Free Bible Commentary
“Ephesians 4:31-32”
Categories: Ephesians“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
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The sins in verse 31 sink their roots in the heart and find their expression in the “unwholesome” words that proceed from the mouth (verse 29). Bitterness grows within our hearts when we firmly plant and cultivate animosity and resentment there, and refuse to forgive a person for a wrong they have done (whether real or perceived). The Hebrew writer tells us that when a “root of bitterness” springs up, it “causes trouble, and by it many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:15). That is because it is very difficult to keep bitterness in the heart and it is often spewed forth from the tongue.
When we allow “wrath” to boil and “anger” to seethe within us, outbursts of contentious “clamor” and “slander” against the good name of a fellow human being often ensue. The only remedy for this horrid, hardened condition of heart is to break out the “tenderizer”. The Lord expects us to be “kind” and “tender-hearted” to one another, just as He has been to us. God willingly and eagerly forgives us of all of our sins, and I can assure you that we have wronged Him exponentially more times than the harm that others have done to us.
Friends and brethren, true love does not harbor resentment, hold grudges, spew slander. The love of God will never fail nor lose its mercy. Let’s make every effort to emulate the love of our Father in heaven (chapter 5 verse 1).
Please read Ephesians 5:1-2 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
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