Ephesians 4:31

Plain English Version

So don’t get upset with people, and don’t think about them in a bad way. Don’t get angry with anyone. Don’t argue or fight with people. Don’t yell at anyone, or say bad things about them. Don’t do anything bad to anyone.

Cross References

Genesis 27:41

Esau was really angry, because Jacob tricked their father, and their father made Jacob the next leader for their family. So Esau hated Jacob. And Esau said to himself, “My father is going to die soon. When he dies, we will all cry for a time, and then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Genesis 37:21

But Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben, he heard his brothers say those things, and he wanted to save Joseph. So Reuben said, “No. We can’t kill him.”

Genesis 37:4

Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than them. So they hated Joseph, and they couldn’t talk in a friendly way to him.

Genesis 4:8

After that, Cain went to his brother Abel, and Cain said, “Let’s go for a walk.” So Cain and Abel went out bush together. While they were there, Cain hit his brother, and killed him dead.

Psalm 15:3

You don’t tell lies about people, and you don’t do bad things to people, and you don’t say bad things about people to shame them.

Acts 21:30

A lot of people everywhere in that city heard that there was trouble in God’s ceremony house, and they ran there. They all grabbed Paul and dragged him outside. Then straight away, the guards shut the gates of God’s ceremony house.

Romans 3:14

They swear at other people and say bad things about them.

1 Corinthians 14:20

My Christian friends, don’t be like little kids in the way you think. You know, little kids don’t know much about anything. They don’t understand really bad things. So whenever you think about bad things, be like little kids. But whenever you think about anything else, be grown up people. Think properly and understand things properly.

1 Corinthians 5:8

That is a picture of us church people. Just like the Jews have to get rid of all that stuff that makes damper swell up, we have to get rid of everything that is bad, and we have to stop doing bad things. Instead, we have to be good and honest and true.

Galatians 5:20

They respect the spirits that are not God. They try to get bad spirits to hurt other people. They hate other people, and they fight other people. They want to be like some other person, and if they can’t be, they hate that other person. They get very angry. They want to be more important than everybody else. They will not agree with other people, so they split off into separate groups.

Ephesians 4:22

You learned that we all have a bad part inside us that gets us to only think about what we want for ourselves, and it gets us to go wrong, and it gets us to do bad things. And you learned that now we have to turn around and stop doing those things. So don’t take any notice of that old bad part inside you. Don’t think about those bad things any more,

Ephesians 4:25

You know, we all belong to Jesus, like each one of us is a part of his body. So don’t lie to each other. Only say the things that are true.

Ephesians 4:26

And if you get angry, don’t do anything wrong. Don’t stay angry all day, but quickly stop being angry.

Colossians 3:19

Yes, and you men that are husbands, you have to do your part too. You have to love your wives properly, and don’t ever be hard on them.

Colossians 3:8

But now, don’t do these bad things any more. Don’t get angry easily. Don’t go around angry and yelling at people. Don’t hate people or think about giving them trouble. Don’t talk in a bad way about people, or tell lies about them. Don’t talk in a dirty way.

1 Timothy 3:11

Their wives have to be like them, good women that nobody complains about. – Their wives can’t be the sort of women that say bad things about other people. – Their wives can’t be the sort of women that let themselves go and then do wild things. – Their wives have to be honest about everything. –

1 Timothy 3:3

He can’t be a drunken man, or a man that gets into fights. – He has to be a quiet man that is not hard on people. – He can’t be a man that loves money. –

1 Timothy 5:13

Even if she doesn’t marry again, she still might get lazy. Instead of doing good things, she might just go around to people’s houses and talk to them about other people, and she might talk about things that she shouldn’t talk about.

2 Timothy 2:23

But you can’t argue about stupid things that are not important. If you argue like that, you might get into a fight.

2 Timothy 3:3

They will be hard and cruel. They will remember the wrong things that other people do, and they will do payback to them. They will get wild easily, and they will never control themselves. They will always hate everything that is good.

Titus 1:7

Church leaders are in charge of God’s work on earth, so they have to be really good people, and then nobody will say anything bad about them. Whenever you pick people to be church leaders, – Don’t pick people that think they are better than everyone else. – Don’t pick people that get angry too easily. – Don’t pick people that drink a lot of grog. – Don’t pick people that get into fights. – Don’t pick greedy people, that want lots of money and things.

Titus 2:3

You also have to teach the older women to do the things that make God happy. Tell them not to say bad things about people, and not to drink a lot of grog, but they have to teach people good things.

James 1:19

Listen, my Christian friends, you have to be ready to listen to other people, and you have to stop and think before you say anything yourself. Stop and think before you get angry.

James 3:14

But if you only think about things that are good for yourself, and if you are jealous of other people, and if you hate other people, you are not thinking God’s way. That’s the devil’s way. He is the boss over the bad spirits. You can’t hide the way you think by telling lies about it, and by saying that you are really good.

James 4:11

My Christian friends, don’t say bad things about each other or rubbish each other. If you rubbish other people, it is like you reckon you are their judge. But God’s law says that you have to love other people, so if you rubbish them, you are really saying that you think God’s law is wrong. But you are not a judge, so you can’t say that God’s law is wrong. Your job is to do whatever God’s law says.

1 Peter 2:1

So clean up your lives and stop doing bad things. Don’t tell lies, but tell the straight and true story. Don’t say you are good if you are not. Stop being jealous of other people, don’t hate them because they have something that you don’t have. And don’t rubbish another person.