Do Not Let the Sun Go Down on Your Anger: What Does Ephesians 4:26 Mean?

Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” King James Version (KJV)

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Do Not Let the Sun Go Down on Your Anger: Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

4:25-28 Notice the particulars wherewith we should adorn our Christian profession. Take heed of every thing contrary to truth. No longer flatter or deceive others. God’s people are children who will not lie, who dare not lie, who hate and abhor lying.

Take heed of anger and ungoverned passions. If there is just occasion to express displeasure at what is wrong, and to reprove, see that it be without sin. We give place to the devil, when the first motions of sin are not grievous to our souls; when we consent to them; and when we repeat an evil deed.

This teaches that as sin, if yielded unto, lets in the devil upon us, we are to resist it, keeping from all appearance of evil. Idleness makes thieves. Those who will not work, expose themselves to temptations to steal.

Men ought to be industrious, that they may do some good, and that they may be kept from temptation. They must labour, not only that they may live honestly, but that they may have to give to the wants of others.

What then must we think of those called Christians, who grow rich by fraud, oppression, and deceitful practices! Alms, to be accepted of God, must not be gained by unrighteousness and robbery, but by honesty and industry. God hates robbery for burnt-offerings.

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Ephesians 4:26 | Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. Be ye angry, and sin not—So the Septuagint, Ps 4:4. Should circumstances arise to call for anger on your part, let it be as Christ’s “anger” (Mr 3:5), without sin. Our natural feelings are not wrong when directed to their legitimate object, and when not exceeding due bounds.

As in the future literal, so in the present spiritual, resurrection, no essential constituent is annihilated, but all that is a perversion of the original design is removed. Thus indignation at dishonor done to God, and wrong to man, is justifiable anger.

Passion is sinful (derived from “passio,” suffering: implying that amidst seeming energy, a man is really passive, the slave of his anger, instead of ruling it).

let not the sun go down upon your wrath—”wrath” is absolutely forbidden; “anger” not so, though, like poison sometimes used as medicine, it is to be used with extreme caution.

The sense is not, Your anger shall not be imputed to you if you put it away before nightfall; but “let no wrath (that is, as the Greek, personal ‘irritation’ or ‘exasperation’) mingle with your ‘anger,’ even though, the latter be righteous, [Trench, Greek Synonyms of the New Testament].

“Put it away before sunset” (when the Jewish day began), is proverbial for put it away at once before another day begin (De 24:15); also before you part with your brother for the night, perhaps never in this world to meet again.

So Jona, “Let not night and anger against anyone sleep with you, but go and conciliate the other party, though he have been the first to commit the offense.” Let not your “anger” at another’s wickedness verge into hatred, or contempt, or revenge [Vatablus].

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