“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
Last week we looked at the first five tests demonstrated in Samson’s life that people experience in life. This week we will look at the final five tests. While learning about these tests, I’d encourage you to take a look at your own life and do some investigation into your own soul about what ways you are capable of, like Samson, being a believer who self-destructs.
Test number six is the anger test. As we study the life of Samson, we see that he lives in a perpetual state of anger but not just any anger – hot anger. I like to joke that Samson’s emotional spectrum is asleep and hot anger. There’s no manifestation of love, joy, or peace in his life and, as a result, he becomes a dangerous and lonely man.
Now, I must add that anger is not always a sin. Jesus got angry. God gets angry. There is godly and righteous anger, but if you find yourself constantly angry, you’re not an emotionally healthy person. Unfortunately, the world in which we live is entirely designed to continually trigger people toward anger through things like social media and the news. You wake up in the morning, look at your phone and think, “What’s the rage of the day?” When a person lives in anger, he/she creates an environment of anxiety around him/her. That’s why Samson is so powerful, but he’s alone. He can go to war, but he goes to war alone.
This applies to both men and women, but this is especially important for the men to understand. As men, if we are angry, how do women and children feel around us? If we’re living in frequent anger, women and children feel unsafe. If a man can’t manage his anger, his wife and kids are in a very dangerous position. Men, your anger can cause a lot of anxiety and stress on your wife and kids. You need to be strong for your family but gentle with them.
Ephesians 4:26 says, “in your anger do not sin.” In a broken and fallen world, we are allowed to get angry, but we must recognize it and manage it in a healthy way that does not harm others around us. Looking at Samson’s life, he failed the anger test. What about you? Come back tomorrow as we discuss test number seven.
Take some time to reflect on a situation or time when you have become very angry. What caused it and how can you respond differently next time?
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