In Your Anger, Do Not Sin (Eph 4:26a)
The Gospels teach that Jesus expressed anger without sinning. Since we are to imitate Him, we can conclude that our anger need not be sinful, but that is the challenge: how to be angry and yet do not sin?
There are good reasons to be angry, such as: abortion, marital infidelity, or murder. But there are many more times we express sinful anger based on things perceived “about me”, such as: hurt feelings, lack of respect, lack of agreement, etc. In these instances we must take care to work towards a God-honoring, non-sinful response.
To help understand how you can obey the command to not sin in the midst of your anger, reflect on a recent situation in which unrighteous anger dominated your response. Then use the following questions to help guide you towards identifying a God honoring response.
- What led to my becoming angry?
- How did I respond?
- What does the Bible say about my response? (James 1:20, Rom 12:19, Eph 4:31)
- What did I want/desire?
- What does the Bible say about what I wanted? (James 4:1-3)
- How should my identity in Christ affect my thinking? (Gal 2:20, 5:22-23; Col 3:3)
- What does the Bible say I should have said/done?(Matt 5:44, Eph 5:25, 1 Peter 2:17, 1 Thes 3:12)
Are you seriously struggling with this sin and want counsel from someone here at Bethel? Make an appointment with one of our biblical counselors.
Posted on Fri, May 30, 2014
by Don Currans