Ephesians 4:31 tells believers to deliberately set aside bitterness, anger, and harmful speech, along with the ill will that feeds them. The verse is part of a practical instruction in the letter to the Ephesians, traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul, written to a community of Christians in the city of Ephesus. Paul is urging them to live in a way that fits the new life they have received in Christ.
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 is written as a command, but it describes something closer to clearing out a room than flipping a switch. Paul names a list of attitudes and actions: bitterness, which is a long-held resentment that sours the heart; wrath, which is a sudden, heated burst of rage; anger, a broader word for displeasure that has turned against someone. Outcry, which points to shouting or loud quarreling. And slander, speech meant to damage another person’s reputation. He then adds “with all malice,” meaning the deliberate wish to harm. Together these describe a whole pattern of relating, not just a single bad moment.
The verse does not promise that you will never feel angry. Paul elsewhere acknowledges that anger can arise, and Ephesians 4:26 even allows for it while warning against letting it linger. What the verse asks is that you not hold on to these things and not let them shape how you speak and act. It is a call to removal and replacement, which the next verse makes explicit by pointing toward kindness and forgiveness.
The Context of Ephesians 4:31
Ephesians is a letter that moves from theology to daily practice. The first three chapters describe what God has done in Christ, bringing Jewish and Gentile believers into one body. Chapters 4 through 6 then turn to how that unity should look in ordinary life. Our verse sits inside a cluster of instructions about honesty, work, and speech, which is why it addresses the mouth and the heart together.
Just before it, in verse 30, Paul warns against grieving the Holy Spirit, and just after it, in verse 32, he calls for kindness and forgiveness modeled on God’s forgiveness in Christ. Read in that setting, the command to put away bitterness and anger is not a stand-alone moral rule. It is a response to the grace believers have received, and it shows that forgiving others is meant to flow from having been forgiven.
Key Phrases in Ephesians 4:31
Colossians 3:8
But now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
(WEB)
Paul gives a very similar list in this verse, urging believers to put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy talk. Reading it alongside Ephesians 4:31 shows that this was a consistent teaching about how new life in Christ should change speech and emotion.
Ephesians 4:32
And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
(WEB)
The verse right after our passage gives the positive side of the command, calling for kindness, tenderness, and forgiveness. It shows that removing bitterness is not an empty act but makes room for the grace God has already shown.
A Short Prayer From Ephesians 4:31
Lord, you know the resentments I carry and the sharp words I have been tempted to speak. Some of them have been lodged in my heart for longer than I want to admit. I ask you to search me and show me where bitterness and anger have taken root. Help me to name them honestly and to lay them before you rather than nursing them in private.
Shape my speech so that it builds others up and does not tear them down. Where I am tempted toward slander or malice, give me the restraint to stay silent or the courage to speak truthfully and kindly. Remind me of the forgiveness you have shown me in Christ, and let that memory soften my heart toward others. Amen.
