Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple and Spotify and those of you enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. If you are new to our ministry, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at For the Gospel if you haven't already. And beyond giving to your local church, if you're looking for a ministry to partner with financially and help us keep producing these free resources, you can do that at forthegospel.org, our website, by clicking give. And you can learn more about our team, our mission, our vision, and our philosophy of doing resource ministry online by visiting our website there. We'd love to send you a gift as well as a way of saying thank you for supporting this ministry. All that information is there. And thank you to those of you already who are partnered with our ministry. You are the reason we get to keep producing these free resources. On today's episode, it's part two of a three-week series on anger. We kicked it off last episode with an episode titled Understanding Anger. And now I want to break down a biblical framework for sinful anger versus righteous anger. And then in the next episode, we'll get practical about how to deal with your anger. Ephesians 4, 26 to 27 is one of the best places to start as we examine anger. Paul the Apostle writes this be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. There are four imperatives that make up this very often quoted passage. The first is be angry. The second, do not sin. Then we have do not let the sun go down on your anger. And fourth, do not give the devil an opportunity. Now, before I explain what the passage means, I've got to tell you maybe a funny story, maybe not so funny if this is you and you've never heard this before. But the wrong meaning of the passage is often expressed in marriages. And here's what I mean. People will think, don't let the sun go down on your anger means you can't go to bed mad at each other in like a marriage relationship or some even a friendship. And so you have these married couples who think, you know, you better fight this out with me. We're gonna stay up and talk. We can't let the sun go down on our anger. It is not a marriage passage. It is not about making your poor husband or wife stay up till two in the morning to fight it out with you. In fact, even non-Christian psychologists have proven this that your IQ actually lowers the angrier you get. And so imagine when you're tired, then you're frustrated, now you have two things that make your brain work slower and produce less logic, and now we're actually fighting it in the midst of conflict. God never intended for you to stay up till three or four in the morning fighting it out with your spouse. Not to mention that in most marriages, not all, but most, one spouse is more of the volcano, they have no issue expressing themselves. It all comes out. But in a lot of marriages, there is also what I might call the clam or the hermit crab, and they just want to roll over, go to bed, and talk in the morning. They do not want to fight it out. And often those two personalities combined with staying up late and being tired, and now a Bible passage thrown in there causes more people to end up in marriage counseling than Ephesians 4, 26, and 27 had ever intended. So for starters, many times in marriage, you should just pray. You should give your frustrations to God. Maybe that's a good way to apply the passage, and we'll learn more about that shortly. And then you should sleep, and you should set a time at a later date, perhaps the next day, morning, afternoon, or evening, to discuss these things calmly and through prayer. So Ephesians 4, 26 and 27 is first and foremost not a passage to make your husband or wife stay up late because you can't let the sun go down until you've worked out every issue. Some issues take years to work out, months, days. So if that's you and you've never heard that before, welcome to the club of people who used to think you had to stay up late to work out every little thing. And if you've heard that before and you're chuckling right now, well, where were you in my first year of marriage when I used to think we gotta stay up till four in the morning and work it out? Helpful wisdom. Now, first, on the actual meaning of the passage, understand this. There is a righteous anger you're allowed to have. This is anger against sin. You can hate what God hates. You can be broken over what rebels against his will. You can burn with zeal for what burns down his house, if you will. None of that is sinful. What helps us really get this is using scripture to interpret scripture. Just a few verses later in Ephesians 5, verse 1, Paul says, Be imitators of God. And while he's talking contextually about the love of God in that particular verse, Ephesians 5, 1 and then verse 2 as well, we know it's common in Paul's writings for him to say things like, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And so God does have anger towards sin. And we would imitate his anger towards it, in the sense that God does not look lightly at sin, and neither should we. Deuteronomy 32.4 says, The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Why do I bring up Deuteronomy 32.4? Because if God is holy and he's perfect, that means he doesn't wink at sin. He is the rock of justice. He burns with anger towards sin. And this is something that believers should and will feel too. Sin destroys people. Sin leads people to hell. Sin is rebellion against a perfect and holy God. Sin is unloving. Sin is deceiving. Sin misses the mark of God's standard. And if you love sin and you love practicing sin, you're not on God's side. First John 2 15 says, Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Sin is serious. It ought to stir up our righteous anger that if someone loves to sin, they love this world, then the love of the Father is not in them. That means that heaven and hell is on the line here, souls are on the line. And on this particular verse in Ephesians 4, something Justin Peters has often remarked, and I've heard him preach this one time at our church, that believers in this particular passage could apply this truth. Stay angry at your sin. And don't stay angry at other people. Don't stay angry over meaningless things, but stay angry at your sin. In other words, our disposition should never be casual towards sin. We should never let the foot off the gas when it comes to being angry at our sin. Anger at our own sin keeps us at war with our sin. And some principles to keep in mind here when we're talking about being angry about sin or having righteous anger and knowing the difference between sinful anger and righteous anger is first, anger at our own sin fosters humility before God. We do well to be like the publican in Luke 18, 9 to 14. One of my favorite stories that Jesus tells, there's an arrogant Pharisee and there is a humble publican, the tax collector. The tax collector comes in to pray, he beats his chest, he bows his head, he won't even look up before God. And he says, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Anger at our own sin fosters a humility before God. And anger at our own sin fosters grace for others. We will be much more gracious with the sin of others if we're angry at our own sin. Sure, we're supposed to help our brothers and sisters by lovingly calling out their sin and doing what Jesus says to do in Matthew 18. That's right and good. But we do that in a more gracious way when we've looked in the mirror and we've seen our own sin and we are going to deal with it. Jesus says this in Matthew 7 5. You hypocrites, first take the log out of your own eye. Then you'll be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Notice that you still help your brother. Sin is a big deal. But you are better equipped and the best equipped when you first deal with your own sin. The best approach to this is by taking your own sin seriously. Also, anger at our own sin fosters love for the gospel. How much do we need the gospel? Perhaps more than we realize. How often do we need the gospel? Every single day. When we're angry towards sin, we are reminded of the glorious gospel and what Christ has done. And yes, it can be hard to face the reality of your sin sometimes, and it's hard for me to face the reality of my sin sometimes. But God's grace is greater than our greatest sin. I love the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation. And I don't know about you, but I needed to be saved. And so that's a healthy perspective when it comes to anger towards sin, starting with our own, looking in the mirror and being angry about our sin, facing our sin, taking it seriously, and then here's some thoughts on being angry about others' sin. Anger about false teaching is the mark of faithfulness. If I think about one particular trend that is very common in circles where true believers are, it's this we are frustrated at times with false teachers. We have a righteous anger. It's a zeal. Why? Because they're leading people to hell. Their teaching is anti-Christ. They're against God, they're against truth. Maybe you, like me, you've been in that before, and you were stuck in a river of false beliefs, just going with the flow, and then the Lord saves you, and what happens? You realize how damning and how destructive false teaching is. And so we are right to be angry about these things. That is a righteous anger based on what the Bible teaches. If we take God at his word, we would rightfully be suspect as well of someone who's not angered by false teaching. False teaching is actually one of the main sources of all righteous anger. And if pastors and people do not have a deep love for souls, well, then they're not going to be angry about false teaching in a righteous way. What God cares about, you should care about. I recall not long ago a pastor reaching out to me and saying, you know, I just don't have time to call things out or worry about false teachers. You know, I'm not into that. I'm too busy focusing on my flock. And that's a false dichotomy. Focusing on our flock requires a seriousness about teaching and spiritual threats. That's like saying, well, I don't have time to worry about child molesters. I'm too busy focusing on my family. Well, part of being a faithful leader and father and protector is to be aware of threats. And a pastor is not worth his salt if he's not stirred with righteous anger when God's sheep are being attacked by spiritual predators. Nor is it faithful to ignore credible threats to the flock. I think a lot of people are scared. Maybe some pastors who say this sort of thing or who won't deal with false teaching at all are lazy, they're afraid to lose money, they're afraid to lose church members, or maybe they're motivated by an easy ministry road and not willing to fight, or if this is you, perhaps, you're tired of conflict. You've been beat up, you got some bruises and some scars. Well, Christ is our strength, he's also our master. And while ministry is hard, we aren't the savior, we aren't the author of truth, and we also aren't the one who writes the job description. The same God who calls us to be faithful pastors and leaders is the same God who will sustain us when we commit to being faithful and obeying his mandates. Righteous anger is good and right. If we love him, we'll obey him and deal with those things. Next, anger about someone else's sin requires us to assess our own motives. And all this talk about being angry about sin and angry over your own sin and angry over false teachers, righteous anger, these are non-sinful metrics or, if you will, expressions of anger. You can measure it and see, okay, this matches the Bible. Well, being angry about someone else's sin also requires us to assess our motives. This is where we start getting over the line and into where righteous anger can actually turn sinful. Why are you angry? Why am I angry? Did this person hurt you or hurt me? Do you just want revenge? Is that what we're after? Or are we broken over the devastating results of sin? Maybe both. Maybe we need to walk that fine line and be really honest with ourselves? Are you angry because something is not just and it's not right? Are you angry because somebody might get away with something and your justice meter is just flashing red? Is your anger being expressed in a sinful way? We've all been there before where we start out being angry righteously about something and then it crosses the line and we begin to lose control of our emotions. It's so important to assess our motives when we're angry over someone else's sin. And this is where Paul's words are a sobering caution to us not to be sinfully angry. Anger that is not out of concern for truth, righteousness, integrity, God's will and his reputation, unity in the church, or other things, like injustice for the innocent, all of that. If it's not that, it's likely sinful anger. If you or I are only concerned about ourselves, could be sinful anger. If you and I are defending our own ego, it's likely sinful anger. What Paul wants by writing these words in Ephesians 4, 26 and 27 is for the Ephesians to discern between anger over rebellion against God versus selfish and self-interested anger about what one Bible commentator simply calls personal fury. Righteous anger is not as concerned with what sin does to us, but what it does to the name of God. Illustrating anger with Jesus' example is quite honestly the best way to discern righteous anger and sinful anger. In his book, J.I. Packer writes about Jesus going to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he saw a man there with a crippled hand. He knew that the Pharisees were watching to see what he would do, and he felt angry that they were only out to put him in the wrong. They didn't care for the handicapped man, nor did they want to see the power and love of God on display and brought to bear on this man. There were other instances as well where Jesus showed his anger or sternness. He sternly charged the leper in Mark 1.43 not to tell anyone about his healing because he foresaw the problems of being pursued by a huge crowd and thoughtless people who were just interested in seeing miracles, not interested in his teaching. But the leper disobeyed him and he made things very hard for Jesus. Well, Jesus showed anger again when the disciples tried to send away the mothers and their children. Remember in Mark chapter 10, verses 13 to 16, he was indignant. He was very angry at the way the disciples were thwarting his desire for the children to come to him and for ordinary people to come to him. He showed anger once more when he drove out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. Mark 11, verses 15 to 17 unpacks that where he strongly says that God's house is a house of prayer and it was being made into a den of thieves. God was not being glorified. And so Jesus was righteously angry. Commenting on this, Warfield writes, A man who cannot be angry cannot be merciful. The person who cannot be angry at the things which thwart God's purposes and God's love towards people is living too far away from his fellow men ever to feel anything positive towards them. And one final example, at Lazarus' grave, Jesus doesn't just show sympathy and distress for the mourners in John chapter 11, verses 33 to 35, but there's this sense in which he's deeply moved, even angry at death in God's world. That's the meaning of the phrase deeply moved in John 11, 38. Jesus was the perfect model of righteous anger. And yet, even still for us, since we're imitators of God, but not perfect ones, let's be careful to still give all anger to God, even righteous anger, lest we stew and brew on it and become bitter in our hearts. That's what Paul is saying here. Don't let the sun go down on it. Don't let the devil have an opportunity by you holding on to sinful anger, by you not dealing with your sin. You see, we're not strong enough to carry even righteous anger on our own for very long. No one is. Nor are we God. So even in our righteous anger, we are liable to sin if we hold on to it too long. We don't have the power to deal with sin like God does. And so put that anger in its place. If it's sinful anger, confess it and turn it over to God. If it's righteous anger, still turn it over to God. When we do that, we do not then give the devil an opportunity, who, by the way, darkness is waiting constantly, through the devil and really his demonic minions, offering the temptation constantly to craft a personal agenda filled with pride and vengeance and bitterness and gossip and slander, all nurtured by holding on to anger. Psalm 4 4 is probably in Paul's mind as he writes Ephesians 4 26 and 27. It would have been new for the Gentiles in the church, not raised in Jewish writings, and for the converted Jews in Paul's audience, it would have brought a renewed way of seeing this Psalm, which says, Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts, on your beds and be silent. Pretty convicting and pretty healthy reminder. Give it to the Lord. Romans twelve, nineteen to twenty one is our application here. It says, Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so you'll heap burning coals upon his head. Do not overcome not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. To summarize, what we've come to understand. Sinful anger is all about you, righteous anger is all about God. Both need to be given to him in the end. And in the next episode, we'll look at practical ways to deal with our anger. But for now, I hope that helps you understand the difference between sinful anger and righteous anger and how to approach this particular aspect of anger. Thanks for listening and for watching. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe on our YouTube channel for free teaching resources every single week. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.