"Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil." This verse has perplexed many people. Some imagine that it is always wrong to be angry. However, there are circumstances under which it would be very wrong not to be angry. Our blessed Lord, who was absolutely perfect in His humanity, was angry on more than one occasion. He saw the pretentious Pharisees going in and out of the temple of God with a great air of sanctity, and yet He knew some of them held mortgages on widows’ homes, and when occasion arose they foreclosed on them and turned them out into the streets because they could not meet their obligations. Our Lord’s indignation was aroused, His anger flamed up, and He said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer:therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation" (Matt. 23:14). If my spirit would not be stirred to indignation by anything of the kind today, I am not the sort of Christian I ought to be. If I were to see a great brute of a fellow abusing a little child and were to pass by with a sweet, simpering smile that says, "Oh, well, everything will be okay, all things work together for good," and would not be stirred to anger, I would be a cad and not a Christian. There is an anger that is righteous. We read that our Lord Jesus on one occasion "looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." How, then, am I to be angry and sin not? One has put it this way:"I am determined so to be angry as not to sin, therefore to be angry at nothing but sin."
The moment self comes in, my anger is sinful. You do me a wrong and I flare with anger. That is sin. But you blaspheme the name of my Saviour and if I am not stirred to anger, that is sin. If I am wholly reconciled as I should be, it will arouse my indignation when I hear His name blasphemed, or see the truth dragged in the dust. But so far as offenses against myself are concerned, I am to suffer all things, I am to endure all things. Men may count me as the off scouring of the earth, they may do the worst they can against me, but if I become angry, I sin, for self is the object there.
Who is there then that is sinless? No one. That is why He says, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." If you are stirred to sinful anger, if you flare up, see then that you do not retire to your bed at night before you confess your sin. If you have given vent to indignation before another, see that you confess it to him. Many people have said to me, "I have such a bad temper. I have tried so hard to overcome it, but I get angry and say things that I regret afterwards, and I make up my mind never to do it again, but I am sure to fail." I usually ask this question, "Do you make it a practice, when you have given utterance to angry exclamation, to go to the person before whom you have sinned and confess it?" Sometimes I get this answer, "No, I never cherish anything; I flare up, and then it is all over." Yes, but the memory is not all over. The other person remembers it. If every time you sin through anger you would go immediately to the one sinned against, and confess and ask forgiveness, you would soon get tired of going so often and you would put a check upon yourself. It would not be so easy to fly off the handle. But as long as you can flare up and pay no attention to it, or, while you may confess it to God you do not do so to your brother, you will find the habit growing on you.
This expression, "Be ye angry, and sin not," is a direct quotation from the Septuagint translation of Psalm 4:4. Our English version reads, "Stand in awe, and sin not; commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still." The Hebrew word translated "stand in awe" is a word that means "tremble," and our translators made it, "Stand in awe"_tremble at the presence of God. But that is not necessarily all that it means. The Septuagint made it read, "Be ye angry, and sin not." These words were probably recorded at the time that David was fleeing from Absalom, his own son, and his heart was stirred as he thought of the unfilial character of his son’s behavior. That son for whom he had so often prayed was bringing dishonor upon the name of the Lord, and it moved his heart to indignation. But he said, "I am not going to sleep tonight until all that indignation is quieted down. I am angry, but will not sin; I will commune with my own heart upon my bed and be still." So just get quietly into the presence of God and then you will be able to look at things from a right standpoint. As you think of your own failures, of the many, many times that God in grace has had to forgive you, it will make you very lenient as you think of the failures of others. Instead of getting up on the judgment seat and judging another believer, it will lead you to self-judgment and that will bring you blessing, whereas the other is only harmful to your own spiritual life.
"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil." Why? Because anger cherished becomes malice, and Satan works through a malicious spirit. He seeks to get control of Christians and have them act in malice toward fellow-believers. All this grieves the Holy Spirit of God. These are searching things, and we each have to take them for ourselves. "The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). Let us not avoid it but face it honestly.
(From Ephesians.)