Ephesians 4:31 - Exposition

Let all bitterness ; not only in speech, but in mind, disposition, habit. And wrath and anger; nearly synonymous, but perhaps" wrath" is equivalent to the tumultuous excited state of mind, out of which comes anger, the settled feeling of dislike and enmity. And clamor and evil-speaking be put away from you ; "clamor," equivalent to the loud noise of strife, the excited shouting down of opponents; "evil-speaking," the more deliberate habit of running down their character, exciting an evil feeling against them in the minds of others. With all malice ; equivalent to wishing evil, whether in a more pronounced or in a latent and half-conscious form, whether expressing itself in the way of coarse malediction or lurking in a corner of the heart, as an evil spirit of which we should be ashamed; all are rags of the old man, as disgraceful to Christians as literal rags to a man of position; utterly unworthy of the regenerated child of God. Chrysostom, rather fancifully, treats them as a genealogy: "Bitterness bred wrath, wrath anger, anger clamor, clamor evil-speaking, which is railing."