ACC ~ Ephesians 4 v31a

PUTTING AWAY SLANDER. ORIGEN: People who insult others are said to slander or blaspheme against those whom they insult. … One blasphemes when one makes a true doctrine appear false or a false one true, especially when one speaks of God or matters pertaining to God. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

DISTINGUISHING THESE FIVE TERMS. MARIUS VICTORINUS: He adds five terms briefly at the end—bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander. Then at the very end he has added the summarizing phrase with all malice. Bitterness consists in envying and speaking ill of others and similar actions. Wrath consists in the lust for vengeance and punishment. Anger is the impulse of a mind boiling over and upheaving beyond what is reasonable. Clamor is a kind of insane, uncontrolled utterance. And blasphemy is wicked thought or speech that attacks God and is primarily directed against God. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.4.31.

TYPES OF AGGRESSION. JEROME: Wrath is the outspewing of indignation in the mind when anger overflows. Bitterness and wrath are varieties of anger. Anger desires vengeance after rage has been subdued. Anger wishes to harm the one by whom it believes itself injured. … Vengeance wants to return evil to the one it considers guilty of injury. A Christian ought not to return evil for evil but “overcome evil with good.” EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 3.4.31.

PUTTING AWAY BITTERNESS. CHRYSOSTOM: All this bitterness is not merely to be cleansed but to be “put away” altogether. Why should anyone try to contain it or hold it in? Why keep the beast of anger around so as to have to watch it constantly? It is possible to banish it, to expel it and drive it off to some mountain place. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 15.4.31.

Eph