Couldn’t Stand the Weather

Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,  Ephesians 4:26  NASB

Angry – At last we’ve returned to the citation in Psalm 4:4 (26 October 2025).  Now we’ll have to look at the Greek background of Paul’s vocabulary and then determine how his rabbinic orientation modifies the term.

First, we need to know something about this verb, orgízō.  It’s a passive, so that means the actor acts upon himself.  We would translate it as “to become angry, to make yourself angry.”  The root is orgḗ, “which denotes ‘upsurging’ (of sap or vigor), comes to be used for ‘impulsive nature.’ This is a tragic element in drama, since it inclines people to decisive acts. A demonic excess of will combines with fate to bring disaster. . . A second and resultant meaning is ‘anger’ as the most striking manifestation of impulsive passion. Unlike thymós, a complementary term, orgḗ is especially oriented to revenge or punishment. Thus it is applied to rulers who must avenge injustice.”^[1]

But, as is usually the case, Jewish Greek of the LXX makes some changes:

While the same terms may denote divine and human wrath, there are important material differences in the two cases. The objects of human wrath are usually individuals, groups, nations, or their rulers. The wrath of other nations is a threat to Israel (Am. 1:11), but puny in face of God’s protection (Is. 7:4). Human wrath is directed mostly against other people, and it is justified when not concerned only with self-interest (cf. 2 Sam. 12:5; Neh. 5:6). This is especially true when the cause of God is championed (cf. Moses in Ex. 16:20; Lev. 10:16, Elijah in 2 Kgs. 13:19, Elihu in Job 32:2, and Jeremiah in Jer. 6:11). Yet human anger may also be self-interested (e.g., Cain in Gen. 4:5, Esau in 27:44–45, Balak in Num. 24:10, Saul in 1 Sam. 20:30, Potiphar in Gen. 39:19). . . No real explanation can be given for God’s opposition to David’s census (1 Sam. 24) or for the sufferings inflicted on Job or the righteous of the Psalms. It seems as though we have here an incalculable factor that borders on the arbitrary. Yet at other times the reasons for wrath are plain.”^[2]

Paul isn’t writing about impulsive vengeance.  He’s writing about the kind of “anger” God demonstrates over sin.  It might be violent (we need to distinguish “wrath” from “anger”) but it is always righteous.  We have the phrase “righteous indignation.”  That’s pretty close.  It’s righteous indignation over everything that stands in opposition to God’s intentions. Paul is asking his readers to feel the same feelings that overwhelmed the prophets, and once felt, act as God would act.  “Yet do not sin” makes perfect sense when we remember that “sin” is missing the mark.  Righteous indignation aims at the center of God’s will.  It doesn’t miss what matters to God.  Stählin notes:

In most instances it undoubtedly denotes the divine work of judgment, yet God’s serious displeasure at evil is also implied (cf. Rom. 1:18; Rev. 6:16; Heb. 3:11).

In the NT, as in the OT, love and wrath are not mutually exclusive in God. It is by wrath that the greatness of mercy is measured, and by mercy the greatness of wrath. Where love is confronted by ungodly resistance, it has the form of wrath (cf. Mk. 3:5; Mt. 18:34). Those who accept mercy are freed from wrath, those who despise mercy remain under it^[3]

Finally, Paul adds a measuring stick.  Don’t carry it over to the next day.  He uses a Greek term that has the same root as “to be angry” (parorgismós), adding the prefix that means “against” or “before.”  In other words, remember the temporal modifier.  Righteousness starts new each day—for us and for God.  Thankfully.

Topical Index: parorgismós, orgízō, anger, sin, vengeance, Ephesians 4:26

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 716). W.B. Eerdmans.

^[2] Ibid., p. 719.

^[3] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 723). W.B. Eerdmans.