Today, 25 september 2017

As a rule, the beginning of this verse draws our attention. How can one be angry – and not sin, if the Lord Himself likened anger to the violation of the sixth command...

As a rule, the beginning of this verse draws our attention. How can one be angry – and not sin, if the Lord Himself likened anger to the violation of the sixth command of Moses "Thou shall not kill"? And in the same chapter of the epistle to Ephesians, Paul named anger among the defects, which must be put away from us. But is the Holy Scripture not speaking so often about the anger of God, and Jesus also is not foreign to anger! (See Mk 3:5).

The possible resolution of the problem can be James 1:20, where the human anger is set against God's truth. Thus there are two various angers: sinful human anger and the righteous Divine anger. Sin is the object of the righteous anger, the object of the sinful anger - the sinner. So, we can understand the first half of the verse like this: either you sin with anger, either be angry not of a sinful anger (which is not on the sinner, but on sin).

But the second half of the verse summarizes in both cases - "let not the sun go down upon your wrath". You should not come to standstill "in anger, it is necessary to bring it {anger} before God’s Face so that He annihilates it as our sin or accepts it in His righteous anger, and fills us with His mercy.