December 7 - Miriam

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Ephesians 3-5:14.

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:²⁶ “In your anger do not sin”^[e]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold.

Observation:  While anger is, in and of itself, not necessarily sin, what we allow to make us angry and how we handle that anger can be sinful.

Application:  I think there are definitely times where it is important to become angry and not to be so complacent and dismissive as to let things slide that should be dealt with up front.  Having said that, it is easy to give in to our human nature and have a "tantrum" - screaming, yelling, stomping, slamming doors, throwing things, etc.  I can't deny having done all of those things at some point, some of them more recently than I care to remember.  It's important to take that deep breath, or count to ten, or whisper a prayer; whatever method you choose to give yourself a bit of distance from the immediate response and try to determine how you're going to handle it.  Much easier said than done, I know.  It helps, in some cases, to have decided in advance how you're going to deal with a certain situation - at least a predictable one - like when your 4-year-old says outright "NO" upon being asked to do something simple like get dressed or clean up his toys.  We can't always predict what is going to happen or whether we're going to have a mature reaction to it or not.  Bob Deffinbaugh, in Righteous Anger has the following to say regarding the above verses:

Most of our anger is the “wrath of man” and not the “holy anger” of God. And thus we should wish to see less and less of this self-centered anger in our lives. But if we are to take this text seriously, we must also say that we should see more righteous anger than we do. If God is angered by sin, then we should be angered by it as well. We, like the saints in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 5), seem to be more willing to accommodate sin than we do to condemn it, and to remove it from our midst. All too often, I see parents—Christian parents—who think of the sinful actions and attitudes of their children as cute, rather than to be angered by it and to deal with it as God would have us do. We are not angered by rebellion, irate over injustice, distressed by abortions and immorality and sin. We think of a man like Lot as “soft of sin,” but this righteous man was “vexed” in his soul over the sin which was all about him (see 2 Peter 2:7-8). When we see sin as God does, it will make us angry.

And when we are angry, then we should deal with sin as God has directed us, so that our anger is dispelled, and it does not lead us to sin. We need to confront the sinner, and without minimizing the sin, to seek its solution in genuine repentance. In many marriages that end up on the rocks of divorce, the root problem is anger that has not been righteously expressed and dispelled. In many families, the division and discord stems from a failure to obey Paul’s instructions concerning anger. In many churches, the unity of the body of Christ has been hindered by the lack of righteous anger. Let us seek to be both good and mad to the glory of God and for the health and unity of His body, the church.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we thank you for your many wonderful blessings.  We rejoice at being able to celebrate the birth of your son later this month - the Way that you provided for us to be saved and to be heirs of your kingdom.  Help us to be slow to anger.  Help us also to understand the difference between righteous anger and "wrath of man" so that we can respond as you would have us do when a situation comes up that causes us to become angry.  We pray that as new creations, who have put aside our old natures, that we would be better able to control our emotions and avoid un-Christlike tantrums.  Thank you for your gift of the Holy Spirit, who helps us with these things.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.



Tomorrow's passage: Ephesians 5:15-6:24; Colossians 1:1-23.