Be Angry but Do Not Sin

This article was originally posted on Pastor Evan's The Sin Boldly Blog.

A verse jumped out at me recently while studying for a sermon. Ephesians 4:26 reads: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger…” Now, I have heard the bit about not letting the sun go down on your anger plenty of times before. It’s pretty standard marital advice. Hey, if you have an argument with your spouse, resolve it before you go to bed and don’t let it fester. Good advice.

But the words “Be angry, but do not sin” had escaped my particular notice. I don’t remember anyone giving me permission to be angry before, especially not a biblical author. The general tenor of the New Testament, after all, seems to be to repress your emotions, conform to norms, keep quiet and carry on. Indeed, think of Victorian English manners and that seems to be the biblical ethic. Keep to yourself and smile.

But Paul says, using the word orgizesthe in Greek, to “be angry.” It is a second person, present, imperative verb. And while he is not telling the Christians in Ephesus to be grumpy all the time as a moral requirement, he is saying that when anger happens for the right reasons, control it so that it does not cross the line into sinful territory.

After all, are there not things that deserve our anger? A few weeks ago, Houstonians were horrified to learn of a young woman who gave birth to a baby boy only to throw him in a dumpster. The baby was apparently a threat to her relationship with her boyfriend, so she placed the baby in a trash bag and treated the baby like trash. By the grace of God, a passer-by heard the baby’s cries and alerted the police, who ultimately saved his life.

The story gets worse. This young woman is an illegal immigrant with no recourse and is paid like a slave. She makes only $500/month working for a food truck. She has no ties to the place in which she lives. She is trapped in a foreign country and now has to live with the fact that she attempted to kill her own child.

Any reasonable person would be angered by this story, including the circumstances that helped motivate her to kill her own child. She, after all, should not even be in the United States. She should be in her home country, surrounded by a community of people who care for her and could help her raise her child. But being displaced by all that she knows, completely dependent on a “boyfriend,” having no money or healthcare, she did what she felt she had to do.

I am not excusing her act; it was barbaric and she should face consequences. But if we are disgusted by her actions, why are we not also disgusted when the same thing is done to other babies in other dumpsters?

For example, a report came out this week that Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff had an affair with the family nanny many years ago when he was married to another woman. While it is not entirely clear what happened to the conceived child, one source said that the nanny got pregnant and aborted the child. Even if that child, who would be about fourteen years-old today, is alive, Emhoff has nothing to do with him and has proudly defended the “rights” of women to kill their own children (aka abort them.)

And in case you aren’t aware, when children are aborted, their remains are placed…in dumpsters. Where else would they go? Do you think that valuable land is purchased in a cemetery and a religious service is offered for the dead child? Of course not! Because the state (some states more than others) protects the rights of the women and the abortion providers, they not only are not convicted of a any crime, but money is legally exchanged. Let’s then call this what it is: a legal murder for hire.

Now, if you are angry, well, that means you are human. But I hope that you are not only angry at the practice of abortion itself, but also the double standards of justice. A woman, working for slave wages, with absolutely no recourse, will face hard prison time for abandoning her child. A man with every advantage in life abandons (or allows the abortion of) his own child and faces no consequences at all. Indeed, he is celebrated for fighting for “women’s rights.”

So yes, there are definitely times for us to be angry. Christians should be angry. But we are not to allow that anger to turn into sin. We do not commit violence to stop violence, for example. We do not let our heart turn so hard that we do not pray for those with whom we are angry. But we can use that anger to fuel our work for change. Whether it is change in our marriage, personal lives or public policy, change will rarely come as the result of contentment; it will come because we are mad, and, to quote a famous movie, “we’re not going to take it anymore.”

I, for one, am sick of the double standards on the issue of life. I will not be manipulated for one minute to hate a young woman for killing her child, while a powerful, rich man doing the exact same thing is celebrated. If that doesn’t make you angry as a Christian, check your faith. Something is off. Now, hopefully, we can use that anger to make change.

Photo Credit- Fox News