"Be ye angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath:neither give place to the
devil" (Eph. 4:26,27).

I take this to be most important and holy instruction for our souls. There is a notion often that it
is wrong for a Christian ever to feel displeased or angry; this and other Scriptures show it may be
right. But we must take care what the source, as well as the character, of the anger is. If it is
merely about something that affects self, and it therefore takes the form of vindictiveness, this is
of course contrary to all that is of Christ.

We find that Christ (Mark 3) looked upon certain persons with anger, showing clearly He had the
strongest feeling about that which was contrary to God. It was not merely that He denounced the
thing, but he denounced the people who were guilty of it. I find the same analogy in the epistles.
We are told not only to cleave to that which is good, but to abhor that which is evil.

Man’s thought is that it is not for a Christian to judge and to be angry with what is wrong. The
word of God tells us there are certain things we ought to judge and others we ought not. I am not
to judge what is unseen; I am to judge positive, known evil. There we have plainly and clearly the
line drawn by God. If you speak strongly about the wrong of this thing or that, you will find that
men say that you are unloving. But this is not so; it is real love to denounce it, not to let it pass.
True love as to this consists in always having the feelings of God about what comes before us.
That is the one question. What God has fellowship with, we can have fellowship with; and what
God hates, we are not to love or allow.

But we must take care that we are in the intelligence of God’s mind. "Be ye angry and sin not."
There is the greatest possible danger of sinning if you are angry, and therefore this is added. The
simple emotion of anger toward one who has sinned may and ought to be a holy feeling; it is
provided it rests there. Thus it is felt in God’s presence. But how am I to know that I am not
sinning in my anger? "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." If there is irritation kept up in
the spirit, impatience, dislike, or scorn betrayed, who cannot see that it is not of God? When the
sun goes down, it is a time either for your peaceful communion with God, or your indulgence or
resentment away from Him. Therefore it is added, "Neither give place to the devil." Where there
is the nursing of wrath or the keeping up of grievances in the mind, Satan easily comes in and is
not easily dislodged.

(From Lectures on the Epistle to the Ephesians.)