Anger – Ephesians 4:22-27 – November 16, 2025

You walk out of Walmart, Lowes, Tractor Supply, Dollar General (it doesn’t matter); you see a new scratch or dent on your car or truck. How do you feel? Joy, Peace, Anger?
Why do you feel the way you feel?

Ephesians 4:22-27
²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold.

In this chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells us “put off our old self and to put on our new self.”
Our “Old Self” was corrupted by deceitful desires.
When you are a Born Again Christian, our “New Self” is made new in the “attitudes of our minds.”
As Born Again Christians, we were created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Because we are a “New Creation.”

We are then told by the Apostle Paul in our anger, do not sin. David tells us likewise in Psalm 4:4.
We are also told to NOT allow the sun to go down while we are still angry. (Have you ever)?
By doing so, it says, we would be giving the devil a foothold in our lives. (A gateway)

How is it possible to be angry and “NOT” sin?

There are, in essence, two types of Anger.
1. Righteous Anger
2. Unrighteous Anger, or, Sinful Anger

Righteous Anger

Righteous Anger is when we become angry over the things that make God angry.
God is Righteous. His anger is a byproduct of His righteousness.
God’s Anger is referred to as “Righteous Indignation.”
This is a strong displeasure toward sin and injustice.
We too, can have a “Righteous Indignation” to sin and injustice.
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What does that mean?
God, by definition, is good in all of His ways. It is “who He is.”
So, what makes God angry is the perversion of his goodness; the turning wrong of what he made right.
God calls this perversion evil.
Evil twists and disfigures God’s glory, vandalizing what is most valuable, and profaning what is most holy.
Evil poisons and distorts reality, resulting in the destruction of joy for every creature that chooses the perversion over God’s good.
God’s righteousness demands his anger over such destructive perversion and that he mete out commensurate justice against those who commit such evil.
So our anger is righteous when we are angered over evil that profanes God’s holiness and perverts his goodness.
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How do we respond when it comes to “Righteous Anger”?
A Christian should respond to righteous anger by controlling it, channeling it into action for good, and submitting to God rather than acting as a judge.
This involves acknowledging the anger without letting it control you, examining its motivation to ensure it is focused on justice and not personal feelings, and directing it toward constructive action while also praying for forgiveness and surrendering vengeance to God.

Romans 12:19, Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Righteous anger doesn’t look or feel like sinful anger because godly righteous anger is governed and directed by love.
God is righteous, but he is also love, and, love is patient.
God repeatedly describes himself in Scripture as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”
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Jesus is our perfect example of love-governed anger in operation.
The day is coming when he will “tread [his enemies in] the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God” (Revelation 19:15–16).
But, before that, he came to bring salvation to his enemies (John 12:47; Romans 5:8). And when he came to save, he rarely expressed anger.
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Jesus became angry when he saw the hardness of people’s hearts toward God.
Jesus became angry when he saw what they were doing at the temple in the selling of doves for sacrifice.
Jesus’s anger was a “Righteous Anger.”

Unrighteous Anger / Sinful Anger

This is where “WE” fall most of the time.
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Caused by:
1. Disappointment (so many things can cause us to be disappointed). (Examples)
2. Frustration (repeated disappointment)
3. Pain or Hurt
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We are not inherently good but are born with a sinful nature, included within this sinful nature is evil.
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James tells us, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”
Our anger is more concerned with us than with God (James 1:20).

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We tend to get angrier over our slighted pride than over the marring of God’s glory.
We tend to get angrier over a minor inconvenience than a grievous injustice.
We are often self-righteously angry like the older brother over his prodigal sibling (Luke 15:28),
or selfishly angry like Jonah over the death of a plant while not caring about the welfare of 120,000 people (Jonah 4:9–11).
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Nothing positive comes from our Sinful Anger.
Our Sinful Anger produces “quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder” (2 Corinthians 12:20).
Our Sinful Anger produces “enmity, strife . . . fits of anger [i.e. tantrums], rivalries, dissensions, [and] divisions” (Galatians 5:20).
Our Sinful Anger is so common in us that we must be regularly reminded to put away “anger, wrath, [and] malice” (Colossians 3:8).
And that “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:22).
And to take it further from our reading in Ephesians 4, Paul instructs them not to grieve the Holy Spirit but to rid themselves of all bitterness, all rage, all anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice.

Our Sinful Anger is rooted in our prideful, sinful nature.
And we know the pride comes before the fall.
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Proverbs 20:22
Do not say, “I will avenge this evil!” Wait on the LORD, and He will save you.
1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

How do we, as Christians, curtail Sinful Anger?
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We must turn it over to God?
But how do we do that? How do we turn it over to God?

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Matthew 5

He said:
⁵Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
⁸Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
⁹Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
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We must Seek After God!
Matthew 6:33 As Christians, we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Hosea 10:12 for it is time to seek the Lord.
Jeremiah (29:13) said, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
TO SEEK AFTER GOD MEANS THAT WE ARE TO HAVE A HUNGER FOR GOD!

We must put on the “Full Armor of God” as we are instructed to in Ephesians 6.
Because our battle is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
As God’s Children, we must have:
**the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
**and our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
**In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
**Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
**And pray in the Spirit on all occasions

Close with a distinction between Righteous Anger and Unrighteous Anger, asking the church to commit to the Lord by turning it all over to the Lord.