Thursday, October 10, 2013
Thankful For Sundown
This morning while drinking my coffee I was trying to work on my blog and was having issues with the hosting service. For non-technical folks, the stuff wasn’t working. For me, I got angry. Once I worked through it I found that most of my frustration was caused by the way I was doing things. Imagine that. Perhaps none of you that read this have that happen, but I seem to get in my own way frequently. But it reminded me of a verse that says something about being angry and still not sinning, so I looked it up. I was surprised to find it in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4,
Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
I was surprised for a few reasons. The first was that in this chapter Paul talks about how the church is to be organized. There are to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (and Paul says these are separate gifts, not all in one person) and that they are there to build up the body of the Messiah, the believers. What was not there was anything about someone being in charge of someone, and I noticed no mention of “lead pastor” which is a common phrase today. Perhaps I will write more on that one day, but back to my point. In the midst of this chapter about building up the body was a warning about anger being okay, but not to let the day go by (sun go down) still holding on to that rage. In fact, it kind of implies that it would be sin to stay angry about something for more than a day.
That lead me to try to better understand the sin in this. I found a great bible verse, in fact the only bible verse that I know that clearly defines sin. John wrote about it in his first letter,
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
So sin is defined for us clearly in the scripture as transgression of the law. For those that read this that think the law is not for today, you get a bonus. If you are right, you are free to do anything because you cannot sin because there is no law. For those that believe we can still sin, then by definition here in scripture, the law is still for today. So if the law is for today, and sin is transgression of the law, then how is it that it would be sin to keep rage in our hearts after sundown? I suggest the answer is found in the new covenant and the teachings of Jesus (Yeshua). The new covenant, according to what is recorded when Paul quoted the prophet Jeremiah to the Hebrews, is the law written in our hearts,
Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Jesus (Yeshua) said in Matthew that what is in the heart is what comes out of our mouth.
Matthew 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Paul also addressed the heart and speaking in his letter to the Romans.
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
One last verse will tie this together, from Lamentations we read,
Lamentations 3:22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
If we get angry and let go, the law in our hearts, the new covenant, will allow us to continue to believe unto righteousness and speak wholeness (salvation). This fits with God’s cycle of giving us new mercies every morning. If instead we hold on to our rage overnight, that starts to become a part of our heart, displacing the law, the new covenant, and that will eventually come out of our mouth. Holding on to rage, to anger, especially as it relates to the body of believers growing to be more like the Messiah (Ephesians 4) is just plain not good.
I am so glad that God set the signs in the sky, like the sun, to remind me every day to let go and give things to God to resolve. With that in mind, you just got to love the sundown!
Prayer
Father, thank You for Your cycles that point us to Your ways. Thank You for providing us with a way to get to wholeness every day. Thank You for today’s mercies because we really need them. Thank You for the sundown. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.