“But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.”
“anger”
“Anger” is a manifestation of our sin capacity. It is a dirty shirt that needs removal by confession.
Principle:
God wants us to deal with our surly disposition.
Application:
Some of us have a propensity toward a nasty temper. We are ornery, and everyone knows it. We may not like to face it, but it is true anyway. We cannot get along with our family or our colleagues at work. Everyone is wrong except us. The people at work know you have a low boiling point. They tease you into watching your angry response. They love to put burrs under your saddle. They especially love to see Christians lose their cool. They will do anything to exasperate you because they love to see you walk inconsistently with the Christian way of life. Then they say, “That hypocrite is no different from us.” Non-Christians do not understand the difference between the “new man” and the “old man” residing in the believer.
The place where we fail the most in anger is in the home. Our favorite verse is “Be you angry!” but that verse continues, “and sin not” (Eph. 4:26). If we are going to be angry, we can only be angry one day at a time. God does not want the sun to go down while we are still furious. We must deal with it quickly in a clean fashion. God does not want us to leave untidy anger lying around. If we are still angry at 10:00 a.m. the following day, we will develop a disposition of anger. We will probably be surly all day.
