The New Self at Home Among Neighbors

When I wrote "be angry and do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26), I did not forbid all anger — I set a fence around it: do not let the sun go down on it, do not give it a night to fester and become a lodging place for the devil. And the word I chose for "corrupting talk" (Ephesians 4:29) is the word for rotten fruit, spoiled fish — speech that stinks and spreads decay. Set against it is speech that builds a house up, that gives grace to those who hear. And "grieve" (Ephesians 4:30) — mark it — the Holy Spirit is a person who can be wounded, not a force. Your bitterness pains Someone who loves you.

I have laid this same thread down elsewhere. Put away falsehood and speak truth, for we belong to one another (Colossians 3:9). Let no bitterness or wrath master you, but forgive as you have been forgiven (Colossians 3:13). And on stealing turned to honest labor — I told the idle to work quietly and eat their own bread (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12), for the hands God gave you are meant to give, not to grasp.

These were Gentiles, newly washed, drawn out of a world where lying, theft, and coarse talk were simply the air they breathed. I was teaching them that conversion is not a feeling but a change of the whole life — the thief becomes a giver, the liar a truth-teller. And I wrote it as a prisoner (Ephesians 3:1), chained yet urging them to walk worthy — for I had learned that a man's tongue and temper preach louder than his creed.

You may ask: how can Paul command me not to be angry until sundown, when my anger rises on its own and will not obey a clock? Hear me — I did not command you never to feel it, but never to keep it. Anger visiting is not sin; anger housed becomes one. The command is not on the feeling but on the will: refuse it a bed. Go back and read it — "do not let the sun go down" (Ephesians 4:26) — and forgive before the light fails, as you were forgiven in Christ (Ephesians 4:32).