The Doorpost: Respond biblically

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Ephesians 4:26-27

Being angry is not sin, but anger can lead to sin.

Anger is an emotion God has given us to provide energy to respond to things that are wrong. We should express this anger without sinning. There are several examples in Scripture of Jesus expressing anger righteously.

Jesus was angry when He saw the hardness of heart of the religious leaders who cared more about following their rules about keeping the Sabbath than about following the purpose of God’s Law concerning the Sabbath. He was angry when He pointed out their hypocrisy and they refused to acknowledge they were wrong.

Jesus was angry at the beginning of His ministry, shortly after He turned the water to wine in Cana, when He saw how the Jewish temple was being used as a marketplace. He was so angry that He used a whip of cords and drove both men and animals out of the temple area and overturned tables of money because He cared so much about the holiness of His Father’s house (John 2:12-17).

Jesus was angry near the end of His earthly ministry when He again entered the temple and saw that they had again turned it into a marketplace. He spent the night thinking about it and went back the next day and cleared the temple again (Mark 11:11-18).

Like Jesus, there are some things that we should be angry about. We should not harbor it and hold grudges but should use the extra energy God provides to respond biblically to things that are wrong.