You are still arguing with someone
who has gone to bed.

You have the reply ready now. The clear one, the one that would have landed. You have run it through three or four times and it improves with each go.

And the other person is asleep. They are not carrying any of this. Most of the time they have no idea it is still going on.

“‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” — Ephesians 4:26 (NIV)

Paul is writing to people who had to live alongside one another, and what he sets down is plain enough — tell the truth, work honestly, mind what comes out of your mouth, be kind. The line about anger sits in the middle of that list. It does not ask you to pretend you are not angry. It puts a time on it.

Not because anger is wicked. Because it keeps you up, and it keeps nobody else up.