{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4307","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":26,"verse_to":26},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: Be ye therefore righteous judges, peacemakers, and without anger. For \"he that is angry with his brother without a cause is obnoxious to the judgment.\" But if it happens that by any one's contrivance you are angry at anybody, \"let not the sun go down upon your wrath; \" for says David, \"Be angry and sin not; \" that is, be soon reconciled, lest your wrath continue so long that it turn to a settled hatred, and work sin. \"For the souls of those that bear a settled hatred are to death,\" says Solomon. But our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ says in the Gospels: \"If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift to God.\" Now the gift to God is every one's prayer and thanksgiving. If, therefore, thou hast anything against thy brother, or he has anything against thee, neither will thy prayers be heard, nor will thy thanksgivings be accepted, by reason of that hidden anger.<br/><i>— Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 2</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: However, both the laws served the Word for the instruction of humanity, both that given by Moses and that by the apostles. What, therefore, is the nature of the training by the apostles, appears to me to require to be treated of. Under this head, I, or rather the Instructor by me, will recount; and I shall again set before you the precepts themselves, as it were in the germ.</p><p>\"Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ hath forgiven you. Be therefore wise, followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.\"...<br/><i>— The Instructor Book 3</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: That anger must be overcome, lest it constrain us to sin. In Solomon in the Proverbs: \"Better is a patient man than a strong man; for he who restrains his anger is better than he who taketh a city.\" Also in the same place: \"The imprudent man declareth his anger on the same day, but the crafty man hideth away his dishonour.\" Of this same thing to the Ephesians: \"Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun set upon your wrath.\" Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: \"Ye have heard that it was said by the ancients, Thou shalt not kill; and whoever shall kill shall be guilty of the judgment. But I say unto you, That every one who is angry with his brother without cause shall be guilty of the judgment.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: One of the brothers asked Isidore, the priest of Scetis, 'Why are the demons so afraid of you?' He said, 'Ever since I became a monk, I have been trying not to let anger rise as far as my mouth.'</p><p>He said also that though he felt impulses towards the sins of concupiscence or of anger, he had not consented to them for forty years.<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: Macarius said also, 'If you are stirred to anger when you want to reprove someone, you are gratifying your own passions. Do not lose yourself in order to save another.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: [Syncletica] said, ' \"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath\" (Eph. 4:26). Likewise, if you wait until the sun is going down on your life, you will not know how to say, \"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof\" (Matt. 6:34). Why do you hate the man who has harmed you? It is not he who has harmed you but the devil. You ought to hate the sickness, not the sick man.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: But in his first steps he will be gentle, loveable, quiet, pious, pacific, hating injustice, detesting gifts, not allowing idolatry; loving, says he, the Scriptures, reverencing priests, honouring his elders, repudiating fornication, detesting adultery, giving no heed to slanders, not admitting oaths, kind to strangers, kind to the poor, compassionate. And then he will work wonders, cleansing lepers, raising paralytics, expelling demons, proclaiming things remote just as things present, raising the dead, helping widows, defending orphans, loving all, reconciling in love men who contend, and saying to such, \"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath;\" and he will not acquire gold, nor love silver, nor seek riches.<br/><i>— Dubious and Spurious Pieces</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: This is taken from the fourth psalm, as I am sure no one doubts. It may seem contrary to what is said of anger elsewhere, that we must put away all anger. … It is an oversimplified interpretation that does harm, especially when people imagine that the constraints against anger are being here relaxed. It is not only among us but among philosophers too that anger is spoken of in a double sense. Anger emerges first when we are understandably aroused by a natural stimulus after being wounded by an injury. Or it arises when, after the impulse has abated and our rage has been restrained, the mind is capable of judgment but nonetheless we find ourselves desiring vengeance upon the one who is thought to have inflicted the wound. In this [verse] Paul is speaking of the first kind of anger. He is allowing to us as vulnerable humans that in the face of some undeserved event we may be moved to some level of annoyance, as if a light breeze were disturbing the serenity of the mind. But on no account are we to be carried into swelling rapids by the impulse of rage.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 4:26</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Observe his wisdom. He both speaks to prevent our sinning, and, if we do not listen, still does not forsake us; for his fatherly compassion does not desert him. For just as the physician prescribes to the sick what he must do, and if he does not submit to it, still does not treat him with contempt, but proceeding to add what advice he can by persuasion, again goes on with the cure; so also does Paul. For he indeed who does otherwise, aims only at reputation, and is annoyed at being disregarded; whereas he who on all occasions aims at the recovery of the patient, has this single object in view, how he may restore the patient, and raise him up again. This then is what Paul is doing. He has said, \"Lie not.\" Yet if ever lying should produce anger, he goes on again to cure this also. For what saith he? \"Be ye angry, and sin not.\" It were good indeed never to be angry. Yet if ever any one should fall into passion, still let him not fall into so great a degree. \"For let not the sun,\" saith he, \"go down upon your wrath.\" Wouldest thou have thy fill of anger? One hour, or two, or three, is enough for thee; let not the sun depart, and leave you both at enmity. It was of God's goodness that he rose: let him not depart, having shone on unworthy men. For if the Lord of His great goodness sent him, and hath Himself forgiven thee thy sins, and yet thou forgivest not thy neighbor, look, how great an evil is this! And there is yet another besides this. The blessed Paul dreads the night, lest overtaking in solitude him that was wronged, still burning with anger, it should again kindle up the fire. For as long as there are many things in the daytime to banish it, thou art free to indulge it; but as soon as ever the evening comes on, be reconciled, extinguish the evil whilst it is yet fresh; for should night overtake it, the morrow will not avail to extinguish the further evil which will have been collected in the night. Nay, even though thou shouldest cut off the greater portion, and yet not be able to cut off the whole, it will again supply from what is left for the following night, to make the blaze more violent. And just as, should the sun be unable by the heat of the day to soften and disperse that part of the air which has been during the night condensed into cloud, it affords material for a tempest, night overtaking the remainder, and feeding it again with fresh vapors: so also is it in the case of anger.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 14</i></p><p><b>Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius</b>: But because I had said that the anger of God is not for a time only, as is the case with man, who becomes inflamed with an immediate excitement, and on account of his frailty is unable easily to govern himself, we ought to understand that because God is eternal, His anger also remains to eternity; but, on the other hand, that because He is endued with the greatest excellence, He controls His anger, and is not ruled by it, but that He regulates it according to His will. And it is plain that this is not opposed to that which has just been said. For if His anger had been altogether immortal, there would be no place after a fault for satisfaction or kind feeling, though He Himself commands men to be reconciled before the setting of the sun. But the divine anger remains for ever against those who ever sin. Therefore God is appeased not by incense or a victim, not by costly offerings, which things are all corruptible, but by a reformation of the morals: and he who ceases to sin renders the anger of God mortal.<br/><i>— A Treatise on the Anger of God, Chapter XXI</i></p><p><b>Polycarp of Smyrna</b>: For I trust that ye are well versed in the Sacred Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not yet granted. It is declared then in these Scriptures, \"Be ye angry, and sin not,\" and, \"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.\" Happy is he who remembers this, which I believe to be the case with you. But may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Son of God, and our everlasting High Priest, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, forbearance, and purity; and may He bestow on you a lot and portion among His saints, and on us with you, and on all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His Father, who \"raised Him from the dead.\" Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings, and potentates, and princes, and for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest to all, and that ye may be perfect in Him.<br/><i>— Epistle to the Philippians 12</i></p><p><b>Shepherd of Hermas</b>: For he is choked by the vile spirit, and cannot attend on the Lord as he wishes, for anger pollutes him. For the Lord dwells in long-suffering, but the devil in anger.<br/><i>— Shepherd of Hermas, Commandment 5</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Learn then now, that His is a spiritual armour and warfare, since you have already discovered that the captivity is spiritual, in order that you may further learn that this also belongs to Him, even because the apostle derived the mention of the captivity from the same prophets as suggested to him his precepts likewise: \"Putting away lying,\" (says he, ) \"speak every man truth with his neighbour; \" and again, using the very words in which the Psalm expresses his meaning, (he says, ) \"Be ye angry, and sin not; \" \"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Ever if we must be angry, our anger must not be maintained beyond sunset, as the apostle admonishes. But how rash is it either to pass a day without prayer, while you refuse to make satisfaction to your brother; or else, by perseverance in anger, to lose your prayer?<br/><i>— On Prayer</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: If \"the sun go down over our wrath,\" we are in jeopardy: we are not allowed to remain one day without patience.<br/><i>— Of Patience</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And (a right distinction it was); for John has here sanctioned it; in that there are some sins of daily committal, to which we all are liable: for who will be free from the accident of either being angry unjustly, and retaining his anger beyond sunset; or else even using manual violence or else carelessly speaking evil; or else rashly swearing; or else forfeiting his plighted word or else lying, from bashfulness or \"necessity? \"In businesses, in official duties, in trade, in food, in sight, in hearing, by how great temptations are we plied! So that, if there were no pardon for such sins as these, salvation would be unattainable to any.<br/><i>— On Modesty</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"2840e3d9beaa267d7366e81aa38ef82d85cce87c2e75d82b30467c37304a69e2","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4307,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"872678123a74953612d5874881e3ac5f0021387672316806f314704c93a61c73","translator":null,"work":null}