Ephesians 4.31b-The Believer Must Eradicate Quarrelling and Slander and Malice from Their Attitude and Speech
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday December 4, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:31b-The Believer Must Eradicate Quarrelling, Slander and Malice from Their Attitude and Speech
Lesson # 301
Ephesians 4:31 Every expression of bitterness along with every expression of malice resulting in outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander must as a top priority be eradicated from the mental attitude and speech of each and every one of you as a corporate unit. (Lecturer’s translation)
In Ephesians 4:31, the apostle Paul issues another solemn prohibition to the recipients of this letter who were members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
This prohibition required that they must make it their top priority of eradicating from their mental attitude and speech every expression of bitterness and malice, which both result in outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander.
Failure to obey this prohibition in Ephesians 4:31 would result in the recipients of this letter grieving the Holy Spirit, which they were prohibited from doing in Ephesians 4:30.
Furthermore, failure to obey this prohibition would result in them living according to the sinful desires of their indwelling old Adamic sin nature, which they were taught not to do in Ephesians 4:22.
Correspondingly, failure to obey this prohibition would result in them not living in accordance of their new nature, which they were commanded to do in Ephesians 4:24.
The noun kraugē (κραυγή), “quarrelling” in Ephesians 4:31 speaks of a noisy dispute between individuals, which is marked by anger, implying a heated, verbal contention, stressing strained or severed relations between individuals, which can persist beyond the contention into physical violence.
This another verbal sin which expresses bitterness in the soul and is the result of a stubborn unforgiving attitude toward another, which is the direct result of not practicing the love of God in one’s life.
The noun blasphēmia (βλασφημία), “slander” pertains to the act of defaming someone’s character as a result of bitterness towards them and is also one of the sins of the tongue.
This another verbal sin which expresses bitterness in the soul and is the result of a stubborn unforgiving attitude toward another, which is the direct result of not practicing the love of God in one’s life.
In other words, it is the direct result of the mental attitude sin of bitterness.
In Ephesians 4:31, the verb in this prohibition is airō (αἴρω), which means “to eradicate” and the nouns pikria (πικρία), “bitterness,” thumos (θυμός), “anger,” orgē (ὀργή), “wrath,” kraugē (κραυγή), “quarreling” and blasphēmia (βλασφημία), “slanderous talk” function as the nominative subject of this passive verb.
Therefore, this indicates that bitterness, which results in outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander must be “eradicated” or “eliminated” from the believer’s mental attitude.
This is accomplished by the believer obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved every one of them and which obedience will express itself in forgiveness towards others.
As has been the case throughout this study of Ephesians, the genitive second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ) refers to the recipients of this epistle who we noted were members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
Also, as has been the case throughout our study of Ephesians, the word not only refers to them as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions and thus is referring to them not only as a corporate unit but also as individuals.
It contains the figure of metonymy which means that the recipients of this letter are put for their mental attitude and speech.
This noun is also the object of the preposition apo (ἀπό), which functions as a marker of separation indicating that outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander, which are the direct result of the mental attitude sin of bitterness, must be eradicated “from” or “separated from” their mental attitude and speech.
The noun kakia (κακία) means “malice” since the word describes a person who is “malicious” and takes pleasure in deliberately and premeditatedly is intent on doing harm to others as a result of possessing an intense long-lasting bitterness against a person.
“Malice” is the desire to inflict injury or suffering on another especially when based on deep-seated meanness; evil intent on the part of one who commits a wrongful act injurious to others.
Like the sin of bitterness, malice is a mental attitude sin, which results in the verbal sins of anger, wrath, quarrelling and slander.
Like the noun pikria (πικρία), kakia (κακία) is modified by the adjective pas (πᾶς), which is used again in a distributive sense denoting each individual in a particular class.
The adjective is in the first attributive position (adjective-noun), which means that it expresses an attributive relation to the noun kakia (κακία) and indicating that this adjective is attributing “every expression of” the sin of malice.
This word is the object of the preposition sun (σύν), which indicates that the sins of bitterness, outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander are “closely associated with” the sin of malice.
Bitterness is closely associated with malice because like malice, it is a mental attitude sin.
Correspondingly, both sins result in outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander of others.
The aorist imperative conjugation of the verb airō (αἴρω) is a constative aorist imperative which emphasizes with the recipients of this epistle how important it is to eradicate from their mental attitude and speech every expression of bitterness and malice, such as anger, wrath, quarreling and slander.
It emphasizes that this is a top priority in their lives and expresses the fact that this prohibition is very solemn and expresses its critical nature.
The passive voice of this verb airō (αἴρω) indicates that every expression of bitterness along with malice, which both result in outbursts of anger, rage, quarrelling and slander must receive the action of being eradicated from the mental attitude and speech by each member of the Christian community.
For this to be accomplished they must practice forgiveness with each other, which is accomplished by continuing to obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved each one of them.
Therefore, the Spirit enables the believer or gives them the capacity to forgive their fellow believer, when the believer exercises faith in the Spirit inspired Scriptures, which describes the triune God’s love for them in eternity past, at justification and after justification.
This post-justification faith enables them to obey the Lord’s Spirit inspired command to love one another as He has loved the believer.
The prohibition in Ephesians 4:31 is similar to the prohibition Paul issues the Colossian Christian community in Colossians 3:8.
In fact, four of the sins listed in Colossians 3:8 also appear in Ephesians 4:31, namely, the nouns thumos (θυμός), orgē (ὀργή), blasphēmia (βλασφημία) and kakia (κακία).
Colossians 3:8 But now, I also solemnly charge each and every one of you, for your own benefit to lay aside each and every one of the following: destructive, uncontrolled anger, malice, slander, filthy language from the mouth of each and every one of you. (Lecturer’s translation)
