If you gave your emotions a super hero name, what would it be? I would give my wife the name, "Elastigirl". She has emotional elasticity – the ability to extend herself, to stretch herself and to wrap herself around people and their circumstances. I would give myself the name, "The Block". I have fixed emotional boundaries and can calmly handle anything that falls within those boundaries. But if anything falls outside those boundaries, well, I need GRACE!!!
We all share many emotional differences, yet we all share one similarity: ANGER. At one point or another, for many different reasons and in many different ways, we all will get angry with someone.
Anger is ok; it's reflective of the nature of God. In fact, Psalm 4:4 tells us to "Be angry”. It's a POSITIVE command!
Jesus got angry. Once, he memorably drove people out of the temple with a whip of cords (John 2:15). But he didn't get angry because the temple music wasn’t his preference or because the paint color wasn’t his favorite. He got angry at SIN. Sin is all that is contrary or opposed to the character and will of God. Jesus had a right to be angry.
But let's not forget that for that same reason, Jesus came to destroy sin. He didn't come to destroy people in their sin (John 3:17), but to save them from their sin because He loved them (John 3:16). You see, for Jesus, LOVE provided the catalyst, the context and the constraint for His ANGER. Love often involves anger; anger doesn't always involve love.
So David says, "Be angry, and do not sin". Our anger turns sinful when it is SEVERED from God’s love and is CONTRARY to God's character and will – EASILY provoked (1 Corinthians 13:5, 7), QUICKLY roused (James 1:19-20; Exodus 34:6; Romans 9:22), expressed CARELESSLY (Matthew 12:36-37), motivated by PRIDE (Matthew 5:22), rooted in HATRED (1 John 3:15).
Paul quotes Psalm 4:4 in Ephesians 2:26 and says that we should BE QUICK to deal with our anger, giving it no time to nestle up, get comfortable and fall asleep in our heart. He writes, “and do not let the sun go down on your anger”. Imagine anger (wrath or exasperation) swaddled and cradled like a baby in your arms, being roused and awakened, nursed and fed, nourished and kept warm, settled and established.
Paul says, “Get rid of it, and quickly!”, because if we are SLOW to repent and deal with our sinful anger, we provide our enemy, the devil, with an OPPORTUNITY.
When his CHARACTER TRAITS of gossip, lying, slander, accusation, divisiveness, discord, vindictiveness and a desire for revenge begin to appear in our life, we can be sure that the devil has found a FOOTHOLD into our heart, life, marriage, family, home, relationships, etc.
If we find ourselves there, our hope is in the gospel: JESUS died to save those who hated God and DESERVED the just wrath of his righteous anger against sin. He took our place and ABSORBED the wrath of God, so that we might be forgiven and be able to forgive; so that the power and hold of anger over our life might be DESTROYED; so that we might be filled, compelled, transformed and mastered by the love of God, by the God of love.
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