Sunday, December 22, 2024
BibleTeaching

Be angry and stay angry!

How about a little Bible study?

Andrew Wommack teaches that the verse “don’t let the sun go down on your wrath” does not mean always settle your arguments before sunset. It actually means that we should never let our anger come to an end. We are to be angry and sin not, always, constantly angry and at war with our enemy. We hate him. We fight him. We destroy the works of the enemy.

We are called to destroy the works of the enemy.

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

Eph 4:26: This has been one of the most misapplied scriptures in the Bible. This verse is commonly quoted to say that the Lord knows we are just human and that we will get angry from time to time. He just asks us to settle all our disputes before the sun goes down each day. In other words, we can be angry if we don’t let it last longer than one day. That is not even close to what Paul was saying.

Paul was commanding us to have a righteous anger that is not sin. Jesus got angry without sinning, and we should too. We are commanded to hate evil (Ps 97:10, Pr 8:13, Am 5:15, and Ro 12:9). Paul was speaking of a good type of anger–an anger that is not directed at people but at evil. We need to keep this righteous type of anger stirred up. We can’t ever let it take a rest or go to sleep (“let not the sun go down upon your wrath”). We have to work at not being passive.

Eph 4:27 goes on to talk about not giving place to the devil. Being passive instead of angry at the devil gives place to him. We are supposed to resist, to actively fight against him, and this righteous anger is an important part of a violent attitude.

Mark 3:5: “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched [it] out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”

When we think of wrath or anger, we think in terms of a loss of control, a rage of helplessness, or just plain irritableness and bad temper. This is not true of God. His anger is the set of His nature against sin. Sin is evil and whatever witnesses against sin is good (Ro 12:9 and Eph 4:26-27).

We see that Jesus displayed anger and grief, two emotions that are usually associated with sin. Of course, Jesus was without sin (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb 4:15, and 1 Pet. 2:22), so it is easy to see that these emotions have their place when directed by God (Am. 5:15 and Rom. 12:9).

Psalm 97:10: “Hate evil, you who love the Lord,
Who preserves the souls of His godly ones;
He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Prov. 8:13: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverted mouth, I hate.”

Romans 12:9 “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”

SO HERE”S THE GOOD PART:
1 John 3:7-8: “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

John 12:31: “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

2 Cor. 4:4: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Eh 6:11-12: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

James 4:7: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Ephesians 6:15 says “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ” It’s interesting that in 1 Thes. 5:8 it says “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” A shield and a breastplate protect THE HEART. We are to protect our hearts, the most vulnerable part of our being, with faith and love.

You have permission to get angry! Angry at our enemy, not at people. It’s a fine line to walk, but it’s what we do as children of the King!