Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Ephesians 4:31

Ephesians 4:31. This verse warns against several manifestations of evil passion, virtually grouping them under the common term (or principle) of ‘malice.' The whole presents a sharp contrast to the exhortation of Ephesians 4:31. The prohibition pictures the disposition of ‘the old man' (Ephesians 4:22); the command, that of ‘the new man' (Ephesians 4:24); together they form an appropriate conclusion to the section.

Let all bitterness, ill-temper of every kind, as ‘the prevailing temperament and frame of mind' (Ellicott).

And wrath, and anger; the former denotes the excitement, the passionate display of temper; the latter the settled habit, probably directed in malice against a person. Both are the results of ‘bitterness.' (The latter is the term applied to the wrath of God)

And clamor and evil speaking (lit., ‘blasphemy ‘). The former is the wrathful passionate outcry of strife; the other, the slander and reviling of settled anger. The last always breaks the sixth and ninth commandments, usually the seventh, and is akin, as the term indicates, to an infraction of the third also.

Be put away from you; a stronger expression than that of Ephesians 4:25.

With all malice. The other five represent a progress in the manifestation of evil temper; this is the root from which they spring. But ‘all' includes every manifestation of malice, not already enumerated.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Ephesians 4:31

Old Testament

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