TEXT:
"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil."
MANUSCRIPT:
To find a command in Ephesians, you must first journey through 66 verses. For context, there are 155 verses in Ephesians, so you're 42.6% of the way through this book before you come across a command. In a six-chapter book, a command doesn't show itself until the fourth chapter.
I believe this subtle reality teaches us something important regarding the Christian faith. It teaches us that although good works are a fundamental element of the life of a believer, good works are not the foundation of a believer's salvation. Our hope doesn't reside in our good works. The basis of our salvation doesn't rest upon our good works. Our relationship with God doesn't hinge on our good works. The church doesn't stand upon our good works.
Good works are the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation. Paul tells us this much in chapter 2, "We are saved by grace through faith, which is not a result of works so that no one might boast. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
So, the finished work of the cross is where our hope stands. The basis of our salvation rests securely upon the shoulders of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our relationship with God hinges upon the fact that he has adopted us into his holy family. The church stands upon the firm foundation of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We have been brought near to God, not by our good works, but by the blood of Christ.
But, now that we've been brought near to God, we ought to begin to live as if we're a part of the family of God. When we place our faith in Jesus, something happens inside of us. Our heart of stone becomes a heart of flesh. The Spirit of God now dwells within us, and he begins to lead us to good works. Our actions, our thoughts, and our desires begin to change.
Well, here in verse 25, Paul begins to give tangible examples of how a believer will begin to live out the gospel daily. So, over the next few weeks, we will discuss the various examples of gospel living given in these eight verses.
There's a lot of application packed into these eight verses. And we have a couple of options for how we could unpack them. We could take a bird's-eye approach, tackling how to live out the gospel in one week. Or we could go a little slower, zooming in on each of these exhortations. We will take the Noah approach for the next few weeks, ushering two of these commands a week into our lives.
Today, we will examine our words and emotions: truth-telling and anger navigation.
A Christian must be committed to speaking the truth.
A Christian must know how to navigate the emotion of anger.
So, let's dive in.
"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil."
NEW HEART, NEW WORDS
The word "therefore" is intentionally placed to link what was just said with what is about to be said. In last week's passage, we found a call to take off our old self and put on our new self. And here, we see that a new heart should lead to new words. As a new creation with a new heart and desires, we are to put off falsehood and put on truth-telling.
Jesus, in speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:34, says, "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." So, the words we say directly reflect the state of our hearts. Our hearts and tongues are never at odds with one another. They work hand in hand. Your heart is the source of the words you speak.
Well, the beauty of the gospel is that whenever we believe and trust in Jesus, God turns our heart of stone into a heart of flesh. We become a new creation. Therefore, we can now begin using our tongues for life, not death, because our hearts have changed. A heart of stone is prone to speak falsehood, but a heart alive in Christ will seek to speak the truth.
LIES, A LACK OF FEAR
At the heart of a lie is a lack of fear of God. If you're content with speaking lies, you're more concerned with the opinion of man than the opinion of God. If you're content with speaking lies, you're more concerned with your kingdom than God's kingdom. If you're content with speaking lies, you're bowing in worship to the idol of greed. The heart of a liar says, "I don't care that God knows the truth as long as my neighbor doesn't."
Can we talk briefly about the exhausting effects of a lie? I'm convinced that some of (not all of) the mental health problems we are facing right now in our society simply stems from our commitment to falsehood. We're living in darkness while telling others we're in the light. We stack lie upon lie, thinking it will offer us freedom, but it only digs us deeper into the pit of darkness and despair. But God invites us to live in the light, free from the bondage of falsehood. He invites us to confess our sins to each other, not so that we might be scolded and condemned, but so that we might be healed.
Telling the truth may be hard, but it's always worth it. Those who have confessed their sins and come to God broken and in need of a Savior have tasted and seen the freedom that comes from truth-telling. This should lead us to tell the truth to each other. Honesty with God should lead to honesty with our neighbor.
Sometimes, we might be tempted to think that a lie may better serve the church than the truth. But a lie can only accomplish what a lie can accomplish. Do not believe the lie that sin can yield the fruit of righteousness. A lie, as John Stott puts it, "is a stab into the very vitals of the Body of Christ. For fellowship is built on trust, and trust is built on truth. So falsehood undermines fellowship, while truth strengthens it."
Paul then says, "Be angry and do not sin…"
Here, in Ephesians 4, we find a complex dichotomy regarding anger. In verse 26, it seems as if Paul is giving the church freedom to be angry, but in verse 31, he tells us to put away anger. One moment, he's telling us to be angry. The next moment, he's telling us not to be angry.
As we unpack the words here, I think we will learn that there will be justifiable moments to feel the emotion of anger, but that anger ought always to be short-lived. Anger isn't always anti-Christian. You're not always wrong when you feel the emotion of anger. There is a right time to be angry. But, when we feel anger, we must be careful to make sure we do not sin in our anger.
Here's what I think we find when we survey the Scriptures regarding anger: we should be slow to become angry and quick to resolve our anger.
SLOW TO ANGER
There's a consistent call in Scripture to be "slow to anger." Think about this call like a firework. Some fireworks have short fuses, while other fireworks have longer fuses. As Christians, our fuse should be longer than others. We shouldn't burn with rage every time something doesn't go our way. So, it's not necessarily that God doesn't want us to feel the emotion of anger. Instead, he wants us to be slow in becoming angry.
Church, listen, anger is overwhelming (27:4), and the person given over to anger causes many transgressions and stirs up strife (29:22). If you are a short-tempered person, your life will be marked with heartache, pain, suffering, and strife. Therefore, we ought to be slow to anger.
But, the fact that the Bible tells us to be slow to anger tells us there's undoubtedly a suitable time to become angry. In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us to "be angry and not sin." Therefore, there must be such a thing as righteous anger.
So, what is righteous anger? When is it the right time to feel angry?
Dr. Allender, in his book The Cry of the Soul, narrows our anger down to be a response to two things: interference with satisfaction and unjust assault. In other words, we typically feel angry whenever we have experienced an inconvenience (unrighteous anger) or witness or experience injustice (righteous anger).
In Psalm 7:11, we see a righteous God feeling indignation every day. And his anger is directed toward the wicked. He feels indignation toward the evil one. God is a good judge who can only judge rightly and justly. The cruel injustice in this world stirs up God's indignation every day. This tells us that God's righteous anger isn't a response to inconvenience; it's a response to injustice.
This is a good thing. We want God to get angry at sin, and we want him to punish sin! If a murderer is standing before a judge, and the judge smirkingly asks him, "What kind of gun did you use?" we would want that judge to be fired immediately. A just judge despises evil. Therefore, a God who felt anything but anger when looking at evil would not be a God worth trusting. We want God to get angry at sin. When someone has hurt you deeply, you want to know that God deeply cares about what you're experiencing. We don't want a God who is laid back on a couch eating Cheetos, shrugging his shoulders at the evil in this world. We want God to feel indignation every day.
But we also want him to be slow to anger, don't we? We want God to be slow to anger because we would all be dead in hell right now if he weren't slow to anger. If God had a short fuse, we would have tasted the wrath of God a long time ago. So, thankfully, the God who feels indignation every day is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness! Thankfully, God's steadfast love holds back the reigns of the anger he feels every day. Thankfully, he doesn't smite us because he abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. Thankfully, God is quick to extend mercy and grace! Thankfully, God's long fuse gives us many opportunities to rethink our sinful decisions and repent from them.
God is a just judge who will deal rightly with the wicked. In speaking on God's anger, Nahum says, "Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him (Nah. 1:6)." So, when it's time for God to act on his anger, you better watch out. When it is time for God to strike his gavel, the wicked will be destroyed.
But, the beauty of the gospel is that God's steadfast love didn't just hold back the reigns of his anger. His steadfast love drove him to pour all that anger upon himself. God's anger, love, justice, grace, and mercy collide at the cross. God poured out his wrath upon his blameless Son at the cross so the guilty might go free.
Only when we rightly understand the cross will we begin to rightly steward the emotion of anger. The cross teaches us that the feeling of anger is not an excuse to set aside grace, mercy, and love. Righteous anger drives us toward redemption.
Church, it's not wrong to feel anger when we witness or experience any injustice. I agree with Ray Ortlund when he says, "The closer we get to Christ, the angrier we will get at real evil." The emotion of anger is not always wrong. If a sister was sexually assaulted, you ought to join with God in feeling anger. If someone was falsely accused of doing something they haven't done, you ought to join with God in feeling anger. When you witness racism, you ought to join with God in feeling anger. When you hear the abortion of babies being celebrated and encouraged in our country, you ought to join with God in feeling anger. When you see the rich profiting off the poor, you ought to join with God in feeling anger.
But what must we do when we feel anger in our hearts? We must not sin. And how do we make sure we don't sin in our anger?
First and foremost, I think we pause, reflect, and ponder. We need first to consider and question our anger. We need first to ask ourselves, "Why am I angry? And is my anger justifiable? Am I upset over an inconvenience, or am I upset over legitimate injustice?"
I'm going to be honest with you guys. I often find myself getting angry at all of the wrong things. Unfortunately, I get more frustrated with inconvenience than I do injustice. I'm afraid I would be more likely to get upset with my children for constantly asking me for a snack than with someone who stole my children's snacks. I'm often as bold as a lion when things aren't going my way and timid as a mouse when I witness true wickedness.
So, the first thing we need to do whenever we feel anger is question our anger. Why am I angry? Is my anger justifiable? If it's not, put it to death. If it is, then we need to question our desires. For example, let's say someone has wronged you personally. What do you want at that moment? Our sinful heart will want to be the judge at that moment. Our sinful hearts will want to hurt or destroy someone who wronged us. So, what is your desire? Do you want this person to experience pain and humiliation? Or do you simply want them to stop doing the thing that is causing you or your neighbor pain?
If it's the former, we must put that to death. The Bible is clear: vengeance belongs to the LORD, not us. If it's the latter, then (before we confront the individual or move forward in action), we should begin to ponder our own sinful hearts.
The Bible is clear: we should take the log out of our eyes before dealing with the speck in our neighbors. We often hate the very thing that we do ourselves. And we can't hate someone else's sin more than our own. So, we must ask, "Am I guilty of the very thing I'm upset about?"
If yes, we must go to the Lord for forgiveness before moving forward. Then, before we confront the issue, we should ponder the gospel.
We must never forget to cross. The anger you feel pales in comparison to the anger God feels. He feels indignation every day. Yet, in his steadfast love, he poured that anger out on his Son so that you might be free. The cross teaches us that anger is not an excuse to set aside grace, mercy, and love. Preach the gospel to yourself in your anger. The good news of Christ-crucified helps us act rightly in our anger. And after you've done these things, you confront for the sake of healing.
The emotion of anger is there to drive us to action. But it's not there to drive us to actions contrary to the gospel. We must be careful to "be angry and not sin." So, as we address the problem, we do so truthfully and in love.
You are not God. God is God. You are not the righteous judge. God is the righteous judge. So, rest in the fact that no act of wickedness will ever go unpunished. No sin will fall through the cracks. Each injustice will be dealt with viciously, either on the cross or at the end of history.
The cross leads to joy and gladness, not anger and bitterness. So, if your heart is drenched with anger, then could it be that you haven't truly encountered Christ? The cross forces us to drop our swords and forsake wrath.
DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN
Have you ever cooked a soup, turned the burner to simmer, and then forgot about it? Next thing you know, you've burned the bottom of the soup, ruining the entire soup. The same is true with anger. Letting anger simmer in your heart for a long time will only lead to your demise. Therefore, we must not let the sun go down in our anger. As John Stott puts it, "Satan loves to lurk around angry people hoping to be able to exploit the situation to his own advantage by provoking them into hatred or violence or a breach of fellowship."