Limitless Word
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Colossians 3:8 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
  • BSB But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
  • NKJV But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
  • NASB But now you also, rid yourselves of all of them: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene speech from your mouth.
  • NLT But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Now they must put away anger, malice, slander, and filthy speech. New life demands removing sins of temper and tongue.

Overview

'But now' signals the decisive change conversion brings. Paul lists sins of attitude and speech to 'put away': 'anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking.' Holiness includes not only sexual purity but also gracious words and a peaceable spirit toward others.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 34

  • Eph 4:29Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
  • Eph 4:22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
  • Jas 1:20–21For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
  • Eph 5:4Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
  • Col 3:5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
  • Eph 4:26Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
  • Eph 4:31–32Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
  • Heb 12:1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
  • Prov 29:22An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.
  • Col 3:9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
  • 1 Pet 2:1Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
  • 1 Cor 3:3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
  • 2 Cor 12:20For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
  • Jas 3:4–6Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
  • Matt 5:22But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
  • Jas 3:14–16But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
  • Ps 37:8Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
  • Prov 17:14The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
  • Rom 13:13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
  • Gal 5:15But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
  • Mark 7:22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
  • 1 Tim 1:13Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
  • Jas 2:7Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
  • Jude 1:8Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
  • Gal 5:20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
  • Gal 5:26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
  • 2 Tim 2:23–24But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
  • 1 Tim 1:20Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
  • 2 Pet 2:18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
  • Prov 19:19A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
  • Rev 16:9And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
  • Lev 24:11–16And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)
  • Jude 1:13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
  • 2 Pet 2:7And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Colossians videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Colossians 3:8YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ColossiansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The image of the invisible God, firstborn over creation, in whom all things hold together and all the fullness of God dwells bodily — supreme over every power.

How Colossians 3:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.