Ephesians 4:31

all … all Observe the uncompromising scope of the precept. Revolution in principle was to result in nothing short of revolutionin temper and practice.

wrath … anger The two original words occur together also Romans 2:8; Colossians 3:8; Revelation 16:19; Revelation 19:15 (" the wrath of the angerof God"). The word rendered "wrath" denotes rather the acutepassion, and the other the chronic. See Trench, Synonyms, § xxxvi. There is no real contradiction here to Ephesians 4:26. The aim there was to limit the admission of anger only to the rare cases where it could be present "without sin." Here the question is not of the exception but of the rule. Personal irascibility, personal feud and quarrel, were to be things past and gone out of Christian life.

clamour The violent assertion of rights and wrongs, real or supposed.

evil speaking Gr. blasphêmia. Our word "blasphemy" is now confined to "evil speaking" against God and Divine things, but the Gr. word includes all kinds of slander and opprobrium. It is used (verb, noun, or adjective) of evil speaking against man, or human things, often in N.T.; e.g.1 Corinthians 4:13 (A. V., "defamed"); 1 Corinthians 10:30; Colossians 3:8; Titus 3:2.

be put away Or, taken away. The verb is in the aorist imperative, enjoining a decisive act, a definite and total rejection of these phases of evil. Such an act, and the maintenance of its results, would be only possible "in Christ"; but soit could be done. See the parallel passage, Colossians 3:8, where the precept is as decisive and as inclusive as here.

malice The Gr. word sometimes bears the sense of "evil," "ill," in general; e.g." the evil" of "the day," Matthew 6:34. But where, as here, it forms one of a list of vices (cp. Romans 1:29; Colossians 3:8; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 2:1), it tends to mean the bitter and unjust habit of mind which we denote by malice. (See Trench, Synonyms, § xi.) It is here mentioned last, as the deeper and more subtle sin of which those just mentioned are manifestations. Unkindness, in its inmost secret, is to be a thing cast out.