Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice.Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice.Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice:
16 sermons cite this verse
I was probably doing things with females that believed in Jesus. I was talking down to people. I was doing all kinds of stuff. But look what Paul says to us in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31. And this is a HTL. This is a hard to live scripture. Because it sounds good when we read it, but it's hard to live this one out. Look what he says. He says, get rid or stop holding. Everybody say, stop holding. All bitterness. all bitterness all rage all anger hold on lord all anger ain't there a little bit that i can keep it says get rid of all anger all harsh words uh-oh all slander well i'm not just talking about them i'm telling the truth I'm just gonna I'm gonna say it because some of y'all like oh he didn't get my issue he did not get in my issue look at the rest of it as well as all types of evil behavior got him coach It says you gotta you gotta stop holding all of these things He said instead everybody say instead That means there's a trade That means you can release this and you can get something else you can trade your sorrows for his joy You can trade the spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise. You can trade everybody say instead Feel this thing. He says instead be kind to each other Tender-hearted. Oh, here's the big one forgiving one another hold on God you don't know what happened you you can't tell me to forgive …
… because many of you probably still have it memorized let no evil talk come out of your mouth but only what is useful for building up as there is need that your words may give grace to those who hear can you imagine how politics would look differently if we all practiced that. Let no evil, remember that word is putrid, it's like rotten, it's spoiling. Let no evil word or talk come out of your mouth, but only what's useful for building others up as there is need, that your words might give grace to those who hear. I think about Paul when he's talking, he's writing to the church at Corinth. You see, there was a lot of divisions in the early church, and in those divisions, there was great conflict in many of the churches, so almost every letter of the New Testament addresses conflict and how to resolve conflict. And in 1 Corinthians, This letter is a major theme of it is the conflict. It starts in chapter 1 and winds its way all the way through the divisions in the church. …
… bitterness will eventually start building something with your mouth and bitterness towards one person can eventually affect everyone around you. Ephesians 4 31 through 32, the aftershock of this initial conversations, he said, get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God, just as in Christ God forgave you. Get rid of bitterness, then forgive. Some of us don't have a mouth problem. We have an unforgiveness problem that keeps coming out of your mouth. Forgiveness doesn't mean what happens is okay. It doesn't mean it didn't hurt. It doesn't mean that you aren't justified in feeling some type of way. it means I'm not going to then spew it on everybody else in my life and I'm not going to allow what someone did to me to keep living inside of me because if I allow bitterness to live in my heart then eventually it's going to start building things in my mouth sometimes the way God changes the language of my life is by healing the place my language has been coming from. Your mouth may be revealing something that God wants to heal. Some of us, every chance we get, we scorch those around us that we love. It's a spark, but we scorch our spouse. We scorch our children. We scorch strangers, cussing them out, going down the road. And some of y'all have got Free Chapel bumper stickers, still, made for more. …
… It actually grieves the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4.31 from the Phillips translation, let there be no more resentment, no more anger or temper, no more violent self-assertiveness, no more slander, no more malicious remarks. Be kind to each other. Be understanding. Be ready to forgive others for God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Listen, whatever your cause is, be it doctrinal, be it something else. If it makes you a mean, argumentative, malicious person, you've missed the point. Our primary mission is Christ and the gospel. That is where our energy should be primarily challenged in the culture today. I disagree with that. And I hate you. Oh. You need a hug. Not for me. Because I think you might hurt me. Don't be surprised to find that the person who whines and complains the most and is critical of the most minute things in the lives of others is often guilty of something far worse. When I see a person constantly lashing out, whatever their cause is, I think there's something wrong with that person spiritually. …
… manhood. Later on in the same chapter, he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. 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 one another as God in Christ forgave you. My friends, to these things you are called and finally you're called to be a fit sacrifice. I always struggled with this when I was thinking about the shepherd theme and motif in scripture and thinking about you know how I grew up and knowing what happened to sheep in the end. We'd raise a sheep and we'd show the sheep and we'd get a ribbon for it and then we would take it to the auction and we would sell the sheep and very soon there would be a butcher and there would be a barbecue and it was the outcome and then I would look at the people in my congregation and think that's part of the story that's part of the analogy but how does that work for you what's the expectation for believers paul tells us romans 12 1 you know this now it makes sense i appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of god to present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god which is your spiritual worship your reasonable service of worship is to die for christ to to to to become fuel on the fire of the altar that goes up to god …
… you can be saved and be unfruitful. Ephesians chapter 4, let's read it. Verse 31, Ephesians 4 and verse 31 says, Ephesians 4 and 31 says, let all malice, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Next verse. Everybody read it out loud on Mother's Day and be kind to one another. Tender hearted. Oh, what a beautiful word. Tender hearted. Everybody forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Do you know that Jesus said in Luke chapter 12 that there would be five sparrows sold for two denarius? Not one of them is forgotten before God, the text said. Not one of them is forgotten before God. God remembers the mother bird. Matthew 10 and verse 29, but even the very hair of your head is numbered. Fear not, for you are more valuable than many flocks of sparrows. What he's saying, what he's trying to teach us, is if I feel that way about a mother bird, how much more do I feel that way about you? …
… let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. This is God's word. Paul uses what should be a startling, startling phrase here. To get anger wrong, to get wrath wrong is to give the devil a place in your life. to give a place for him, a spot where he can use to set up a headquarters to attack you, to let the enemy come in and open up the back door and bring all the friends in. Don't give place to the devil. Instead, here's what you're to do with this emotion, with this response of anger. He's saying that rage, vengeance, wrath, fury makes your life hospitable to the enemy and what he wants to accomplish inside your spirit. Not all at once. He kills us softly, slowly. Wrath, he is saying, is dangerous. And so in telling us how to treat wrath, thus make our lives inhospitable to the dark, powerful Lord, the devil, right? …
… strong you know I mean what do we do number one come clean be honest with God confess your sins before God. The Bible says in Ephesians 4, 31, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice. That's what the Bible says. Be kind and compassionate to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as Christ and God has forgiven you. Number two, analyze your anger. Analyze your anger. It comes from the heart. Usually anger is the secondary emotion. It's not the first emotion. Analyze it. and do the opposite of what Cain did. Listen to God and go, God, you're right. I'm not gonna, whatever. Number three, watch your words. Words, I'm telling you, they are so, so powerful. I mean, I can think of so many comments I've received over the years, not on the comment section, just from people that have really hurt me, that have probably killed a part of me, I can think about a coach. I can think about a former friend. I can think about those things. …
… Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 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, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. There seems to be a lot of confusion in the world today, and certainly in our culture, about what a true Christian is. We struggle with the reality of that fact because we wish it were clearer who the Christians were, so people claiming to be Christians didn't do so much damage to our reputation. The range of Christianity extends all the way from the true believers on the one hand to the false teachers who claim the name Christian, but who really are the agents of the devil and everything in between. You might say somehow God missed the target in developing Christianity and developing His kingdom in the world because it is so very difficult to tell true Christians from false Christians. …
… Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice or evil. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Now our theme in chapter 4 has been spiritual transformation. That identifies the true Christian. Verses 17 and 19 that I just read to you describe the unconverted person, and then you have, as I noted, the transition in verse 20. You have learned Christ, and that is a dramatic transformation. You have heard Him. You literally heard Him speak by His Spirit in your heart and in His Word. You have been taught in Him by the Spirit and the Word. You now know the truth in Jesus, and so with reference to your former life, you laid that aside, that corrupt life. You have been renewed in the spirit of your mind, and you are a new self created in the likeness of God, in fact, created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. …
… Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 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, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." This is a very pragmatic section starting in verse 25, and it will continue to be so as we march through chapter 5 in the future. But there's a turning point here, and it's in verse 20. You did not learn Christ in this way. Prior to that, in verses 17 and 19, is a description of the unconverted, the people who are in their fallen condition. They walk in the futility of their mind. They are darkened in their understanding. They are excluded from the life of God. They are ignorant. They are hard-hearted. They are callous. They are sensual, and they are committed to the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. …
… Yes, you were sealed for the day of redemption, that's your security. But if you want to enjoy assurance, 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, tenderhearted, forgiving each other." And this is the key. It doesn't say, if you do this, God in Christ will forgive you. It says you do this because God in Christ, what? Has forgiven you. You don't earn your salvation, but this is how it is manifest. So that's the character of this section of Ephesians that we barely touched. In fact, that was one page in my notes. But the message is simple and profoundly important. The Lord wants you to enjoy your salvation, not just in heaven, but now. He wants you to have peace and joy and hope and assurance. Even though you're under the powerful preaching of the Word of God, even though you understand the high standard of holiness, even though you feel strong impulses of the flesh, even though you battle with sin. …
… do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. There it is, in a way. benefit those who listen. In other words, everything I do when I speak is not what meets my needs, but what meets theirs. What do they need? What do they need to hear? What do they need to hear? That's what I give them. And then you're kind. That's a kind conversation. It's kindness expressed through your words. Do you enter into conversations asking, what do these people really need from me? What do they need to hear? Where do they need the conversation to go? That's kindness. So basically, kindness is very simple. It's meeting the needs of other people instead of your own. It's noticing needs and meeting the needs of other people instead of your own. But look carefully before we move on. Even here, it doesn't say that you should say what pleases them but what benefits them. …
… do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Then here's what he says. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Now, if our first response to someone who wrongs us is anger and bitterness and hostility, then what he says here, let all bitterness, that is, a feeling of intense animosity towards someone, bitterness. Then he says wrath, that is, that's anger with real aggressiveness and anger and clamor with real loud protest towards someone, slander, that is with the desire, intention to really injure someone else. And he says, let all that be put away from you with all malice, that is statements that you intend to damage someone's reputation or their occupation or whatever it might be. So he says, none of these things fit who we are as believers. …
… spirit of god by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption that's what we do by the way with the corrupting thought let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. By the way, that also goes back to the first imperative. If I'm saying something and it's true, but it's bitter, it's true, but it's slanderous, it's true, but it's angry, I'm in sin. In all malice, be kind to one another. Don't say things that are unkind. Tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Another indication that an unbeliever can't do these things. forgiving one another. And let me clarify that, because a lot of people, when we talk about forgiveness, you know, we, for whatever reason, you know, there's this phrase in our culture, forgive and forget. Newsflash. Human beings were not created to forget. A human being who forgets things is actually a human being who is malfunctioning. I mean that in all seriousness. …
… Then here's what he says. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Now, when a person has an unforgiving spirit and refuses to be kind and tenderhearted and forgiving, even as God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus. When a person refuses to do that, what happens to them? Well, there's some very definite consequences. One of them is emotional bondage. And this is where people are who are living in anger and bitterness and hostility and resentment. And everybody's going to have things done to them or said about them in life because that's the kind of world we live in. It's never going to be a place where everybody just loves you. Listen, any person who acts in such a fashion to be sure that everybody will love them, Well, first of all, some people are not going to love you just because you're being too kind. …