This morning, the world believes that concepts are bad, when actually the unwise and wicked part of the concept is the application of it. One such concept would be that of anger. The religious world today holds the same view of anger that they do on war (in many circumstances).  The Christian world thinks that anger, war, capital punishment, judgment, etc are wicked concepts.  However, the Bible upholds and condones these concepts, but the word warns about certain courses of action in regards to these concepts.  Anger is not wrong, but one transgresses when he lets anger lead into grudges. Likewise, war is not wrong, but raping, murdering, and pillaging in the name of war is improper. The Bible upholds judgment, but how one judges is supremely important to the application of the principle. 

Driving to work this morning, I saw a church sign that read, "He who angers you, controls you."  Immediately, I thought of these verses.  There are cases when the Bible speaks of children of God having righteous indignation (anger), of which David is a prime example.  However, the anger does not make one sine, but the sin comes in giving place to the devil and continuing in anger, which decays the walk of a disciple of Christ.  Consider the matter of abortion for a moment.  To me, the world has not committed an act more heinous than abortion. However, the anger (righteous) that we feel in regards to this devilish action does not give us the right to blow up abortion clinics or focus solely on abortion.   

Many times, we get angry when we hear about these things on the news, but we should not let them drive us to thinking about nothing else, especially our Lord and Saviour.  The second portion of verse 26 is the key to handling anger.  There are things in this world that should not anger us (although they do, like when we do not get our own selfish way).  But, there are other things that give us cause for anger, but we should never let the sun go down on our wrath.   

When couples have marital problems, they should still try to get the matter under control before the night hours, for sleeping on those matters will only drag them out into separation from each other's fellowship. The devil constantly works to take things that are not sinful and make us drive them to a wicked end. Our Lord had righteous indignation about people turning the house of prayer into a den of thieves, but He gave the proper amount of anger and wrath without going overboard or stopping short. Everything that He does is just right, and He is our example on how to handle matters.   

To never get angry will lead to a complacent attitude that will spill over into the churches, causing lack of action in any issue that comes up. Should a church judge its members that are unremorseful and steeped in their transgressions? Certainly they should. However, if the person repents and returns again to the church, we should not be negligent to receive them back. So, finally, we can see that matters of anger, judgment, and the like are not sinful, but some of the extreme consequences and applications can be. May we ever be found serving Him in the mode of never going too far with things but never stopping short of our duty either.

In Hope,

Bro Philip