Commentary - Colossians 3:5-11

Bird's-eye view

Having established the glorious, unassailable position of the believer in Christ, dead, risen, and seated in the heavenlies (Col. 3:1-4), Paul now turns to the practical, earthly outworking of this spiritual reality. This is not a shift from doctrine to ethics as though they were two separate compartments. Rather, this is the necessary fruit of the doctrinal root. Because you are who you are in Christ, you must therefore live like it. The command is to mortify, to put to death, the remaining sin that clings to our earthly members. This is not a call to self-improvement or a new leaf, but a command for a brutal execution.

Paul lists two categories of sins. The first (vv. 5-7) deals with sensual and idolatrous sins like sexual immorality and greed. These are the kinds of sins that provoke the wrath of God upon the disobedient world, a world we used to inhabit. The second list (vv. 8-9) deals with social sins, anger, slander, lying, which are just as deadly and must also be laid aside. The reason for this comprehensive house-cleaning is grounded in our new identity: we have stripped off the old man, the old Adamic self, and have put on the new man, who is being continually renewed in the image of Christ. This new humanity in Christ obliterates all the world’s proud and foolish distinctions, Greek and Jew, slave and free. In this new creation, Christ is everything, and He is in everyone who believes.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 5 Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

The "therefore" links this stark command directly to the glorious realities of verses 1-4. Because your life is hidden with Christ in God, you must get on with the business of killing what remains of your sin. The command is mortify, which means to put to death. This is not gentle advice; it is a command for an execution. Paul uses an aorist imperative, which points to a decisive, definitive action. This is not about gradually weaning yourself off sin. It is about taking a sword to it. What are we to kill? Our "members which are upon the earth." This refers to the way sin has commandeered our bodies. The list that follows is illustrative, not exhaustive. It starts with sexual sins, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence. Our culture is drowning in these, celebrating them as forms of self-expression. The Bible calls them members to be executed. Paul then adds covetousness, which is idolatry. This is a crucial diagnostic. Why is greed a form of idolatry? Because at the root of all covetousness is the desire to have something other than God as our ultimate satisfaction, our security, our treasure. It is setting our affections on things below, which Paul just forbade (v. 2).

v. 6 On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,

Here is the ultimate motivation for why we must be so ruthless with our sin. These sins are not trivial missteps. They are high treason against the throne of God, and they are the very things that are storing up God's wrath for the unbelieving world. The phrase "sons of disobedience" is a Hebrew idiom describing people whose very nature is characterized by rebellion. This is the natural state of fallen humanity. The wrath of God is not some impersonal cosmic principle; it is the settled, holy, personal opposition of God to all that is evil. And it is "coming." This is a present reality, not just a future threat. The world is currently under the curse, and the final judgment will be the full and final manifestation of a wrath that is already being revealed (Rom. 1:18).

v. 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

Paul reminds the Colossians of their testimony. This dark catalog of sins was not a description of some other tribe of people. This was their former address. "You also once walked" in these things. This was your way of life. The verb tenses are important. You "walked" in them (past tense) when you were "living" in them (past tense). Your life was defined by and immersed in this world of disobedience. But for the Christian, that life is over. The death sentence has already been carried out on that old life at the cross. Our job now is to enforce that death sentence on the lingering remnants of that old life. This is a word of encouragement. You are not what you once were. You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. So live like it.

v. 8 But now you also, lay them all aside: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

The "but now" marks the sharp contrast between the old life and the new. Having dealt with the more sensual sins, Paul turns to the sins of relationship, the sins of the tongue and temper. These are just as deadly. The command here is to "put them all away." The image is that of taking off filthy clothes. This list includes wrath (a settled indignation), anger (a passionate outburst), malice (ill will, the desire to harm), blasphemy (which here likely means slander or reviling speech against others), and filthy communication out of your mouth. These are the sins that tear apart the fabric of community. They are expressions of a heart that is still trying to be its own god, to assert its own rights, to vindicate itself. The gospel calls us to lay all that down.

v. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices,

He singles out lying as a particularly odious social sin. Why? Because truth is foundational to fellowship. Lying is the native language of the devil, the father of lies (John 8:44). To lie to a brother or sister in Christ is a profound contradiction of our new identity. And that is precisely Paul's reasoning. The reason you must not lie is because "ye have put off the old man with his deeds." Again, the imagery is of taking off a set of clothes. This "putting off" happened decisively at your conversion. The "old man" is our old self, our identity as it was defined by our union with Adam. That man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6). He is dead and buried. He has no more legal claim on you. The "deeds" or practices are the sins listed in the previous verses. They are the grave clothes of the old man, and they have no place on a resurrected saint.

v. 10 and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him,

Here is the positive side of the exchange. We have not only taken off the old, we have "put on the new." The "new man" is our new identity in Christ, the second Adam. This is a definitive act, we have put him on, an act accomplished for us in our union with Christ. But this new man is also in a process of being "renewed in knowledge." Sanctification is, in large part, the process of our minds being remade, of learning to think God's thoughts after Him. This renewal is "after the image of him that created him." The goal of our salvation is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29). God is restoring the imago Dei in us, which was marred and distorted by the fall. He is making us like His Son.

v. 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and freeman, but Christ is all and in all.

This new creation in Christ is so radical that it demolishes all the earthly distinctions that men use to build their identities and their walls of hostility. In the church, in this new humanity, there is neither Greek nor Jew, the premier ethnic and religious division of the ancient world is gone. Circumcised and uncircumcised, the key covenantal marker is superseded. Barbarian, Scythian, the cultural distinctions between the civilized and the most uncivilized are erased. Slave, free, the fundamental social and economic divisions are rendered ultimate irrelevant. None of these categories define who we are anymore. They are all swallowed up in a new, all-encompassing reality: "Christ is all, and in all." He is the sum and substance of our new identity. He is the life that animates every member of this new body. He is all that matters, and He dwells in all His people without distinction.