Ephesians 4:26

Eph_4:26

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

Dissuasive from anger

I. A general principle. It must keep clear of sin be ye angry, and sin not.

1. Unjust anger is clearly wrong.

2. Excessive anger comes under the same condemnation.

3. Personal anger is scarcely ever without sin; yet this is the character of the greater number of cases. We are angry with the person, rather than with his misconduct.

4. Selfish anger may always be suspected of sin.

II. A special rule. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

III. An awful motive. Neither give place to the devil. There are two characters which the devil sustains towards us: he is our accuser, and our tempter. In both these characters he gains an advantage over us by means of sinful anger.

1. It furnishes him with a charge against us. Dream not that angry words are mere idle breath: By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

2. It assists his temptations of us. Everyone must know what a pitiable creature he is, who gives way to unbridled anger. Only work on his passion, and you may make him believe anything--say anything--do anything. And the man unconsciously gives place to his enemy. While proudly resolving not to give way to a fellow creature, whose ill-will could do him little injury, and might have been disarmed by gentleness or yielding: he throws himself into the arms of one who seizes the occasion for promoting the destruction of both body and soul in hell. (J. Jowett, M. A.)

Anger not to be sinfully indulged

I. Anger kept within its due bounds. I shall consider this as in holy anger. And there is in it--

1. A commotion of the spirit, which ariseth from the apprehension of a real injury; for if it be only imaginary it is sinful. This is necessary to stir up a mans desire to see the wrong rectified.

2. There is hatred in it, not at the persons but at their sins, whether they be our own sins or others. In this respect it is called indignation (2Co_7:11). This is most desirable, when it is kept purely on this object. That is not the part where we are in hazard of excess, seeing we are commanded to abhor that which is evil.

3. There is grief in it (Mar_3:5). This naturally follows on hatred of the thing, which likewise ariseth from a just apprehension of the evil of it in a gracious soul. And from both ariseth--

4. A desire of the vindication of the right and honour of the party injured.

II. Sinful anger condemned. We are to consider it in its rise, and the passion transgressing due bounds, which makes it sinful, however short, while it lasts. Now, for clearing of what this sinful anger is, we must consider the due boundary of holy and just anger, and what is beyond these is sinful.

1. The grounds of holy anger are just and weighty, such as Gods dishonour by our own sins, and the sins of others (2Co_7:11; Exo_22:9). It must, then, be sinful anger, when it is without a just ground.

2. The degree of holy anger is proportioned to the fault. When the anger, then, in respect of degrees, exceeds the measure of the offence, and men are carried so far beside themselves, as to turn about the cart wheel on the cummin that might be beat out with the rod, then it is sinful anger.

3. The end of holy anger which it is directed, is the glory of God and the good of our neighbour (Pro_13:24; Joh_2:16-17). Sinful, then, it must be, when it is a fire lighting on others, to make them sacrifices to cursed self, to satisfy the desires of a proud heart (Pro_27:25), which will never think it gets enough from others.

4. The effects of holy anger, directly and indirectly, are just and good, for the man has rule over his own spirit, and no holy affection is inconsistent with another. It fits him for his duty to God and men, as may be seen in the case of Moses praying for the people (Exodus

3. The anger, then, must be sinful when its effects are hellish, as when it breaks out in clamour and evil speaking (Eph_4:31).

III. The reason why the sinful passion is condemned. Neither give place to the devil. That is, and give not place to the devil. It refers--

1. To the rise of sinful anger. To give place to it is to admit the devil.

2. It refers to the progress and continuance of it. The more it is harboured, the devil is the farther admitted. He loves to fish in muddy water. When he has got the fire kindled, he employs his bellows to blow it up, and always to make the flame greater and greater, to the destruction of ourselves and others.

Doctrine

I. Men not only may, but ought to be angry where there is just ground for it. We know no just ground for anger but the things which are sinful. Reasons.

1. Because in that case, the love and respect which we owe to God, who is dishonoured, require it.

2. The love which we owe to ourselves or others who are injured, requires it.

Doctrine

II. Men should beware that the fire of sinful auger kindle not in their breasts. Reasons.

1. Because it is evil in itself, and dishonourable to God; being the vomit of a proud heart and an unmeekened spirit.

2. Because it is not only evil, but a mother of evil; and is not only an inlet to many mischiefs to ourselves and others, put drives men to them to act with vigour. An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

Doctrine

III. If sinful anger do enter our breasts, we must endeavour to extinguish it quickly, and beware of nourishing it.

Doctrine

IV. That the admitting and lodging of sinful anger in our hearts is a giving place to the devil. For remedies--

1. Let us consider our own vileness and unworthiness, and how often we are provoking the Lord, and so turn our anger against ourselves.

2. Let us consider these things with which we are so ready to be hurried away, are the trials of our patience, and we are on our trial for heaven.

3. Let us propose to ourselves the example of the meek and lowly Jesus. He suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. Lastly--Out of a sense of our utter inability to resist the least temptation, look to Jesus for strength, and by faith draw strength from Him. (T. Boston, D. D.)

A dissuasive from violent passion

I. Some rules to distinguish the nature and the degree of anger when it becomes criminal.

1. Man having been created susceptible of anger, to enable him to repel with courage the evil which encompasses, or to surmount with activity the calamity which threatens him, it is evident that whoever unnecessarily provokes him is to a certain degree culpable.

2. Since every impulse should be proportionate to the power of the motives which produce it, it is no less evident that all anger, and every emotion carried to excess--that is, which exceed the bounds prescribed by reason, are criminal.

3. It will also be hateful in the sight of God, when through indulgence it degenerates into hatred or malice, into resentment or a desire of revenge.

4. Anger becomes a sin of more aggravated nature, when by continual indulgence it resumes, as it were, a constitutional property.

5. Anger is always criminal, when, either in its nature or attendant circumstances, it, in any manner, is injurious to reason and religion, or involves, in its consequences, either ourselves or other men in trouble.

II. I now proceed, under the second head, to propose some considerations to engage you to regulate this passion.

1. Nothing is more indecent, disgraceful, and contemptible than the character of a passionate and violent man. Rage always supposes weakness; hence children, sick people, and women, are the most subject to it.

2. blot only is the anger of which I am speaking contemptible, odious, and criminal in itself, but it is also melancholy and criminal in its effects and consequences. A man, by frequent transports of rage, impairs his health. Add to this, that a man who is master of himself has, in all circumstances of life, an infinite advantage over a violent person. At every turn he gives some advantage to his adversary.

3. Besides, a man of an outrageous temper is almost always unhappy; he is always exposed to chagrin, occasioned by his own irritability. Rage is to the soul what fever is to the body: as a fever throws the whole animal economy into disorder, rage, in like manner, so agitates the soul as to bereave it of peace. (P. Bertrand.)

Godlike anger

I. What is the sort of anger here allowed or enjoined? Evidently it must be anger of such a sort as shall be in keeping and in harmony with the sphere in which it works, viz., the sphere of the truth as it is in Jesus, in contrast to the deceit or lie of which the devil is the father. The anger of the new man is, in one word, sympathy with God; intelligent, confiding, loving sympathy with God.

II. What are the conditions annexed to the allowance or injunction?

1. It must be sinless. Remember that anger too readily allies itself to that self-love in you which is the real root and ground, the source and spring, of the anger of the old man, which is altogether sinful, and of whatever is sinful in the anger of the new man. Gods anger, on the contrary, is absolutely holy. For He is never angry on His own account, or for injury done to Him. What makes Him angry, however it may be opposed to His nature and will, does not really touch His essential glory and blessedness.

2. It must be short. If a moment suffice for the anger of God, surely a day may be more than enough for yours. If His righteous and holy wrath endureth but for a moment, yours may well subside ere sundown. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)

The warning against anger

We ought to mind this warning against anger, because if we give way to angry feelings, it will have a bad effect upon us in three ways.

I. If we give way to anger, it will interfere with our comfort. An angry man can never feel comfortable. Anger in our hearts or minds is just like a storm at sea. That storm, while it lasts, disturbs everything. As long as that storm continues it interferes, most seriously, with the comfort of all on board the vessel, which is exposed to it. Most of the passengers will be made seasick, and be obliged to go to bed, and their comfort will be wonderfully interfered with while that storm lasts. And just as a storm at sea acts on a vessel that is exposed to it, so anger acts on the soul where its influence is felt. It upsets and disturbs all our thoughts and feelings, and interferes entirely with our comfort.

II. The second reason for minding this warning against anger is because it will interfere with our duty. Suppose I should wake up some morning, and on looking at my watch to see what time it was, should find that it had stopped, and was keeping time no longer. The mainspring is not broken. It was not run down, for I wound it up last night before I went to bed. But still the watch has stopped. It will not keep time. I cannot tell what is the matter with it. After breakfast I take it to the watchmaker, and ask him to examine it, and find out what the trouble is. He opens the watch, and putting on one of his magnifying glasses, he looks carefully into it. Presently he lays it down, and says, I see what the trouble is. A little grain of sand has got in among the works, some how or other, and that interferes with the working of the watch and makes it stop. Then he goes to work and removes that grain of sand, and after this is done the watch goes on keeping time as usual. Now, our souls are like watches in some respects. Our thoughts, and feelings, and desires are very much like the wheels, or works of a watch. While our feelings and tempers are all right, the wheels will go on, and the watch will keep good time. But, if we give way to a wrong feeling or temper, like anger, it will be like the grain of sand in the works of the watch. It will stop them from going on, and the watch will not be able to keep time. When George IV was King of England he desired one day to receive the sacrament of the Lords Supper, and he sent for the Bishop of Winchester to come and administer it to him. The messenger who was sent on this errand was very slow in his movements, and loitered along the way. This caused a long delay before the arrival of the bishop, and the king got very impatient about it. When the bishop came he stated that he started immediately on getting the message, but that the servant had been very slow in coming to him. This made the king angry. He rang the bell and called for the messenger. When he entered the room the king reproved him very sharply, dismissed him from his service, and told him to leave the palace at once. As soon as he was gone the king turned to the bishop, and said, Now, my lord, we will go on with our service. But the bishop, with great mildness, and yet very firmly, said, Please your majesty, I cannot do that. The temper just displayed is not a fit preparation for this solemn service. The king saw that he had done wrong, and made a suitable apology to the bishop. Then he sent for his servant, asked his pardon for speaking so angrily to him, and told him, in the pleasantest possible way, that he should keep his position in the kings employ.

III. And the third reason for minding this warning against anger is, that it will interfere with our safety. If we do what we know is wrong; if we let the sun go down upon our wrath, and give way to anger, then we are doing that which will interfere with our safety. Our shield and armour will be taken away, and we shall be exposed to all sorts of dangers. (Dr. Newton.)

The damager of anger

The angry man is compared to a ship sent into the sea, which hath the devil for its pilot. (T. Adams.)

Description of anger

Anger sets the house on fire, and all the spirits are busy upon trouble, and intend propulsion and defence, displeasure and revenge; it is a short madness, and an eternal enemy to discourse, and sober counsels, and fair conversation; it is a fever in the heart, and a calenture in the head, and a fire in the face, and a sword in the hand, and a fury all over. It hath in it the trouble of sorrow, and the heats of lust, and the disease of revenge, and the bodings of a fever, and the rashness of precipitancy, and the disturbance of persecution. If it proceed from a great cause, it turns to fury; if from a small cause, it is peevishness; and so it is always terrible or ridiculous. It makes a mans body deformed and contemptible, the voice horrid, the eyes cruel, the face pale or fiery, the gait fierce. It is neither manly nor ingenuous, and is a passion fitter for flies and wasps than for persons professing nobleness and bounty. It is a confluence of all the irregular passions. There is in it envy and scorn, fear and sorrow, pride and prejudice, rashness and inconsideration, rejoicing in evil, and a desire to inflict it. (Bp. Jeremy Taylor.)

Foolishness of anger

To be angry is to revenge the fault of others upon ourselves. (Pope.)

To be angry about trifles is mean and childish; to rage and be furious is brutish; and to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice and temper of devils; but to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and Divine. (Dr. Watts.)

Short continuance of anger

The English, by command of William the Conqueror, always raked up their fires and put out their candles when the curfew bell was rung; some part of which laudable custom of those times remaineth yet, in the ringing of our eight or nine oclock bell. Let it then mind us thus much, that the sun go not down upon our wrath; let it not carry news to the antipodes in another world of our revengeful nature, but rather quench all sparks of anger, rake up all heat of passion that may arise within us. (Spencer.)

Anger--without sin

One of the late Dr. Spencers parishioners in Brooklyn, New York, met him hurriedly urging his way down the street one day; his lip was set, and there was something strange in that gray eye. How are you today, doctor? he said, pleasantly. He waked as from a dream, and replied, soberly, I am mad! It was a new word for a mild, true-hearted Christian; but he waited, and with a deep, earnest voice went on. I found a widow standing by her goods thrown in the street; she could not pay the months rent; the landlord turned her out; and one of her children is going to die; and that man is a member of the Church! I told her to take her things back again. I am on my way to see him!

Be angry and sin not

The easiest charge under the hardest condition that can be. He that will be angry and not sin, let him be angry at nothing but sin. (J. Trapp.)

Anger must be brief

Plutarch writeth that it was the custom of Pythagoras scholars, however they had been jarring and jangling in their disputations, yet, before the sun set, to kiss and shake hands before they departed out of the school. Leontias Patricius was one day extremely and unreasonably angry with John, Patriarch of Alexandria. At evening the patriarch sent a servant to him with this message: Sir, the sun is set, upon which Patricius reflecting, and the grace of God making the impression deep, he threw away his anger, and became wholly subject to the counsel of the patriarch. (J. Trapp.)

Anger hinders religious duties

My grandfather, who was a very affectionate, but a passionate man, one Friday fell out with his brother, and both went home in a rage. Toward evening (the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath), his wife made her preparations for keeping holy time, but noticed that he did not light the customary lamp. She addressed him, but he paced the room in silence and evident distress of mind. See, said my grandmother at length, the stars are already in the Lords firmament, and our Sabbath lamp is still dark. My grandfather then took his hat and staff, and with visible perturbation hurried out of the house; but in a few minutes he returned with tears of joy in his eyes. Now, my beloved Rebecca, cries he, now I am ready. He offered up the prayer, and with evident feelings of delight kindled the lamp. He afterwards made known his dispute in the morning, adding, it was not possible for me to offer up the prayer and light the lamp before I was reconciled with Isaac (that was his brothers name). But how came it to pass that you returned so quickly? Why, said he, Isaac, like me, could not rear--it was with him as it was with me--he also could not enter upon the Sabbath without being reconciled. We met each other in the street--he was coming to me, I was going to him--we fell into each others arms, weeping. (Dr. Capadose.)

Anger to be speedily got rid of

If we have eaten poison, we seek forthwith to vomit it up again with all speed; and if we be fallen into any disease, we use the means we can to provide a remedy; so, likewise, when we feel any unruly motions of anger, and the fiery flames thereof be once kindled in our hearts, we must be careful to repress them, as we would be to quench the fire in our houses. (Cawdray.)

Silent anger

If anger arises in thy breast, instantly seal up thy lips, and let it not go forth; for, like fire when it wants vent, it will suppress itself. It is good in a fever to have a tender and smooth tongue; but it is better that it be in anger; for if it be rough and distempered, there it is an ill sign, but here it is an ill cause. Angry passion is a fire, and angry words like breath to fan them together; they are like steel and flint, sending out fire by mutual collision. (Bp. Jeremy Taylor.)

Anger kept too long

Anger in itself is no sin, but it has a tendency to become so rapidly if it be harboured too long. Like the manna, it corrupts and breeds worms if kept over night in the close chamber of the heart. Then it will appear in the morbid shapes of spite, malice, revenge. The Christian rule is to throw it all away before the fermentation commences. (Dean Goulburn.)

The folly of anger

The choleric man is like one that dwells in a thatched house, who, being rich in the morning, by a sudden fire is a beggar before night. How foolish is the bee that loses her life and her sting together. She puts another to a little pain, but how dearly does she pay for it. (T. Adams.)

The folly of meeting anger with anger

Like as if a man join fire to fire, he maketh the flame the greater; even so, if a man think to suppress another mans anger by being angry himself, he shall both lose his labour, and rather increase the other mans anger. (Cawdray.)

A mad dog that bites another makes him as mad as himself; so, usually the injuries and reproaches of others foster up our revenge, and then there is no difference between us. (T. Manton, D. D.)

Forgiveness before sundown

Forgiveness before sundown! He who never feels the throb of indignation is imbecile. He who can walk among the injustices of the world inflicted upon himself and others, without flush of cheek, or flash of eye, or agitation of nature, is either in sympathy with wrong or semi-idiotic. It all depends on what you are angry at, and how long the feeling lasts, whether anger is right or wrong. Life is full of exasperations. Saul after David, Succoth after Gideon, Korah after Moses, the Pasquins after Augustus, the Pharisees after Christ, and everyone has had his pursuers, and we are swindled, or belied, or misrepresented, or persecuted, or in some way wronged, and the danger is that healthful indignation shall become baleful spite, and that our feelings settle down into a prolonged outpouring of temper displeasing to God and ruinous to ourselves, and hence the important injunction of the text, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. No, no; I think of five reasons why we should not let the sun set before our temper sets.

1. Because twelve hours is long enough to be cross about any wrong inflicted upon us. Nothing is so exhausting to physical health or mental faculty as a protracted indulgence of ill-humour. It racks the nervous system. It hurts the digestion. It heats the blood in brain and heart until the whole body is first overheated and then depressed. Besides that, it sours the disposition, turns one aside from his legitimate work, expends energies that ought to be better employed, and does us more harm than it does our antagonist. Paul gives us good, wide allowance of time for legitimate denunciation, from six oclock to six oclock, but says: Stop there! Watch the descending orb of day, and when it reaches the horizon, take a reef in your disposition. Unloose your collar and cool off. Change the subject to something delightfully pleasant. Aye, you will not postpone till sundown forgiveness of enemies if you can realize that their behaviour towards you may be put into the catalogue of the all things that work together for good to those that love God. Suppose, instead of waiting until this evening, when the sun will set, you transact this glorious work of forgiveness before meridian.

2. We ought not to let the sun go down on our wrath, because we will sleep better if we are at peace with everybody. Insomnia is getting to be one of the most prevalent of disorders. To relieve this disorder all narcotics, and sedatives, and chloral, and bromide of potassium, and cocaine and intoxicants are used, but nothing is more important than a quiet spirit if we would win somnolence. How is a man going to sleep when he is in mind pursuing an enemy? Why not put a boundary to your animosity? Why let your foes come into the sanctities of your dormitory? Why let those slanderers who have already torn your reputation to pieces or injured your business, bend over your midnight pillow and drive from you one of the greatest blessings that God can offer--sweet, refreshing, all-invigorating sleep. Why not fence out your enemies by the golden bars of the sunset?

3. We ought not to allow the sun to set before forgiveness takes place, because we might not live to see another day. The majority of people depart this life in the night. Between eleven oclock p.m. and three oclock a.m. there is something in the atmosphere which relaxes the grip which the body has on the soul, and most people enter the next world through the shadows of this world. Perhaps God may have arranged it in that way, so as to make the contrast the more glorious. I have seen sunshiny days in this world that must have been almost like the radiance of heaven. Shall we then leap over the roseate bank of sunset into the favourite hunting ground of disease and death, carrying our animosities with us?

4. We ought not to allow the passage of the sunset hour before the dismissal of all our affronts, because we may associate the sublimest action of the soul with the sublimest spectacle in nature. It is a most delightful thing to have our personal experiences allied with certain subjects. There is a tree or river bank where God first answered your prayer. Some of you have pleasant memories connected with the evening star, or the moon in its first quarter, or with the sunrise. Because you saw it just as you were arriving at harbour after a tempestuous voyage. Forever and forever. Oh, hearer, associate the sunset with your magnanimous, out-and-out, unlimited renunciation of all hatreds and forgiveness of all foes. I admit it; is the most difficult of all graces to practise, and at the start you may make a complete failure; but keep on in the attempt to practise it. Shakespeare wrote ten dramas before he reached Hamlet, and seventeen before he reached the Merchant of Venice, and twenty-eight before he reached Macbeth. And gradually you will come from the easier graces to the most difficult. Besides that, it is not a matter of personal determination so much as the laying hold of the Almighty arm of God, who will help us to do anything we ought to do. Remember that in all personal controversies the one least to blame will have to take the first step at pacification, if it is ever effective. The contest between AEschines and his rival resounds through history, but his rival, who was least to blame, went to AEschines and said: Shall we not agree to be friends before we make ourselves the laughing stock of the whole country? And AEschines said: Thou art a far better man than I, for I began the quarrel, but thou hast been the first in healing the breach, and they were always friends afterwards. So let the one of you that is least to blame take the first step towards conciliation. The one most in the wrong will never take it. We talk about the Italian sunsets, and sunset amid the Apennines, and sunset amid the Cordilleras, but I will tell you how you may see a grander sunset than any mere lover of nature ever beheld; that is, by flinging into it all your hatreds and animosities, and let the horses of fire trample them, and the chariots of fire roll over them, and the spearmen of fire stab them, and the beach of fire consume them, and the billows of fire overwhelm them.

5. We should not let the sun go down on our wrath, because it is of little importance what the world says of you or does to you when you have the affluent God of the sunset as your provider and defender. People talk as though it were a fixed spectacle of nature and always the same. But no one ever saw two sunsets alike, and if the world has existed six thousand years, there have been about two million one hundred and ninety thousand sunsets, each of them as distinct from all the other pictures in the gallery of the sky as Titians Last Supper, Rubens Descent from the Cross, Raphaels Transfiguration, and Michael Angelos Last Judgment are distinct from each other. If that God of such infinite resources that He can put on the wall of the sky each night more than the Louvre and the Luxembourg galleries all in one, is my God and your God, our Provider and Protector, what is the use of our worrying about any human antagonism? If we are misinterpreted, the God of the many coloured sunset can put the right colour on our action. (Dr. Talmage.)

Sundown

There was a very holy patriarch of Alexandria, called John. The Governor of Alexandria had imposed a tax on the city which fell with peculiar severity on the poor, whilst the rich got off with comparative ease. The patriarch went to the Governor, whose name was Nicetas, and remonstrated with him. Nicetas was furious. He stormed against the bishop, and pursued him to his own house and inner chamber, using fierce abuse. He had completely lost control over himself, so great was his anger at the prelates interference. John was much agitated and distressed. He waited all the afternoon, praying for a reconciliation, but not another word had he with the Governor. As the evening drew on, he became still more uneasy. He felt he could not sleep with bitterness subsisting between them. So he wrote on a slip of parchment the words, The sun is setting, and sent it to Nicetas, who, recalling the maxim of St. Paul, was moved to regret his violence, and he hasted to the patriarchs residence, asked his pardon, and their broken friendship was restored. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:26-27 “don’t sin by letting anger control you” (literally “be angry and do not sin”): This verse quotes Ps 4:4. The literal form of the quotation cannot be used to justify anger, for anger gives a foothold to the devil (cp. Jas 1:20). God’s people are to be gentle and gracious, not harsh or angry (see Eph 4:31-32). • Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry: Anger must quickly be resolved, not allowed to stew.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eph 4:26. Ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε, be angry and sin not) So the LXX, Psa 4:5. Anger is neither commanded, nor quite prohibited; but this is commanded, not to permit sin to enter into anger: it is like poison, which is sometimes used as medicine, but must be managed with the utmost caution. Often the force of the mood [the Imperative mood] falls only upon a part of what is said, Jer 10:24.[71]—ὁ ἥλιος, the sun) The feeling kept up during the night is deeply seated.—μὴ ἐπιδυέτω, let—not go down) Deu 24:15, οὐκ ἐπιδύσεται ὁ ἡλιος ἐπʼ αὐτῷ, the sun shall not go down upon it.—ἐπὶ τῷ παροργισμῷ ὑμῶν, upon your wrath[72]) Not only should wrath cease, but a brother should be put right without delay, and reconciliation take place, especially with a neighbour whom you will not see afterwards in this life,[73] or whom you have seen for the first time in the street, at an entertainment, or in the market-place.

[71] “O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger.” Where the force falls on the imperat. correct, not in its full extent, but with the limitations, with judgment, and not in thine anger: in fact, the main force rests on these limitations.—ED.

[72] Παροργισμός is not = ὀργή. The former is absolutely forbidden: the latter not so. See Mar 3:5, where ὀργή is applied to the sinless Jesus. The sense is not. Your anger shall not be imputed to you if you put it away before nightfall; but let no παροργισμὸς, irritation or exasperation, mingle with your anger, even though your anger be righteous. Trench, Syn. Gr. Test. Engl. V. loses this point by translating wrath. However, I think there is also included the notion, that even righteous anger, if kept up too long, is likely in us to degenerate into irritation.—ED.

[73] Beng. seems by this to take the sun going down as also figurative, for life coming to a close without a reconciliation.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_4:26-27. See Zyro in the Stud. u. Krit. 1841, p. 681 ff.

ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε] a precept expressed literally after the LXX. Psa_4:5, as to which it must be left undetermined whether Paul understood the original text[244] as the LXX. did, or chose this form only in recollection of the LXX., without attending to the original text. To the right understanding of the sense (which Paul would have expressed by ὈΡΓΙΖΌΜΕΝΟΙ ΜῊ ἉΜΑΡΤΆΝΕΤΕ, or something similar, if that definite form of expression in the LXX. had not presented itself to him) the observation of Bengel guides us: Saepe vis modi cadit super partem duntaxat sermonis, Jer_10:24 (comp. also Isa_12:1; Mat_11:25; and see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 249 f. [E. T. 290]). Here, namely, the vis modi lies upon the second imperative (comp. passages like Joh_1:47; Joh_7:52): be angry and sin not, i.e. in anger do not fall into transgression; so that Paul forbids the combination of the ἁμαρτάνειν with the ὀργίζεσθαι. Comp. Matthies: In the being angry let it not come to sin; Harless: Be angry in the right way, without your sinning.[245] Paul, therefore, does not forbid the ὀργίζεσθαι in itself, and could not forbid it, because there is (see Wuttke, Sittenl. II. § 243) a holy anger,[246] which is calcar virtutis (Seneca, de ira, iii. 3), as there is also a divine anger; the ὀργίζεσθαι καὶ ἁμαρτάνειν, however; is not to take place, but, on the contrary, the ὀργίζεσθαι is to be without sin, consequently an ὀργίζεσθαι καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνειν. As regards the substantial sense, the same result is brought out with the usual explanation, but it is usually believed (and already in the Constitutt. Apost. ii. 53. 2, the passage of the Psalm is so taken) that the imperative may be resolved conditionaliter in accordance with Hebrew usage: if ye are angry, do not sin (Isa_8:9 f.; Amo_5:4; Amo_5:6, al.). So also Koppe, Flatt, Rückert, Holzhausen, Meier, Olshausen, Zyro, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bleek. But the combination of two imperatives connected by and, like: do this, and live, Gen_42:18, comp. Isa_8:9, and similar passages,a combination, moreover, which is not a Hebraism, but a general idiom of language (comp. divide et impera),is not at all in point here, because it would lead to the in this case absurd analysis: if ye are angry, ye shall not sin. Winer, p. 279 [E. T. 391 f.], allows the taking of the first imperative in a permissive sense; comp. Krüger, § 54, 4. 2. In this way we should obtain as result: be angry (I cannot hinder it), but only do not sin. So also de Wette. No doubt a permission of anger, because subsequently καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτ. follows, would not be in conflict with Eph_4:31, where manifestly all hostile anger is forbidden; but the mere καί is only logically correct when both imperatives are thought of in the same sense, not the former as permitting and the latter as enjoining, in which case the combination becomes exceptive (only, however), which would be expressed by ἀλλά, πλήν, or μόνον.[247] Beza, Piscator, Grotius, and others take ὈΡΓΊΖ. interrogatively: irascimini? et ne peccate. Against this we cannot urgethe objection usually taken since the time of Wolfthe καί, which often in rapid emotion strikes in with some summons (Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 148); but we may urge the fact that Paul reproduces a passage of the LXX. (which, it is true, is quite arbitrarily denied by Beza and Koppe) in which ὀργίζ. is imperative, and that such an abrupt and impassioned question and answer would not be in keeping with the whole calm and sober tone of the discourse.

μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε] forbids every kind of sinning, to which anger may lead. Zyro, after Neander, would limit it to the hostile relation towards others, which, however, is purely a supplied thought (εἰς τὸν πλησίον, or the like).

Ὁ ἭΛΙΟς … ΔΙΑΒΌΛῼ] not included as belonging to the words of the Psalm, states in what way the given precept is to be carried out; namely, (1) the irritation must be laid aside on the same day, and (2) no scope may therein be given to the devil.

ὁ ἥλιος μὴ ἐπιδυέτω κ.τ.λ.] Comp. Deu_24:13; Deu_24:15; Jer_15:9; Philo, de Legg. Spec. II. p. 324. On the citation of these words in Polyc. Phil. 12, see Introd. § 3. The ἐπιδυέτω is to be taken: go down over your irritation. Comp. also Hom. Il. ii. 413, and Faesi in loc. (Nägelsbach in loc. takes another view). That the night is here conceived of as the nurse of wrath (Fathers in Suicer, I. p. 1323; Bengel, and others), or that the eventide of prayer is thought of (Baumgarten), is arbitrarily assumed. Jerome and Augustine interpreted it even of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, and Lombard of the sun of reason! The meaning of these words, to be taken quite literally (comp. the custom of the Pythagoreans: εἴποτε προαχθεῖεν εἰς λοιδορίας ὑπʼ ὀργῆς, πρὶν ἢ τὸν ἥλιον δύναι τὰς δεξιὰς ἐμβάλλοντες ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι διελύοντο, Plut. de am. frat. p. 488 B), is no other than: before evening let your irritation be over, by which the very speedy, undelayed abandoning of anger is concretely represented.

παροργισμός is the arousing of wrath, exacerbatio, from which ὀργή, as a lasting mood, is different. Comp. LXX. 1Ki_15:30, al. In the Greek writers the word does not occur. We may add that Zanchius and Holzhausen are mistaken in holding the παρά in the word to indicate unrighteous irritation. See, on the other hand, e.g. Rom_10:19; Eze_32:9. It denotes the excitement brought upon us.

μηδέ] nor yet, for the annexation of a new clause falling to be added. See Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 210. The Recepta μήτε would so place the two prohibitions side by side, that they ought properly to be connected by neither … nor (μήτε … μήτε), but that Paul had not yet thought of this in the first clause, but had written the simple ΜΉ, and had only at the second clause changed the conception into such a form as if he had previously written ΜΉΤΕ (comp. our: not … nor). This usage is met with (in opposition to Elmsley) also in classical writers, although more rarely (see Klotz, ad Devar. p. 709; Bornemann, ad Xen. Anab. iv. 8. 3, p. 303, Lips.; Maetzn. ad Antiph. p. 195 f.), but not elsewhere in Paul, and hence is not probable here.

δίδοτε τόπον] i.e. give scope, opportunity for being active. See on Rom_12:19.

τῷ διαβόλῳ] to the devil; for he is denoted by διάβολος in all passages of the N.T., where it is not an adjective (1Ti_3:11-12; 2Ti_3:3; Tit_2:3), even in 1Ti_3:6; Joh_6:70. Hence Erasmus (not in the Paraphr.), Luther, Erasmus Schmid, Michaelis, Zachariae, Moras, Stolz, Flatt, and others (Koppe is undecided) are in error in holding that διάβολος is here equivalent to calumniator; in which view Erasmus thought of the heathen slandering the Christians, to whom they were to furnish no material; and most expositors thought of the tale-bearers nursing disputes, to whom they were not to lend an ear. In an irritated frame of mind passion easily gains the ascendancy over sobriety and watchfulness, and that physical condition is favourable to the devil for his work of seducing into everything that is opposed to God. Comp. 1Pe_5:8; 2Co_2:11; Eph_6:11 ff. Harless refers the danger on the part of the devil to the corruption of the church-life (comp. Erasmus, Paraphr.), the fellowship of which, in the absence of placability, is rent by the devil. But this, as not implied in the context, must have been said by an addition (ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, or the like, after ΤΌΠΟΝ).

The name ΔΙΆΒΟΛΟς does not occur elsewhere in the undoubtedly genuine Epistles of the apostle; but this, considering the equally general currency of the two names devil and Satan, may be accidental Comp. also Act_13:10. We may add that the citation of the Clementines (Hom. xix. 2): μὴ δότε πρόφασιν τῷ πονηρῷ, has nothing to do with our passage (in opposition to Schwegler, l.c. p. 394 f.).

[244] The words of the original, רִנְזוּ וְאַל־תֶּחֱטָאוּ, mean: tremble, and err not (Ewald), with which David calls upon his enemies to tremble on account of their iniquities towards him, the favourite of God, and not further to sin. Comp. also Hupfeld in loc. Yet other recent scholars, including Hitzig, have translated, in harmony with the LXX.: Be angry, but offend not.

[245] When, however, Harless would assign to our passage a place not under the head of anger, but under that of placability, he overlooks the fact that in anger one may commit sin otherwise than by implacability; and that the following ὁ ἥλιος κ.τ.λ. brings into prominence only a single precept falling under the μὴ ἁμαρτ.

[246] That this, however, is not meant in ver. 31, see on that verse.

[247] This is no philological theorizing, but is based on logical necessity. No instance can be adduced in which, of two imperatives coupled by καί, the former is to be taken as concessive and the second as preceptive, in contrast to the former. To refer to Jer_10:24 as a parallel, as Winer does, is erroneous, for the very reason that in that passagewhich, however, in general is very different from ours

πλήν, not καί, is used.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 4:26 . ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε : be ye angry, and sin not . The words are taken from Psa 4:4 , and follow the LXX rendering. The original Hebrew, רִגְזוּ וְאַל־תֶּחֱטָאוּ , is rendered by some “Tremble and sin not” (Ewald; AV, “Stand in awe and sin not”), i.e. , = “let wholesome fear keep you from this sinful course”; by others, as the LXX gives it (Hitz., Del., etc.). As used by Paul here the words recognise the fact that anger has its rightful place and may be a duty, while they indicate also how easily it may pass into the sinful. Great difficulty has been felt with this, and in various ways it has been sought to empty the injunction of its obvious meaning. Some take the first imperative conditionally , as if = “if ye are angry, do not sin” (Olsh., Bleek, etc.); others, in a way utterly at variance with the quotation, take ὀργίζεσθε as an interrogative (Beza, Grot.); others declare it impossible to take the first command as direct (Buttm., Gram. of N. T. Greek , p. 290), or deal with the first imper. as permissive , and with the second as jussive (Winer, De Wette, etc.), as if = “be ye angry if it must be so, but only do not sin”. Such a construction might be allowable if the first imper. were followed by ἀλλὰ καί or some similar disjunctive: but with the simple καί it is inadmissible. Both impers. are real jussives, the only difference between them being in the μή which also throws some emphasis on the second. The καί has here the rhetorical sense which is found also in atque , adding something that seems not quite consistent with the preceding or that qualifies it, = “and yet” ( cf. Mat 3:14 ; Mat 6:26 ; Mat 10:29 , etc.). Nor is the difficulty in admitting ὀργίζεσθε to be a real injunction of anger anything more than a self-made difficulty. Moralists of different schools, the Stoics excepted. have recognised the place of anger in a moral nature; cf., e.g. , Plato’s τὸ θυμοειδές ; Butler’s statement of the function of anger in a moral system as “a balance to the weakness of pity” and a “counterpoise to possible excess in another part of our nature,” Sermons , Carmichael’s ed., pp. 126, 128. A righteous wrath is acknowledged in Scripture as something that not only may be but ought to be, and is seen in Christ Himself (Mar 3:5 ). So Paul speaks here of an anger that is approvable and to be enjoined, while in the καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε he forbids only a particular form or measure of anger. As the following clause suggests, even a righteous wrath by over-indulgence may pass all too easily into sin. ὁ ἥλιος μὴ ἐπιδυέτω ἐπὶ τῷ παροργισμῷ ὑμῶν : let not the sun go down upon your provocation . For the expression ὁ ἥλιος μὴ ἐπιδυέτω cf. Deu 24:13 ; Deu 24:15 ; Jer 15:9 ; also Hom., Il. , ii., 413, and Plutarch’s statement of the Pythagorean custom εἴποτε προαχθεῖεν εἰς λοιδορίας ὑπ ὀργῆς , πρὶν ἢ τὸν ἥλιον δῦναι τὰς δεξιὰς ἐμβάλλοντες ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι διέλυοντο ( De Am. frat. , p. 488 B). τῷ , inserted by the TR, is supported by [454] [455] [456] [457] [458] 3 , etc.; it is omitted by the best critics (LTTrWHRV) on the authority of [459] [460] 1 [461] , etc. The noun παροργισμός occurs only here in the NT; never, as it would appear, in non-biblical Greek; but occasionally in the LXX ( 1Ki 15:30 ; 2Ki 23:26 ; Neh 9:18 ). It differs from ὀργή in denoting not the disposition of anger or anger as a lasting mood, but provocation, exasperation , sudden, violent anger. Such anger cannot be indulged long, but must be checked and surrendered without delay. To suppose any allusion here to sunset as the time for prayer or to night as increasing wrath by giving opportunity of brooding, is to import something entirely foreign to the simplicity of the words as a statement of limitation .

[454] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[455] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[456] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[457] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[458] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[459] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[460] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[461] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_4:26, Eph_4:27

His next exhortation has reference to anger; with regard to which he teaches

1. Not to allow anger to be an occasion of sin.

2. Not to cherish it.

3. Not to give Satan any advantage over us when we are angry.

The words ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε, be ye angry and sin not, are borrowed from the Septuagint version of Psa_4:4 and admit of different interpretations:

1. As the original text in Psa_4:4 admits of being rendered Rage and sin not, i.e. do not Sin by raging‹15› so the words of the apostle may mean, do not commit the sin of being angry. To this it is objected, that it makes the negative qualify both verbs, while it belongs really only to the latter. It is not necessary to assume that the apostle uses these words in the precise sense of the original text; for the New Testament writers often give the sense of an Old Testament passage with a modification of the words, or they use the same words with a modification of the sense. This is not properly a quotation; it is not cited as something the Psalmist said, but the words are used to express Pauls own idea. In Rom_10:18, Their sound is gone into all the earth, we have the language of the 19th Psalm but not an expression of the sense of the Psalmist.

2. Others make the first imperative in this clause permissive and the second commanding, Be angry and (but) do not sin.

3. Or the first is conditional, if angry, sin not. That is, sin not in anger; let not your anger be an occasion of sin. Repress it and bring it under control that it may not hurry you into the commission of sin. The meaning is the same as would be expressed by saying, ὀργιζόμενοι μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε, being angry sin not. This is perhaps the most satisfactory view of the passage.

It is indeed objected that the apostle is here speaking of sins, and that in Eph_4:31, he forbids all anger, and therefore any interpretation which assumes that anger is not itself a sin is inadmissible. But it is certain that all anger is not sinful. Christ himself, it is said, regarded the perverse laws with anger. Mar_3:5. The same generic feeling, if mingled with holy affections, or in a holy mind, is virtuous; if mingled with malice it is sinful. Both feelings, or both combinations of feeling, are expressed in Scripture by the term anger. Nothing in itself sinful can be attributed to God, but anger is attributed to him. Eph_4:31 is not inconsistent with this interpretation, for there the context shows the apostle speaks of malicious anger just as all hatred means all malice, and not the hatred of evil.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. The word is here παροργισμός, paroxysm or excitement. Anger even when justifiable is not to be cherished. The wise man says: Anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecc_7:9.

Neither give place to the devil. To give place to is to get out of the way of, to allow free scope to; and therefore to give an occasion or advantage to any one. We are neither to cherish anger, nor are we to allow Satan to take advantage of our being angry. Anger when cherished gives the Tempter great power over us, as it furnishes a motive to yield to his evil suggestions. The word διάβολος is rendered by Luther, Lästerer, slanderer. It is used as an adjective in that sense in 1Ti_3:11; 2Ti_3:3, and Tit_2:3, but with the article (ὁ διάβολος) it always means Satan the great accuser the prince of the demons or fallen angels, who is the great opposer of God and seducer of men against whose wiles we are commanded to be constantly on our guard.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He teacheth us to bridle our anger in such sort, that although it be not, yet that it break not out, and that it be straightway quenched before we sleep, lest Satan taking occasion to give us evil counsel through the wicked counselor, destroy us.

If it so fall out, that you be angry, yet sin not: that is, bridle your anger, and do not wickedly put that in execution, which you have wickedly conceived.

Let not the night come upon you in your anger, that is, make atonement quickly for all matters.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Be ye angry, and sin not--So the Septuagint, Psa 4:4. Should circumstances arise to call for anger on your part, let it be as Christ's "anger" (Mar 3:5), without sin. Our natural feelings are not wrong when directed to their legitimate object, and when not exceeding due bounds. As in the future literal, so in the present spiritual, resurrection, no essential constituent is annihilated, but all that is a perversion of the original design is removed. Thus indignation at dishonor done to God, and wrong to man, is justifiable anger. Passion is sinful (derived from "passio," suffering: implying that amidst seeming energy, a man is really passive, the slave of his anger, instead of ruling it).

let not the sun go down upon your wrath--"wrath" is absolutely forbidden; "anger" not so, though, like poison sometimes used as medicine, it is to be used with extreme caution. The sense is not, Your anger shall not be imputed to you if you put it away before nightfall; but "let no wrath (that is, as the Greek, personal 'irritation' or 'exasperation') mingle with your 'anger,' even though, the latter be righteous, [TRENCH, Greek Synonyms of the New Testament]. "Put it away before sunset" (when the Jewish day began), is proverbial for put it away at once before another day begin (Deu 24:15); also before you part with your brother for the night, perhaps never in this world to meet again. So JONA, "Let not night and anger against anyone sleep with you, but go and conciliate the other party, though he have been the first to commit the offense." Let not your "anger" at another's wickedness verge into hatred, or contempt, or revenge [VATABLUS].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. Be ye angry, and sin not] οργιζεσθε, here, is the same as ει μεν οργιζεσθε, IF YE be angry, do not sin. We can never suppose that the apostle delivers this as a precept, if we take the words as they stand in our version. Perhaps the sense is, Take heed that ye be not angry, lest ye sin; for it would be very difficult, even for an apostle himself, to be angry and not sin. If we consider anger as implying displeasure simply, then there are a multitude of cases in which a man may be innocently, yea, laudably angry; for he should be displeased with every thing which is not for the glory of God, and the good of mankind. But, in any other sense, I do not see how the words can be safely taken.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath] That is: If you do get angry with any one, see that the fire be cast with the utmost speed out of your bosom. Do not go to sleep with any unkind or unbrotherly feeling; anger, continued in, may produce malice and revenge. No temper of this kind can consist with peace of conscience, and the approbation of God's Spirit in the soul.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. Be ye angry, and sin not. Whether or not the apostle had in his eye a part of the fourth Psalm is uncertain. The words used by him (᾿Οργίζεσθε καὶ υὴ ἁμαρτάνετε) occur in the Greek translation, though the word ὀργίζεσθε, which is translated, be ye angry, is considered by some to mean tremble. The Hebrew verb רגז (ragaz) signifies either to be agitated by anger, or, to tremble. As to the passage of the Psalm, the idea of trembling will be quite appropriate. “Do not choose to resemble madmen, who rush fearlessly in any direction, but let the dread of being accounted foolhardy keep you in awe.” The word sometimes signifies to strive or quarrel, as, in that instance, (Genesis 45:24,) “See that ye fall not out by the way;” and accordingly, the Psalmist adds, “Commune with your own heart, and be still,” — abstain from furious encounters.

In my opinion, Paul merely alludes to the passage with the following view. There are three faults by which we offend God in being angry. The first is, when our anger arises from slight causes, and often from no cause whatever, or at least from private injuries or offenses. The second is, when we go beyond the proper bounds, and are hurried into intemperate excesses. The third is, when our anger, which ought to have been directed against ourselves or against sins, is turned against our brethren. Most appropriately, therefore, did Paul, when he wished to describe the proper limitation of anger, employ the well-known passage, Be ye angry, and sin not. We comply with this injunction, if the objects of our anger are sought, not in others, but in ourselves, — if we pour out our indignation against our own faults. With respect to others, we ought to be angry, not at their persons, but at their faults; nor ought we to be excited to anger by private offenses, but by zeal for the glory of the Lord. Lastly, our anger, after a reasonable time, ought to be allowed to subside, without mixing itself with the violence of carnal passions.

Let not the sun go down. It is scarcely possible, however, but that we shall sometimes give way to improper and sinful passion, — so strong is the tendency of the human mind to what is evil. Paul therefore suggests a second remedy, that we shall quickly suppress our anger, and not suffer it to gather strength by continuance. The first remedy was, Be ye angry, and sin not; but, as the great weakness of human nature renders this exceedingly difficult, the next is — not to cherish wrath too long in our minds, or allow it sufficient time to become strong. He enjoins accordingly, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If at any time we happen to be angry, let us endeavor to be appeased before the sun has set.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(26) Be ye angry, and sin not.—A quotation from the LXX. version of Psa_4:4. Anger itself is not sin, for our Lord Himself felt it (Mar_3:5) at the “hardness of men’s hearts;” and it is again and again attributed to God Himself, in language no doubt of human accommodation, but, of course, accommodation to what is sinless in humanity. In the form of resentment, and above all of the resentment of righteous indignation, it performs (as Butler has shown in his sermon on “Resentment”) a stimulating and inspiring function in the strife against evil. But it is a dangerous and exceptional weapon: and hence the exhortation “sin not,” and the practical enforcement of that exhortation in the next clause.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.—In this command (for which a Pythagorean parallel may be found) St. Paul gives a two-fold safeguard against abuse of even righteous anger. (1) It is not to be prolonged beyond the sunset—beyond the sleep which ends the old day and leads in the freshness of the new, and which by any godly man must be prepared for in commendation of himself to God, and in prayer for His forgiveness, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (2) It is not to be brooded over and stimulated; for the word “wrath” is properly self-exasperation, being similar to the “contention” of Act_15:30, described as alien to the spirit of love in 1Co_13:5. It is that “nursing of wrath to keep it warm,” which can be checked even by those who cannot control the first outburst, and which constantly corrupts righteous indignation into selfish personal anger, if not into malignity.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. Be ye angry, and sin not] Another inference from co-membership in the Lord. Anger, as the mere expression of wounded personality, is sinful; for it means that self is in command. Anger, as the pure expression of repugnance to wrong in loyalty to God, is sinless, where there is true occasion for it. The Apostle practically says, let anger, when you feel it, be never from the former motive, always from the latter. “Ebullitions of temper,” alike the greatest and smallest, the seen and unseen, are wholly forbidden here.

The words are verbatim the LXX. version of Psa_4:4. The lit. Hebrew there is, “tremble, and sin not.” And the verb rendered “tremble” may denote the tremor of grief, awe, or anger indifferently. The question of interpretation thus becomes one of context, and it has been suggested (by Dr Kay) that the reference is to the temptation to David’s followers, during Absalom’s rebellion, to give way to unholy wrath against the rebels. Dean Perowne, though saying that the LXX. Gr. is “certainly a possible rendering,” refers the words to the tremor of awe before God. And he remarks that St Paul here gives the Gr. version “not in the way of direct citation.” This last remark is important. The N.T. does not necessarily endorse a certain version of the O.T. by adopting its wording for a special purpose, without the decisive formula “it is written,” or the like. Still, the suggestion of Dr Kay is noteworthy in itself, and its adoption would give a peculiar point and force to the words here.

let not the sun go down] Wetstein quotes a curious parallel from Plutarch, (De Fraterno Amore, p. 488 b.), who says of the Pythagoreans that it was their rule, if betrayed into angry reviling, to shake hands before the sun set.—It is possible that we have Psalms 4 still in view here; “commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” As if to say, “if you have sinned in the way here forbidden, see that at least the sin is reversed and renounced before night calls you to bid your brother farewell and to meet your God in solitude.”

your wrath] Better, perhaps, your provocation, as R.V. margin. The Gr. denotes an occasion of anger, rather than the feeling. See further on the cognate verb, Eph_6:4. The reasons, as well as the acts, of quarrel were to be done with by set of sun.—The Gr. word is one often used by the LXX. of the provocation of God by His unfaithful people.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,.... As unsavoury speech, foolish talking, light and frothy language, that which is filthy, unprofitable, noxious, and nauseous, and all that is sinful; such as profane oaths, curses, and imprecations, unchaste words, angry ones, proud, haughty, and arrogant expressions, lies, perjury, &c. which may be called corrupt, because such communication springs from a corrupt heart; is an evidence of the corruption of it; the subject matter of it is corrupt; and it conveys corruption to others, it corrupts good manners; and is the cause of men's going down to the pit of corruption: wherefore a restraint should be laid upon the lips of men; men have not a right to say what they please; good men will be cautious what they say, otherwise their religion is in vain; and conscious of their own weakness, they will pray to God to set a watch before their mouth, and to keep the door of their lips, and not suffer anything to come out,

but that which is good for the use of edifying: or "for edification", as the Syriac version renders it; the Arabic version reads, "for the edification of all"; that is, that hear; and the Vulgate Latin version and Claromontane exemplar, "for the edification of faith": for the building up of saints on their most holy faith, and for the encouragement and increase of the grace of faith: in the Greek text it is literally, "for the edification of use"; for useful edification, or what is useful for edification; and is suited to the present want or opportunity, as the word is by some rendered: and that must be "good", which answers such an end; meaning not that the language should be formally and grammatically good, though to speak with propriety is useful and serviceable, and tends the more to instruction and edification; but that which is materially good, or the subject of it is good; that which is true, pure, pleasant, and profitable:

that it may minister grace unto the hearers; may be grateful and acceptable to them, or may minister the grace of God to them; that is, the doctrine of grace, the Gospel of the grace of God; and be a means of conveying the principle of grace into the hearts of the hearers, and of drawing it forth into exercise where it is; and such speech or communication which springs from a gracious heart, and from a principle of grace in the heart, and is upon the subject of the grace of God, is most likely to be thus useful and edifying: agreeably to all this are some sayings of the Jews (h),

"says R. Joshua ben Levi, for ever let not a man suffer any thing "that is filthy", or unseemly, to proceed out of his mouth; says R. Ishmael, for ever let a man discourse , "in a pure language";''

not corrupt.

(h) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 3. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Ver. 26. Be angry and sin not] The easiest charge under the hardest condition that can be. Anger is a tender virtue, and must be warily managed. He that will be angry and not sin, let him be angry at nothing but sin.

Let not the sun go down] If ye have overshot in passion, let it not rest or roost in you, lest it become malice. Plutarch writeth that it was the custom of Pythagoras’ scholars, however they had been at odds, jarring and jangling in their disputations, yet before the sun set to kiss and shake hands as they departed out of the school. {a} How many are there that professing themselves the scholars of Christ, do yet nevertheless not only let the sun go down, but go round his whole course, and can find no time from one end of the year to the other to compose and lay aside their discords! How should this fire be raked up when the curfew bell rings! William the Conqueror commanded that cover-few (curfew) bell. It were well that some were admonished every night to cover the fire of their passions, that their wrath might not be memor ira, unforgetable wrath, as Virgil hath it, and αειμνηστος, as that of the Athenians, who hated all barbarians, for the Persians’ sake, and forbade them their sacrifices, as they used to do murderers. (Rous’s Arch. Attic.) Leontius Patritius was one day extremely and unreasonably angry with John, Patriarch of Alexandria: at evening, the patriarch sent a servant to him with this message; "Sir, the sun is set;" upon which Patritius reflecting, and the grace of God making the impression deep, he threw away his anger, and became wholly subject to the counsel of the patriarch. (Taylor’s Life and Death of Christ.)

{a} Plut. lib. περι φιλαδελφ.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye angry and sin not - It has been remarked that the direction here is conformable to the usage of the Pythagoreans, who were bound, when there were any differences among them, to furnish some token of reconciliation before the sun set. Burder, in Ros. Alt. u. neu. Morgenland, in loc. It is implied here:

(1) That there “may” be anger without sin; and,

(2) That there is special danger in all cases where there is anger that it will be accompanied with sin. “Anger” is a passion too common to need any description. It is an excitement or agitation of mind, of more or less violence, produced by the reception of a real or supposed injury, and attended commonly with a desire or purpose of revenge. The desire of revenge, however, is not essential to the existence of the passion, though it is probably always attended with a disposition to express displeasure, to chide, rebuke, or punish; compare Mar 3:5. To a great extent the sudden excitement on the reception of an injury is involuntary, and consequently innocent. Anger is excited when a horse kicks us; when a serpent hisses; when we dash our foot against a stone - and so when a man raises his hand to strike us. The “object or final cause” of implanting this passion in the mind of man is, to rouse him to an immediate defense of himself when suddenly attacked, and before his reason would, have time to suggest the proper means of defense. It prompts at once to self-protection; and when that is done its proper office ceases. If persevered in; it becomes sinful malignity. or revenge - always wrong. Anger may be excited against a “thing” as well as a “person;” as well against an act as a “man.” We are suddenly excited by a wrong “thing,” without any malignancy against the “man;” we may wish to rebuke or chide “that,” without injuring “him.” Anger is sinful in the following circumstances:

(1) When it is excited without any sufficient cause - when we are in no danger, and do not need it for a protection. We should be safe without it.

(2) When it transcends the cause, if any cause really exists. All that is beyond the necessity of immediate self-protection, is apart from its design, and is wrong.

(3) When it is against “the person” rather than the “offence.” The object is not to injure another; it is to protect ourselves.

(4) When it is attended with the desire of “revenge.” That is always wrong; Rom 12:17, Rom 12:19.

(5) When it is cherished and heightened by reflection. And,

(6) When there is an unforgiving spirit; a determination to exact the utmost satisfaction for the injury which has been done. If people were perfectly holy, that sudden “arousing of the mind” in danger, or on the reception of an injury; which would serve to prompt us to save ourselves from danger, would exist, and would be an important principle of our nature. As it is now, it is violent; excessive; incontrollable; persevered in - and is almost always wrong. If people were holy, this excitement of the mind would obey the first injunctions of “reasons,” and be wholly under its control; as it is now, it seldom obeys reason at all - and is wholly wrong. Moreover, if all people were holy; if there were none “disposed” to do an injury, it would exist only in the form of a sudden arousing of the mind against immediate danger - which would all be right. Now, it is excited not only in view of “physical” dangers, but in view of the “wrongs” done by others - and hence it terminates on the “person” and not the “thing,” and becomes often wholly evil.

Let not the sun go down - Do not cherish anger. Do not sleep upon it. Do not harbor a purpose of revenge; do not cherish ill-will against another. “When the sun sets on a man’s anger, he may be sure it is wrong.” The meaning of the whole of this verse then is, “If you be angry, which may be the case, and which may be unavoidable, see that the sudden excitement does not become sin. Do not let it overleap its proper bounds; do not cherish it; do not let it remain in your bosom even to the setting of the sun. Though the sun be sinking in the west, let not the passion linger in the bosom, but let his last rays find you always peaceful and calm.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Be angry, and sin not, as it is said Psalm iv. 5. Anger, as a passion of the mind, may proceed from a good motive and be guided by reason; as our Saviour, Christ, (Mark iii. 5.) is said to have looked about at the Jews with anger, i.e. with a zeal against their blindness and malice. --- Let not the sun go down upon your anger. If moved to anger, return without delay to a calmness of mind and temper. (Witham) --- Be angry when reason or necessity compels you; but even then, so restrain your anger that you neither offend God nor scandalize your neighbour. Moreover, lay it aside as soon as you are able, so that the sun go not down upon your anger. (Jansenius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Be ye angry and sin not: by way of concession, rather than by way of command: q.d. If the case be such that ye must be angry, yet see it be without sin.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; if your anger is excessive, (for so this word signifies, being different from the former), yet let it not be lasting; be reconciled ere the sun go down.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. Be… angry… sin not—And if there be no sinless anger, this forbids all anger. They are welcome to any anger which violates not this proviso. And no doubt there is a sinless anger. For anger is all adverse emotion in view of any wrong done to ourself or against any law of right, and often suggesting the due punishment of the wrongdoer. The emotion is, in itself, right; is consistent with uninterrupted love; may be proportioned to the object; and it may not break the clear self-possession or Christian serenity of the man. If this be not the case there is reason to suspect sin. If there be a fierce flash of the eye, a loud and forcible utterance, and an unfitting violence of words, very likely the sin not problem has not been well worked out.

Sun… wrath—Let the tranquillizing shades of evening compose the excitement of the emotion, even though it be your duty to see that the wrong be righted. When the excitement and the sun have gone down, you will have time to revise and settle if there be not some mistake; and your decisions in view of the fact that you desire to commit yourself into the hands of God in slumber, will be passionless and pure in the sight of God.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye angry, and sin not. Quotation from the Septuagint version of Psa_4:5. Anger, the feeling and expression of displeasure, is not wholly forbidden, but is guarded by two checks. Our Lord did not make anger a breach of the sixth commandment, but being angry with a brother without cause. The first check is to beware of sinning; to keep your anger clear of bitterness, spite, malevolence, and all such evil feelings. The second is, Let not the sun go down on your irritation; examine yourself in the evening, and see that you are tranquil. Eadie quotes Thomas Fuller: "St. Paul saith, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath," to carry news to the antipodes in another world of thy revengeful nature. Yet let us take the apostle"s meaning rather than his words with all possible speed to depose our passion; not understanding him so literally that we may take leave to be angry till sunset; then might our wrath lengthen with the days, and men in Greenland, where day lasts above a quarter of a year, have plentiful scope of revenge. And as the English, by command of William the Conqueror, always raked up their fire, and put out their candles when the curfew bell was rung, let us then also quench all sparks of anger and heat of passion." It is especially becoming in men, when about to sleep the sleep of death, to see that they are in peace and charity with all men; it were seemly always to fall asleep in the same temper.

Vers. 26, 27.

Restraints upon anger

The apostle teaches that we are not to allow the irritations or exasperations of life to become the occasion of sin, that we are not to cherish anger, and that we are not to give scope to Satan by temper which may open the heart to those passions of hatred and revenge that are identified with his operations. The passage teaches

I TEXT THERE IS AN ANGER THAT IS NOT SINFUL. This affection is, indeed, implanted in our nature for righteous ends. It arms the passions quickly against evil, and operates with the force and effectiveness of an instinct. If it is mingled with malice, it becomes sinful; but if it is associated with a holy disposition, it is safe and good. Jesus regarded the conduct of the Jews "with anger". (Mar_3:5) Anger is often attributed to God himself, (Psa_7:11) but it can have no sinful elements in the Divine mind. It is, in fact, with anger as it is with hatred. It is a shallow prejudice to shrink from the name and the thing which it signifies, as if it were all and only evil. Jesus hated as well as loved. The two emotions hang for their life upon each other. Love cannot be unless a hearty hate of evil lie beneath. They are but the two sides of one sublime emotion which turns life, so often insipid and dull, into a vivid, balanced, and joyful activity. So it is with anger. Under the inspiration of a holy nature, it may flash forth with a marvelous power against wickedness, untruth, and dishonor.

II THAT THERE IS AN EASY PASSAGE FROM WHAT IS RIGHT TO WHAT IS WRONG IN THE INDULGENCE OF ANGER. "Be ye angry and sin not." This command implies that it is an easy matter to sin in our anger, and a hard thing to be angry and not to sin. The path of duty affords firm footing to those who keep it; but it is very narrow, and there are dangerous pitfalls on either side. Anger is, therefore, not an operation to be rashly or lightly performed, even when it is a very evil thing against which our displeasure is directed. If it comes often and comes easily, you may suspect the danger that lurks in it. Take care, above all things, that the zeal for righteousness may not plunge you into hatred of your neighbors. If a glass bottle be full of clean water, though it be stirred there ariseth no mud; but if mud arise when it is stirred, the water was foul in the bottom: so is the spirit of a man foul within that, being stirred, showeth distemper." "Be angry and sin not." You cannot be angry and suffer not. Just as a cannon when discharged recoils heated and begrimed within by the fiery blast that issued from its mouth, the spirit of man is similarly affected even by those discharges of anger that are directed against the most wicked deeds.

III THAT IT IS HARD TO AVOID SIN IN OUR ANGER IF WE INDULGE IT FOR AN UNDUE LENGTH OF TIME. "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Anger may flash suddenly out from the lips of a good man, but it resteth in the bosom of fools". (Ecc_7:9) There is a limit even to righteous anger; not that we are not to have a continual anger against sin; but we are not to carry our anger against a brother into the next day. We are not to harbor resentment or keep it rankling in our bosom, lest it should change into downright hatred or revenge.

IV THAT SATAN TAKES ADVANTAGE OF OUR ANGER TO DO US GREAT HURT. There is an old Latin proverb, "He who goes angry to bed has the devil for a bedfellow." Anger, if cherished, supplies a motive to yield to his evil suggestions. The devil is in full sympathy with a resentful spirit. Yet, though he wields the resources of this world as its god; though he is incarnate in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; he has no power to enter any heart except with the will of its owner. Let not Christians, then, allow that heart, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, to be opened, in a moment of holy anger, to the intrusive suggestions of the evil one. The counsel of the apostle is well calculated to promote the comfort and the usefulness of life. Let Christians take care that their anger is not without cause, or without measure, or without justice, and that it should not be so inconsistent with love that we cannot pray for those against whom it is directed. T.C.

Anger.

I ANGER IS A DUTY.

1. It is natural. The man who is never angry is lacking in moral fiber. Christ was sometimes angry. (Mar_3:5) God is angry with the wicked. (Psa_7:11)

1. It is just. We cannot rightly rebuke evil without anger. Lies and cruelty should not be treated mildly. Christ would not have been faithful to righteousness if he had not shown indignation in response to hypocrisy.

2. It is useful. We may save a man by first being angry with him. A mild complacency may be the greatest cruelty to a bad man. Even when we cannot rouse the conscience of the guilty by anger we may protect the weak and wronged who claim our first sympathy.

II ANGER BRINGS A DANGER. It is the most perilous of duties even when it is obligatory.

1. It is in danger of being indulged for our own satisfaction instead of the resistance and checking of moral evil. Personal revenge is likely to usurp the place of righteous indignation.

2. It is in danger of running into excess. It is a passion, and every passion tends to irrational extravagance. The angry man must beware of losing his temper.

III THE LIMITS OF RIGHTEOUS ANGER SHOULD BE CAREFULLY MARKED.

1. We must avoid the mingling of wicked feelings with necessary anger. While angry with our brother we must not cease to love him. We may be most angry with those we love most. But when anger provokes us to wish harm to any one, it degenerates to hatred and becomes a great sin.

2. We must not cherish anger for long. The mercy of God is everlasting; his wrath is for a season. (Psa_103:9) It is the devil only whose habitual mood is anger. Men may do fearful harm by the sudden ebullition of a hasty temper harm which may be repented of in vain for long years. Nevertheless, the sullen persistence of ill-feeling for weeks and longer that some people practice is in itself more culpable. It would be well to remember every night that we cannot have God"s forgiveness of our sins of the day unless we have first forgiven those who have sinned against us.

3. We must not lose self-control in anger. "Neither give place to the devil.

IV THE CHRISTIAN SAFEGUARD AGAINST THE ABUSE OF ANGER IS LOVE. NO man can be safely angry with his brother unless he first love him. It is only they that love much who can make a wise use of the furious weapon of anger. If we are "kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other," we shall be able to show righteous anger without lowering ourselves to personal spite. Then our anger will be a pain to us and we shall long to abandon it for more congenial feelings. So shall we be like God, whose wrath is sinless, because he loves his children through all the anger their sin has called forth. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye angry, and sin not - That is, if ye are angry, take heed ye sin not. Anger at sin is not evil; but we should feel only pity to the sinner. If we are angry at the person, as well as the fault, we sin. And how hardly do we avoid it. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath - Reprove your brother, and be reconciled immediately. Lose not one day. A clear, express command. Reader, do you keep it?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

sin

Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Some understand these words only as a cautionary direction, and sense them thus: If ye be angry at any time, take heed that ye sin not, by exceeding due bounds; and if at any time it doth so, suppress it speedily, before the sun go down. This was a practice even amongst the heathen; before the sun went down, they would shake hands and embrace one another; to the shame of Christians, who gave place to the devil, according to the known proverb, Contubernalem habet diabolum, qui lectum petit iratus. "He that goes angry to bed, has the devil for his chamber-fellow;" yea, for his bed-fellow! nay, he lies not only in his bed, but in his bosom.

Others understand the words as a precept and command: Be angry, but take heed of sinful anger. Now the way to be angry and not sin, is to be angry at nothing but at sin; it is our duty to be angry when we see others depart from their duty. Meek Moses, who was cool enough in his own cause, was not so in God’s; he has no zeal for God, that is not moved when he sees or hears God dishonoured.

Learn hence, 1. That anger being an affection implanted by God in the human nature, is not in itself evil or sinful, but in some cases a necessary duty.

Learn hence, 2. That there is an easy and ready passage from what is lawful to what is sinful, Be angry, and sin not; implying, that it is a very easy matter to sin in our anger, and no easy matter to be angry and not to sin.

Learn, 3. That it is very difficult, if not impossible, to avoid sin in our anger, if we let anger hang upon our spirits, and continue with us; anger may pass through the heart of a wise man, but rests in the bosom of fools: anger against sin must continue, but continuance in anger will be sinful.

To prevent the sin of immoderate anger, these rules will be useful:

1. Desire not to hear what others say of thee, lest you want patience to bear what you hear; many tear themselves with anger, when they hear themselves torn with slander; we had better be in the dark concerning our own wrongs, than by knowing of them wrong ourselves by passion or desire of revenge.

2. What you do hear said of you, interpret always in the most favourable sense; call it an infirmity, and distinguish between what is spoken and the intent of the speaker.

3. In and under all provocations, cast your eye upward, look up to God; and cast your eye inward, and see what you have deserved; though not at your neighbour’s hand, yet at God’s hand. Shimel gave David provocation to boil up his anger to the height of fury, 2Sa 16:5,but by eyeing God, how calm and meek was his spirit! Thus, be angry, and sin not.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 21

PRACTICAL HOLINESS

26. “Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down on your provocation.” The Greek word translated angry, is the same we have in Luke, who says our Savior “looked on them with anger, being grieved on account of the hardness of their hearts,” revealing our Savior’s holy grief as the definition of orgidzoo, anger.

Hence, we see that if you get angry, and sin not — i.e., have no sin in it — there will be nothing indulged but holy grief in contemplation of wrong; i.e., you will simply be angry in the sense in which God is angry. God sees all the evil in the world, and is infinitely grieved over it. The more holy we become, the more acutely we discern, disapprove, and grieve over all evil; i.e., we are angry, but sin not; i.e., there is no sin in our anger. The sun is going down every moment on some meridian of the earth.

Hence, the going down of the sun signifies the daily current events of life, involving the idea that we are to receive no provocation at any time, lest the sun go down onit. Wicked men and devils are constantly offering us provocation. But entire sanctification is the investiture of true wisdom, incessantly fortifying us against the reception of evil, though ever so alluringly and importunately enforced on us by human and demoniacal agencies. An insult is a filthy, loathing stench in the nostrils of purity. Shall I be gumpish enough to receive it? God forbid!

28. The man who cheats or defrauds in any way, or endeavors to acquire ill-gotten gains, is a thief in the sight of God. If you cheat a man out of a dollar, God condemns you for stealing the dollar. The little rogues steal in the night,, and expiate their crimes in the penitentiary.

The big rogues steal while looking you in the face. Then you honor them with a place on the judicial bench, where they condemn the little thieves. If a man can steal enough to become very rich, you will promote him to high offices of honor in Church and State. We see from this Scripture that a man is not justifiable for idleness because he is rich. It is his duty to labor with his own hands, that he may have to give to the needy.

29. Your mouth belongs to God. Hence, you can not let the devil use it for obscene, vain, trifling, or foolish utterances with impunity.

30. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you have been sealed unto the day of redemption.” In regeneration, the Holy Spirit writes you up, and sends you into the world God’s letter, to be read by all men. (2 Corinthians 3) In sanctification, the letter is sealed by the Holy Ghost, securing the contents against robbery. If this is not done, Satan will steal away your letter, leaving you the old, empty envelope to meet the “Judge of all the earth.” “Redemption” is the glorious transfiguration of your body,. when “this mortal shall put on immortality, and death shall be swallowed up of life.” The day of “redemption” is the great day of all days when our glorious Lord shall return and call his saints to meet him in the air. The sealing of the Holy Ghost — i.e. entire sanctification — is the qualification for the momentous ordeal of meeting our descending Lord. Has the Holy Ghost written you into a letter of God to the world, and sealed you against all the intrigues of the devil?

31. Here we have a black catalogue of ugly things, which forever depart with the exit of sin and the ingress of the Holy Ghost. Lord, help us all to verify this commandment!

32. The saints of God are exceptions in the world for their goodness, kindness, and philanthropy, delighted with opportunities freely to forgive, and joyfully to confer benefactions. While Christ sitteth on the mediatorial throne, hidden beyond the glittering stars, his loving bride, exhibiting his image and likeness, still walks the earth, reflecting the loving kindness, tender mercies, and heavenly benefactions of her Divine Spouse.

1,2. Like our ascended Lord, we are to be a perpetual sacrifice on God’s altar, emitting the sweet savor of holiness to the Lord.

3. Here we see covetousness, the crying sin of the popular Churches of this day, and so magnetic as to escape exposition and condemnation from the pulpit, here catalogued with fornication and impurity, and interdicted so much as a mention among the saints.

4. “And scandal or foolish talking or indecent jesting, which are unbecoming, but rather the giving of thanks.” For many years a secular paper has not been permitted to enter my house, from the simple fact that they carry Satan’s carrion. You can not mention “scandal” with impunity. If you tamper with it, you will get polluted. You can not indulge in “foolish talk,” or even listen to it, without grieving the Holy Spirit; while “indecent jesting” is simply abominable in the sight of God and all good people. During the Confederate War, while General Grant was in his headquarters, surrounded by his military magnates, a Federal officer rushes in a great glee, looking around, says: “I believe there are no ladies present. I have something wonderfully good to tell.” At that moment the old General bluntly interjected, “But I will let you know there are gentlemen present.” The man took the hint, and never told the joke.

At that time General Grant did not profess Christianity, but his manly decorum revolted at the thought of hearing anything too obscene for repetition in the presence of ladies. It is scandalous, diabolical, and barbaric for men to indulge in conversation incompatible with the presence of women. This verse ought to be written up in a motto, and rendered conspicuous in every home, church, and business circle. Scandal, foolish talking, and indecent jesting among the laity, and even the ministry, cause wholesale backsliding, as it is impossible to indulge in these vices and frivolities without grieving the Holy Spirit. Inadvertent participation in these vanities will grieve away the Holy Spirit, and superinduce backsliding before you are aware. Thousands fall in this way, and wake up to find the Heavenly Dove mournfully absent, and wonder why he ever retreated away. Thomas a Kempis, the Roman Catholic confessor of entire sanctification, has written clearly and beautifully on this subject, especially warning the preachers.

5. Here again the Holy Ghost not only catalogues the covetous man right along with the fornicator and the debaucher, but he denominates him an idolater, certifying that he “has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” This argument will bear the most logical scrutiny, as the covetous man piling up his hoarded self does not need it for sustenance, it follows, as a legitimate sequence, that he worships the sordid gold, and is therefore as base an idolater as ever bowed at the shrine of Jupiter.

6. Let no one deceive you “with empty discourses; for through these things the wrath of God cometh on the sons of disobedience.” The sad verification of this warning everywhere nowadays proclaims the awful apostasy of the latter days. The gospel has well-nigh gone out of the popular Churches. Paul defines the gospel as (Rom 1:16), “the dynamite of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Hence, every discourse which is not charged with God’s dynamite to blow sin out of the heart, is “empty” and degospelized. Songs, prayers, testimonies, and sermons without the Holy Ghost are all “empty,” illusory, and susceptible of utilization by the devil, as greased planks on which to slide people into hell. No wonder our Savior forbade his own apostles to preach the gospel till after they received the Holy Ghost.

What a pity that every preacher does not lie prostrate before God till he fills him with the Holy Ghost, before he assumes the awful responsibility of standing between the living and the dead.

7-9. God is original light, perfectly free from darkness. Satan has not a solitary ray to cheer the black midnight of his hapless soul.

10,11. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather convict them.” “Convict” is the verb form of elegchos, which is the verdict of the criminal judge against the accused, condemning him to his merited retribution. We are all custodians and exponents of God’s law, revealed in the Bible. Therefore, it is our province, like the criminal judge, to know no favorites, giving the gospel trumpet no uncertain sound, lifting high the glittering sword, cutting right and left without distinction or mercy, never softening what God has made hard, nor smoothing what God has made rough; but ringing out the truth fearlessly of men and devils, though it condemn the priest, the prophet, the king, and the potentate.

12-14. As the sun illuminates the material world, investing every substance with his light, which is reflected indiscriminately, thus rendering visible the material world; so the great Sun of righteousness transmits his light to all of his saints, which by them is reflected throughout the spiritual world. Hence, we are all walking luminaries in the providence of God, sent forth to irradiate the globe. “Therefore, he says, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon thee.” Regeneration is the glorious resurrection of the human soul from the dead, rising out of Satan’s dreary kingdom, where black darkness and death eternally reign; the soul sweeps into the kingdom of God, opening his eyes to contemplate the glorious light pouring on him from the effulgent Christ, revealing to him the splendors, mysteries, and beauties of the spiritual world, which he never saw before.

15. This verse, in harmony with the Bible, denominates the people walking straight into hell “foolish,” and those who travel the heavenly highway as “wise.”

16. “Buying in the opportunity, because the days are evil.” When bright den went into eclipse, Satan’s reign of darkness, sin, and death sadly supervened. It has swept along like a desolating avalanche, nearly six thousand years, during which the “saved are few;” only here and there a traveler on the King’s highway, while the pell-mell multitudes rush at racehorse speed into hell. Therefore, it stands us in hand wisely to snatch every fleeting moment, thus “buying in the opportunity” to rescue the perishing.

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William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. Be ye angry, and sin not. Quoted from Psalm 4:4, Septuagint Version. Do not sin through anger is the thought. If circumstances arouse your indignation, do not be led astray. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Let there be no long continuance of your wrathful mind.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

26. ὀργὴ is forbidden absolutely in Eph 4:31 in the sense of personal outburst of passion. There is good reason therefore for taking this verse as referring to ‘righteous indignation’; cf. Jas 1:19 βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν. For the anger here is regarded as inevitable and right, though needing to be kept in strict restraint. Indeed the obligation to speak truth involves at times the saying of hard things.

ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε is taken from LXX. of Psa 4:4, and is apparently an accurate translation of a difficult phrase. The section Mat 5:22 ff. may have the same meaning, esp. with the omission of εἰκῇ. ἔνοχος τῇ κρίσει simply asserts that every one who is angry will have to give an account. It does not say that he will necessarily be condemned.

ὁ ἥλιος μὴ ἐπιδυέτω ἐπὶ παροργισμῷ ὑμῶν. παροργισμὸς seems to be used more of provocation given than of offence taken. In that case the injunction would suggest consideration of the feelings of others rather than watchfulness over our own. The duty would be to seek reconciliation with any whom we have irritated, before sunset. Certainly that method of approaching the matter would leave the least room for the devil to get a lodging within the community for the destruction of its peace. It would also correspond most closely the interesting Pythagorean precedent quoted by Wetstein: εἶτα μιμεῖσθαι τοὺς Πυθαγορικοὺς οἱ γένει μηθὲν προσήκοντες, ἀλλὰ κοινοῦ λόγου μετέχοντες, εἴποτε προσαχθεῖεν εἰς λοιδορίας ὑπʼ ὀργῆς, πρὶν ἢ τὸν ἥλιον δῦναι τὰς δεξιὰς ἐμβάλλοντες ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι διελύοντο, Plut. De Am. Frat. 488 B.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26.] Be ye angry and sin not (citation: see ref. Psa.: and that from the LXX, not from the Hebrew, which (see Hupfeld on the Psalms in loc.) means ‘tremble (‘stand in awe,’ E. V.) and sin not.’ The first imperative, although jussive, is so in a weaker degree than the other: it is rather assumptive, than permissive.

‘Be angry (if it must be so):’ as if he had said, 1Co 7:31, χράσθε τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ (for that must be), καὶ μὴ καταχρᾶσθε. As Chr., εἴ τις ἐμπέσοι ποτὲ εἰς τὸ πάθος, ἀλλὰ μὴ εἰς τοσοῦτον. Thus Tholuck’s question, Bergpred., p. 186, is answered:—“If Paul speaks of culpable anger, how can he distinguish sinning from being angry? If of allowable anger, how can he expect not to retain it over the night?”—the answer being, that he speaks of anger which is an infirmity, but by being cherished, may become a sin): let the sun not set upon (so Thuc. has, νὺξ ἐπεγένετο τῷ ἔργῳ) your irritation (i.e. set to your wrath with a brother (in every case: the omission of the art. gives the sense ‘upon any παροργισμός’) a speedy limit, and indeed that one which nature prescribes—the solemn season when you part from that brother to meet again perhaps in eternity. The Commentators quote from Plut. de am. frat., p. 488 b, a custom of the Pythagoreans, εἴποτε προσαχθεῖεν εἰς λοιδορίας ὑπʼ ὀργῆς, πρὶν ἢ τὸν ἥλιον δῦναι, τὰς δεξιὰς ἐμβάλλοντες ἀλλήλοις κ. ἀσπασάμενοι διελύοστο.

παροργισμός is a late word, apparently not found beyond the N. T. and LXX: the verb -ίζω occurs ch. 6:4, where see note. The παρ- implies, irritation on occasion given, as in παρορμάω, παροξύνω),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε. These words are a quotation from Psa 4:5 (EV. 4), LXX., “Stand in awe, and sin not.” But expositors so diverse in their views as Hitzig and Delitzsch agree with the rendering of the LXX. The Hebrew verb primarily means “to tremble,” and unless it were followed by “before me,” or the like, could not mean definitely “stand in awe.” It occurs in Pro 29:9 and Isa 28:21 in the sense “to be angry.” It is, however, superfluous, as far as the present passage is concerned, to inquire what the meaning of the original is. St. Paul is not arguing from the words, but adopting them as well known, and as expressing the precept he wishes to inculcate. The sense here is sufficiently intelligible, “ita irascamini ut ne peccetis.” The key is Bengel’s remark, “saepe vis modi cadit super partem duntaxat sermonis.” Thus Mat 11:25, “I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things,” etc.; Rom 6:17, “Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin, but,” etc. Had St. Paul not been quoting from the O.T., he would probably have expressed himself differently, e.g. ὀργιζόμενοι μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε, or the like. The phrase is frequently explained by reference to what is called the Hebrew idiom (which is by no means peculiarly Hebrew) of combining two imperatives, so that the former expresses the condition, the latter the result, as in Amo 5:4, “Seek Me and live.” But this would make the words mean, “Be angry, and so ye shall not sin.” Olshausen takes the first imperative hypothetically, “If ye are angry, as it is to be foreseen that it will happen, do not sin in anger.” For, he says, “man’s anger is never in itself just and permissible.” God’s alone is holy and just. This is fallacious, for anger is only in a figure attributed to God, and would not be so if all human anger were wrong. Besides, such a meaning would require ἀλλά, or the like, instead of καί. Indeed, no one acquainted with Butler’s classical discourse on Resentment would accept Olshausen’s statement. Apart from sudden (or instinctive) anger, which was intended to prevent sudden harm, deliberate anger is lawfully aroused by injustice. “It is in us connected with a sense of virtue and vice, and in the form of indignation on behalf of others is one of the common bonds by which society is held together” (cf. Rom 13:4). Nor can the fact that the injury is done to ourselves make it unlawful. It becomes so when indulged where no injustice was intended, or when it is out of proportion, or when harm is inflicted merely to gratify it. Our Lord was angry, Mar 3:5. Beza, Grotius, and others have taken ὀργίζεσθε interrogatively, which is inconsistent with its being a quotation.

ὁ ἥλιος μὴ ἐπιδυέτω ἐπὶ παροργισμῶσͅ ὑμῶν.

τῷ is added before παροργισμῷ in Rec., with most MSS. and Fathers, but is absent from א* A B. Alford thinks it may have been omitted to give indefiniteness. But it is much more likely to have been added for grammatical reasons.

Παροργισμός is not found in profane authors; it occurs several times in the LXX., but usually of the sins by which Israel “provoked” the Lord, e.g. 1Ki 15:30. In Jer 21:5, in Cod. Alex., it occurs in the sense “anger.” The verb is found (in the passive) in Demosth. 805. 19; in the active, in this Epistle, 6:4. παροργισμός appears to be distinguished from ὀργή as implying a less permanent state, “irritation.”

There is no reason to suppose a reference to the night as tending to nourish anger (“affectus noctu retentus alte insidet,” Bengel after Chrys.). The precept simply means, as Estius observes, “let the day of your anger be the day of your reconciliation,” for the new day began at sunset. The Pythagoreans, as Plutarch informs us, observed the same rule, εἴποτε προσαχθεῖεν εἰς λοιδορίας ὑπ῾ ὀργῆς, πρὶν ἢ τὸν ἥλιον δῦναι, τὰς δεξίας ἐμβάλλοντες ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι διελύοντο (Plut. De Am. Frat. 488 B). Eadie quotes a quaint comment from Fuller, “Let us take the apostle’s meaning rather than his words—with all possible speed to depose our passion, not understanding him so literally that we may take leave to be angry till sunset, then might our wrath lengthen with the days; and men in Greenland, where days last above a quarter of a year, have plentiful scope of revenge.”

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be ye angry and sin not [οργιζεσθε και μη αμαρτανετε] . Cited from Psa 4:5, after the Septuagint. Hebrew, stand in awe and sin not. Righteous anger is commanded, not merely permitted.

Wrath [παροργισμω] Irritation, exasperation; something not so enduring as ojrgh anger, which denotes a deep - seated sentiment. See on Joh 3:36.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.