Can People Ever Be Angry and Not Sin?

Ephesians 4:26 says, "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil."

People have used the first part of this verse to say that human beings can be angry without sinning, since Paul says "Be angry and do not sin." As if to say, "You can be angry, but do not go further and sin." Is this what Paul was saying?

First, we must see that Paul would never command a Christian to "be angry." This imperative is not a permissive imperative. It is a concessive imperative. It is saying, "If you must be angry, do not continue in sin." This goes along with what it says further down in Ephesians 4:31, which says, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." It does not differentiate between a good kind of anger and a bad kind of anger.

Second, we are not Jesus Christ. He was the only one to be angry and not sin. Sure, He overturned the tables of the moneychangers at the temple. But He was fulfilling the righteousness of God by doing something which was prophesied of the Messiah. He was fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy. Only God can have righteous anger. This is why James 1:19-20 points out the contrast between the anger of God and the anger of man, when it says, "Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

There are other Scripture verses in the New Testament that command us not to be angry. Jesus said in Matthew 5:22 that anyone who is angry is subject to God's judgment. Galatians 5:20 and Colossians 3:8 list anger as an attribute of the sinner. 1 Timothy 2:8 says that we should not pray with anger. Titus 1:7 says that anger is not an attribute of an elder of a church.

Anger is seen as a negative attribute in the Old Testament as well. Proverbs 15:1 says that anger is not something to be stirred up, but to be turned away. Proverbs 22:24 warns against making friends with a man prone to anger. Proverbs 29:8,11 and Ecclesiastes 7:9 describe anger as an attribute of fools.

There is no morally neutral ground. Either anger is a sinful emotion and thought, or it is a godly emotion and thought. So what do you think? Can anger ever be a good thing? Can human beings be angry without sinning?