Clearly Defined
Ephesians 4: 31 – 32
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
In verse thirty, Paul told us to grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. His very next words seek to further instruct us in how to avoid distressing God’s Spirit. Put all of these things away from you; bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice. Don’t have them around you at all because they should not be part of the mature Christian’s walk.
Most of us know, or at least have a good idea what bitterness, wrath and anger are but I found that I was reading right over clamor without giving it much attention. Then slander stands out to me because it refers to the spoken word, reminding us again about the words of our mouth. Then there is malice, about which most have a rough idea as to its meaning.
Stopping to look up each of these words in the dictionary, I realized that there is much more meaning in this scripture than we might, at first reading, appreciate. Look at the Webster’s definition for each of these terms.
Bitterness: sharp and disagreeable; harsh; severe; piercing. 2) characterized by strong feelings of hatred, resentment, cynicism.
Wrath: intense anger; rage; fury 2) any action carried out in great anger especially for punishment or vengeance.
Anger: a feeling of displeasure resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc., and usually showing itself in a desire to fight back at the supposed cause of this feeling.
Clamor: a loud outcry; uproar 2) a vehement, continued expression of the general feeling or of public opinion; loud demand or complaint. In its verb form – to make a clamor- cry out, demand, or complain noisily.
Slander: the utterance in the presence of another person of a false statement or statements, damaging to a third person’s character or reputation.
Malice: active ill will; desire to harm another or to do mischief; spite. 2) evil intent.
One can easily see the consistency in Paul’s discourse. Here he is again encouraging us to curb our language and restrain our tempers. This verse expounds on what he wrote in the previous text. Here we go deeper into the meanings of his former instructions. We see that clamor amounts to complaining and I think the idea of loud complaining draws up an image with which we are all familiar.
We are not to be cynical and skeptical. We are not to complain about others or speak in a way that is disparaging to their character. Well, we know that from verse 29 which says to only use our words in a way which edifies others. We are not to be harsh or sharp which means we are to be gentle. Nor are we supposed to strike back from a sense of being wronged. Staying apart from wrath includes avoiding any action carried out in anger.
I encourage you to keep this list for the future so that you can look back at it from time to time. These definitions will have different meaning for you at different moments of your development. You will see different significance depending on what is going on in your life at the time. The message that I think will consistently ring out through these words is, “Get a tight rein on your words and your anger.” Those two ideas are embedded in the definition of the six words.
Lastly, the definition above for slander is the world’s definition. I would suggest that God’s instruction to us may draw us to a higher standard than the legal definition of slander. In the legal sense, one must utter false statements in the hearing of another which have the effect of damaging a third person’s reputation. I believe God would even restrain you from speaking true statements about someone else that have the effect of damaging a person’s reputation. This is especially true when your motive is to tear them down or damage their image in the eyes of someone else. Please recall that we are instructed to only say those things which are good for edification of others. Therefore, even if the statements you make are true, if you are harming another in the utterance of them or you have the intent to harm them or their reputation, then I believe you are in disobedience to God and risk grieving the Holy Spirit. Keep your words holy because Jesus is “The Word” and He is holy.
