Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.- Ephesians 4:26-32 ESV
Rev. Dwight Yoo
We may have said to ourselves during this sermon series, "I don't struggle with this, I can tune out." But everyone struggles with anger.
Distinguishing two types of anger
Not all anger is sinful. God can get angry and be righteous.
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Psalm 4:1-4 ESV
David is angry because he is being falsely accused. But he is trying to show the difference between anger and sin. Even when we are angry about righteous things, it can become evil. Anger about injustice can be twisted into something evil.
Sinful anger is called wrath. It has no righteousness. How can you tell what it is? We'll look at holy anger. Holy anger is against actual sin and God's kingdom and concerns. It expresses itself in holy and life giving ways.
Clamor, brawling, is a hot type of anger. Much like wreath. But bitterness and slander is cold anger. It is not explosive, but rather an inward simmering.
Diagnosing anger
What is the root of both? Love. What we get angry over points to what we love. When we are not angry over godly things, it points to our idols. When we get angry over traffic, it could be that we are upset about how we appear to be at work, or we love what our job does for us. We are placing things above God. Not only that, but we are playing God. We are rejecting what reality should be. You are setting up your own kingdom with it's own rules. Anger is directed to people around us for failing to follow our rules. It is destructive to relationships.
Defeating sinful anger
We have a king who has his rules. He had a just and righteous anger against us. But instead of pouring out his anger on us, he laid it upon the only righteous one, Jesus. So to defeat this sin, we need to find our contentment and fulfillment in Jesus. We need to have God as our chief desire. When we get sinfully angry, we need to ask God to keep God as Lord over our lives. Ask Him to change our hearts to turn toward the life giver and lover of our souls. Turn to God and ask what it is that we are hoping with bring us fulfillment... And turn from it and turn towards God. Do this over and over to become more loving and more righteous.
No comments:
Post a Comment