Ephesians 4:31 tells believers to get rid of bitterness, anger, shouting, slander, and every form of harmful ill will. Paul is not describing a feeling you must never have, but a pattern of heart and speech that should not be kept or allowed to grow in the life of someone who belongs to Christ. He writes this to the church in Ephesus, to ordinary Christians who were learning to live differently from the world around them.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.
Ephesians 4:31 (WEB)
What Ephesians 4:31 Means
The verse lists several related sins in a deliberate progression. “Bitterness” is a sour, resentful attitude that lingers after a wrong. “Wrath” and “anger” describe the heat that rises when someone feels wronged, with wrath often pointing to a more sudden outburst and anger to a deeper, settled displeasure. “Outcry” refers to loud, angry shouting, and “slander” is speech that tears someone’s name down. Paul adds “with all malice” to name the root: a desire to hurt.
Notice the verb. Paul says these things should be “put away,” the same language used for taking off old clothes. He is not asking for a quick mood adjustment. He is asking believers to deliberately set these habits aside, the way you would stop wearing something that no longer fits. The verse does not promise that anger will never flicker, and it does not say that righteous concern for injustice is forbidden. It speaks to the kind of anger that festers, attacks, and seeks harm.
The Context of Ephesians 4:31
Ephesians is a letter traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul, written to Christians in and around Ephesus, a busy port city in what is now western Turkey. The first three chapters describe the believer’s new standing in Christ, and chapters four through six explain how that new identity should shape daily conduct. Verse 31 sits in a passage about leaving behind the old self and living as a new person in Christ.
The surrounding verses make the point clearer. Verse 29 asks that speech build others up, verse 30 warns against grieving the Holy Spirit, and verse 32 calls for kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness modeled on God’s forgiveness in Christ. Read this way, verse 31 is not a standalone rule about temper. It is the negative side of a positive picture: when bitterness and slander are removed, room is made for kindness and forgiveness to take their place.
Key Phrases in Ephesians 4:31
James 1:19-20
19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
(WEB)
James gives a practical companion to Ephesians 4:31, urging believers to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger. He observes that human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires, which helps explain why Paul asks for anger and its companions to be laid aside.
Colossians 3:8
But now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
(WEB)
Colossians 3:8 nearly parallels Ephesians 4:31, listing anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech as things to be put away. Reading the two together shows that this was a consistent teaching in Paul’s letters about how new life in Christ affects the tongue and the heart.
A Short Prayer From Ephesians 4:31
Father, you know the bitterness I carry and the words I have wanted to throw at people who hurt me. Some of it feels justified, and some of it I have fed in private for far too long. Show me where anger has turned into malice, and give me the honesty to name it before you. Loosen my grip on the old resentments, and help me set them down in your presence. Shape my speech so that it builds up rather than tears down, and let your Spirit do what I cannot do alone. Amen.
