Picking up on the theme of putting away and putting on from verses 22-24, Paul again exhorts Christians to “put away the lie.” Many English translations miss the fact that the definite article in the Greek before pseudos (falsehood) is significant. We again point out that there are two messages, the lie and the truth. The lie is Satan’s message that we can sin and not die and the truth is the gospel. Since we are saved by the truth of the gospel, truth must characterize how we speak to one another. We must be committed to the truth and show it.

We also explain Paul’s command to “be angry and sin not.” This is a reference to Psalm 4:4. We are to be angry with sin but not in sin. This means we agree with God about how wicked sin is and not tolerate sin. But we cannot allow sin to make us angry people who seek our vengeance. We explain this in the context of the shame/honor society of the ancient near east. We must let things go and go to sleep each night without any festering anger. James tells us that man’s anger does not produce God’s righteousness. We explain how knowing that can help change us and keep us from being characterized by constant anger as we live in this sinful world.

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