Let Not the Sun Go Down

The Vine

Paul does not command the impossible task of never feeling angry. Be ye angry is stated almost as a permission, an acknowledgment that anger itself will arise, even in a good marriage, even between people who love each other genuinely. What he addresses is not the anger’s existence but its duration: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

This sets a real, practical boundary on how long unresolved anger is permitted to linger in a marriage. Not indefinitely, not carried silently for days while resentment quietly compounds, but addressed, specifically, before the day itself ends. This is a hard discipline, especially when the conflict feels unresolved or the hurt still fresh.

This does not mean every conflict must be fully, perfectly resolved before sleep, an unrealistic standard that could itself become a source of exhausted, forced conversations late into the night. It means the wrath itself, the ongoing hostility, should not be allowed to simply carry over, unaddressed, into another day’s accumulated weight.

Whatever anger is present in your marriage today, however unresolved the underlying issue remains, take some step before this day ends, even a small one, to keep the sun from going down on wrath left entirely unaddressed.