Anger is more common that we usually like to admit. There’s anger in our world, and there’s anger in our own hearts. Anger exists because things are wrong. And there’s a lot of things that are wrong, both in the world and in our hearts. Sometimes we’re angry on behalf of other people who have been hurt. Sometimes we’re angry because people have hurt us. Sometimes we’re angry because of our own selfish, uncontrolled desires. Often, it’s a mixture of all of these things. Some anger is perfectly understandable: it’s a right response to the wrongs we see and experience. Some anger is devastatingly obvious: rage and violence in full view of the world. Some anger is insidiously destructive, hidden from public view but unleashed in the privacy of our homes and relationships. Some anger never gets expressed, but simmers forever, steadily releasing a poison that turns our hearts bitter and drains our relationships of love and joy. In these verses in Ephesians, the apostle Paul talks about anger and what to do with it. “Be angry…”, he says. Whether our anger is right or wrong, we can’t deny it’s there. But Paul isn’t simply commanding believers to get angry. Paul is talking here about what to do with our anger. Be angry and don’t sin. Don’t let the sun set on your provocation and so give a place to the devil.Ephesians 4:26–27 Anger, sin, and God’s grace What Paul says here about anger needs to be understood in light of what’s he’s already said in the rest of his letter. He isn’t simply giving a moral rule or a tip for living well. He’s talking to people who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he’s showing them what it means to live in light of that gospel. What Paul says here about anger is an example of what it means to be renewed by God’s Holy Spirit, putting on the “new humanity” that Jesus Christ has won for us (see Ephesians 4:22–24). The truth about Christ and what he has done for us undergirds everything Paul says here, and gives us the power to put it into practice. This isn’t the first time Paul has mentioned anger in Ephesians. Back in chapter 2, he mentioned another kind of anger: God’s righteous anger (or “wrath”) against all of us human beings, who have gone our own way, done wrong, and followed our own desires and the ways of the world and the devil (Ephesians 2:3). In many ways, the gospel is a message about what God has done with his own holy anger. Out of his own great love, God has sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world. Christ has willingly taken God’s wrath on himself, dying on the cross so that our sins can be forgiven. Jesus has risen from the dead, and we have been raised to life with him. So we are saved by God’s grace. Left to ourselves, we would only be facing God’s wrath. By God’s grace, we are facing God’s riches of glory: life, love, certain hope, and a future with him forever. Through God’s grace, we are a new humanity, created by God to live for him and do good works. And so the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit at work in us gives us the motivation and the power to do these good works.