Giving the Devil a Place
“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26-27)
Anger is a passion, one of the spontaneous and impulsive snap reactions that we all experience as human beings. Someone crosses us, someone deprives us of something that we want or love, and our snap reaction is anger. And other passions operate similarly — whether fear or desire or pity or grief. When a good thing is presented to us, we desire it. When the possibility of a bad thing lies before us, we fear it. When the bad thing arrives, we grieve over it. When the bad thing happens to someone else, we pity them.
The first thing to notice is that passions can be godly or ungodly. For example, we distinguish between righteous anger (Jesus in Mark 3:5) and sinful anger (Cain in Genesis 4:5), and lawful sexual desire (Song of Solomon 7:10) and unlawful sexual desire (Romans 1:25), and holy fear (1 Peter 2:17) and unholy fear (Isaiah 8:12), unrighteous pity (Deuteronomy 13:8) and godly compassion (Ephesians 4:32). Paul explicitly distinguishes godly grief leading to repentance and life and worldly grief leading to death (2 Corinthians 7:10).
And so we can echo Paul here: in your anger and frustration, do not sin. In your fear and anxiety, do not sin. In your desire, do not sin. In your pity, do not sin. In your grief, do not sin.
So passions are good, but dangerous. They are good, because they are part of the way that God has made us as humans, but they are dangerous because they can overpower our minds and run our lives. Passions are short-sighted, often focused on the immediate good or evil in front of us, and they blind us to ultimate goods and evils. Passions must be tethered to what is true and governed by what is ultimately good. When they aren’t, passions wage war against our soul.
That’s the point of the second exhortation: don’t let the sun go down on your anger (or your fear or your desire or your pity or your grief). In other words, don’t let your passions run your life from morning until evening. Don’t stew in your passions, such that reasonable fear becomes sinful anxiety, or that healthy desire becomes coveting, or that your pity and grief become destructive. Letting the sun go down on your passion means that your passions are coming to govern and define you; they are fundamentally in charge and you are incapable of setting them aside in order to sleep and rest in God’s provision and grace.
And when they dominate you, you are giving an opportunity to the devil. The devil loves to exploit our passions. Emotions, untethered from what we know to be good and true, give the devil a place; they give him a foothold in our lives, that, left unchecked, becomes a stronghold.
And so feel your emotions, but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your passions, whether ungodly anger or sinful anxiety or overpowering desire or worldly grief or untethered pity. And don’t give the devil a foothold.
This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.
Prayer
Our Father and God, we live among people that are enslaved to passions, that give full vent to their emotions, and that are governed by their feelings. Our snap reactions, desires, and passions are in the driver’s seat and they take us where they want to go. We have cut ourselves off from reality, from truth, and from our ultimate good, from Christ. As a result, the devil has erected a stronghold among us, and blinds us by our own feelings and passions so that we do and celebrate what is wicked. This is a great evil.
Father, we confess that, as your people, we too are often governed by our passions. We simmer in frustration until it becomes grumbling and bitterness. Fear and anxiety grab us by the throat and run our lives. We stew in desire until it becomes covetousness, envy, and lust. We wallow in pity (of ourselves and others) until we believe lies that coddle our self-image. Have mercy on us, O God, for we are miserable offenders.
We know that if we in the church regard sin in our own hearts, our prayers will be ineffectual, so we confess our individual sins to you now.
Father, we thank you that you hear our pleas for mercy, and you lavish us with grace. Create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us. Restore to us the joy of our salvation and uphold us with a willing spirit. Through Christ we pray, Amen.