender to take away a poor man’s coat. However, the lender had to return the coat that same day, before the sun went down (Deuteronomy 24:12-13). In the same way, Paul warns Christians that their anger must end that same day. If they allow that feeling of anger to control them, they are behaving wrongly. They are allowing the devil to spoil their relationship with God.

We may ask how to stop our feelings of anger when something very evil has happened. The answer is that we must hand the matter over to God, for him to deal with. He is the judge of these matters (Romans 12:19) - but as Christians, we must show kindness even to our enemies (Romans 12:20-21).

Next part: Christians should never behave as the devil wants (Ephesians 4:27)

 

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© 2019, Keith Simons.