Ephesians 4:25-32
The new life in Christ puts away destructive sins and puts on truth, edifying speech, honest work, and forgiving grace.
25 Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
26 “Be angry, and don’t sin.” Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath,
27 and don’t give place to the devil.
28 Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
The new life in Christ puts away destructive sins and puts on truth, edifying speech, honest work, and forgiving grace.
Paul gives concrete expressions of the put-off and put-on pattern by commanding believers to reject falsehood, sinful anger, theft, corrupt speech, bitterness, rage, slander, and malice, while practicing truth, righteous restraint, honest labor, edifying speech, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness as those forgiven by God in Christ.
Ephesians 4:25-32 directly follows 4:17-24, where Paul commanded believers to put off the old self, be renewed in the attitude of their minds, and put on the new self created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Verses 25-32 show what that new-self life looks like in community. The passage also flows from 4:1-6, where believers were urged to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and from 4:15-16, where the body grows by truth in love as each part works properly. Paul now names specific practices that either build or damage the body: lying, sinful anger, theft, corrupt speech, bitterness, slander, and malice must be put away, while truthfulness, honest labor, generosity, edifying speech, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness must be put on. This passage prepares for 5:1-2, where believers are commanded to imitate God and walk in love as Christ loved them and gave Himself for them.
Ephesians 4:25-32 addresses the concrete moral and relational life of a church made up of people from varied Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. In a first-century urban setting like Ephesus, dishonesty, anger, theft, patronage-driven labor, harsh speech, slander, and relational hostility could easily reflect surrounding patterns of life. Paul shows that the new humanity in Christ must live differently at the most ordinary level. The community's speech, work, anger, generosity, and forgiveness must reflect that believers are members of one another, sealed by the Spirit, and forgiven by God in Christ. The passage is not abstract ethics; it is church-preserving, Spirit-honoring, gospel-shaped community formation.
Walking Worthy: Unity, Maturity, and the New Life in Christ
Because God has made the church one new humanity in Christ, believers must walk worthy by preserving unity, growing to maturity, and putting on the new life created in righteousness and holiness.