In Ephesians chapter 4, we have a command that says, “Be angry, and yet do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). What it means is, the type of anger you should have in your life is an anger that is not sinful. So when Jesus raised the bar from the Old Testament standard of, “Do not murder,” to, “Do not be angry,” we need to understand what is the right type of anger and what is the wrong type of anger.
Whenever we do not understand a verse correctly we must look at our spiritual dictionary: the Word made flesh - the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus called Himself the light of the world and it says of Him, “In Him was life, and that life was the Light of men” (John 1:4). The life of Jesus Christ our Lord is the light that explains every verse in Scripture. So when we read, “Be angry, and yet do not sin” and we are trying to distinguish between an anger that is sinful and an anger that is not sinful, we’ve got to look at the Light that is in the life of Jesus.
When was Jesus angry and when was He not angry? We read in Mark 3:1-5 that when Jesus was in a synagogue, He looked around with anger at people who were trying to hinder a man with a withered hand from being healed. He was angry when the Pharisees, who were more concerned about keeping the ritual of the Sabbath than healing a paralyzed man. This is the right type of anger – anger towards religious leaders and religious people who are more interested in ritual than in people and more interested in keeping certain rituals than delivering paralyzed people.
Today the paralysis is found among Christians who are defeated by sin, and when we have religious people who are more interested to make sure that the people pay their tithes more than that they are free from sin. They are in the same category as the Pharisees who would not allow the man with a withered hand to be healed and were more interested in people paying their tithes and keeping the Sabbath. There are a lot of preachers and pastors like that today, who are not interested in delivering their flock from the power of sin in their life, but rather are more interested in ensuring that they pay their tithes. Jesus would look at such people with anger today because He did not come to earth to make people pay their tithes; He came to save people from their sins. He did not die on the cross to get people to pay their tithes; He died on the cross to deliver us from our sins.
Our Savior’s name is Jesus and He came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). When people hinder others from being saved from their sins and say, “Don't go and listen to this person because he is preaching victory over sin, but keep listening to me because I tell you how to pay your tithes,” we must be sure that Jesus would be angry with such people. And if you are in fellowship with Jesus Christ, as a servant of God you must also be angry with such people, who hinder others from being delivered.
Another example when Jesus was angry is in John 2 when Jesus went into the temple and drove the money changers out of the temple. It says that He made a whip and turned over the tables of the money changers and said, “Take these things away!” He was really angry and the disciples remembered the word that said, “Zeal for Your house has consumed Me” (John 2:15-17). Zeal for the purity of God's house should make us angry when we see people making money in the name of religion or in the name of Christ and exploiting poor people just like the sellers of doves and sheep exploited the poor people saying, “We will sell you these sheep and doves for your sacrifice but of course it’s going to cost you a little more than out in the market because we have to get our commission.”
When was Jesus not angry? One example is when He was called Beelzebub (prince of devils) (Matthew 12:22-24).). This occurred when Jesus cast out a demon from a man who was deaf and dumb. The multitude saw that, were excited, and began to say, “This is the Son of David. Look what a wonderful miracle He has done and set this man free!” But the Pharisees were jealous and they immediately said, “This man is casting out demons by the ruler of demons” (Matthew 12:24). They were calling Jesus, Satan. Imagine if somebody called you Satan when you are serving the Lord. But Jesus responded saying, “I am just a Son of a man, I am just an ordinary Man. If you have spoken against Me, you are forgiven; but be careful that you do not speak against the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 12:32).
He wasn't angry when people called Him the devil. He said, “It is alright if you speak against me, I am just the Son of a man. You are forgiven.” He was Almighty God when they called Him the devil, and He wasn't upset. He forgave them. A true Christian will never be upset with people calling him bad names, calling him a devil, pig, dog or whatever. It doesn’t make a difference. If he is Christlike, he will forgive them and not get angry. He won't even retain any bitterness or anger against the people who called him those names.
Very few Christians want to be like Jesus Christ, but they all want to go to heaven when they die. Every Christian wants to go to heaven when he dies, but how many of them want to live like Jesus Christ on this earth before they go to heaven? Very few. That's the problem. Many of these folks are not really Christians. They are Christian by name because they were born in a Christian family, but they have not surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their life and therefore as far as God is concerned, they are not Christians. They are going to get a big surprise when Christ comes again and they discover they were not Christians at all, because you cannot be a Christian by being born into a Christian family. You have to make a personal choice.
This is so important for us to understand. This is the meaning of Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry, and yet do not sin.” And then five verses later in Ephesians 4:31 it says, “Put away all anger.” The two verses look contradictory, where in one place it says, “Be angry but don't sin,” and in another place it says, “Put away all anger.” What anger should we put away? Anger that is selfish, self-centered, and sinful. What is the anger that we should have? That which is God-centered, which concerns the glory of God's name. We should be burdened that God's name is not being honored on the earth today.
