Kill Sin or It Will Be Killing You Text: Colossians 3:5-11
Introduction: Indicative and Imperative
In the first four verses of this chapter, the apostle Paul has laid down a glorious, bedrock reality. He has told us what is true of every single believer in Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, you have died with Christ, you have been raised with Christ, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. You are, right now, seated with Him in the heavenly places. This is not a future hope; it is a present possession. This is the great indicative of the faith. It is the statement of fact, the declaration of what God has done.
But the Christian life is not a passive affair. We do not get to sit back and admire our spiritual status like a trophy on a shelf. High theology must always lead to street-level obedience. The indicative always gives birth to the imperative. Because this is who you are, this is what you must do. Because you have been raised to a new life, you must therefore live a new kind of life. And Paul, being a good pastor, does not leave us guessing what that looks like. He gets right down to brass tacks. He gives us our marching orders. And the first order of business is a declaration of war. It is a command to engage in a ruthless, take-no-prisoners campaign against the remaining sin in our lives.
Our secular age, and even much of the squishy evangelical world, is deeply uncomfortable with this kind of language. They want a therapeutic god, a god who affirms, a god who helps you with your self-esteem. But the God of the Bible is a holy God, a consuming fire, and He hates sin with a perfect hatred. And because He loves us, He commands us to hate it too. He does not tell us to manage our sin, or dialogue with our sin, or get in touch with our sin. He tells us to kill it. This is the doctrine of mortification, and it is absolutely central to a healthy Christian life.
The Text
Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, lay them all aside: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices, 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, 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.
(Colossians 3:5-11 LSB)
The Hit List (v. 5)
Paul begins with a direct command and a list of specific targets.
"Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:5)
The word translated "consider as dead" is the Greek word nekrosate. It is an aorist imperative, which means "do it, and do it now." It means to put to death, to execute. This is not a suggestion for self-improvement. This is a command to carry out a death sentence. And what are we to execute? "The members of your earthly body." This does not mean our physical limbs. Paul is not advocating self-harm. He is using our physical members as a stand-in for the sinful practices that are carried out through them. These are the weeds in the garden of your life, and Paul is telling you to pull them up by the roots.
The list is specific. First, he names sins of a sexual nature: sexual immorality (porneia), which is any sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage; impurity, a broader term for all moral uncleanness in thought, word, and deed; passion and evil desire, which are the internal engines that drive the external acts. God is not just concerned with your behavior; He is concerned with your heart. It is not enough to refrain from the act; you must put to death the desire.
Then he gets to the root of it all: "greed, which is idolatry." Greed, or covetousness, is the engine behind all these other sins. It is the insatiable desire to have more, to have something other than God. And Paul gives it its proper name: idolatry. Why? Because when you are consumed with a desire for something that is not God, whether it be sex, or money, or power, or approval, you have set up a rival god in your heart. You are looking to a creature to provide the satisfaction, security, and meaning that can only be found in the Creator. All sin is ultimately a violation of the first commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me."
Sobering Motivation (v. 6-7)
Paul then gives us two powerful reasons to take this command seriously.
"On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them." (Colossians 3:6-7 LSB)
First, the wrath of God. This is not a popular topic, but it is a biblical one. God is not a celestial teddy bear. He is holy, and His justice demands that sin be punished. His wrath is His settled, righteous, and holy opposition to all that is evil. This wrath is not some future, hypothetical possibility; Paul says it is coming. It is a freight train headed for this world. And it is coming on account of the very sins he just listed. We do not get people to love God by "sentimentalist kitten hugging." We do it by declaring the wrath to come, and the staggering provision God has made for sinners against that day.
Second, he reminds the Colossians of their past. "You also once walked" in these things. This is a bucket of cold water for any who would be tempted to spiritual pride. We were not saved because we were better than anyone else. We were "sons of disobedience," marching in the same parade, headed for the same cliff. This is our testimony. We were dead in these sins. But the glorious truth of the gospel is that we are no longer who we once were. God, in His mercy, has rescued us. This past reality should fuel our present obedience in two ways: with deep gratitude for our salvation, and with a sober understanding of the deadly nature of the sins we are now commanded to kill.
Stripping Off the Grave Clothes (v. 8-10)
The metaphor now shifts from executing a criminal to taking off filthy clothes.
"But now you also, lay them all aside: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices, and have put on the new man..." (Colossians 3:8-10a LSB)
This second list deals primarily with sins of attitude and the tongue. Wrath, anger, malice are the seething resentments of the heart. Slander and abusive speech are the poison that spills out of the mouth. The tongue is a weapon, and we must learn how to disarm it. Slander is not an accident; it is the result of secret counsel, where wicked men sharpen their tongues like swords (Ps. 64:2-3).
He singles out lying. "Do not lie to one another." Why? "Since you put off the old man." The verb here is in the past tense. At your conversion, you took off the filthy uniform of the old man, your old unregenerate self that was defined by sin. Lying is the native language of the old man because his father is the devil, who is the father of lies (John 8:44). To continue in lying is to act as though you are still wearing those old, stinking grave clothes.
But it's not enough to take off the dirty clothes. You must get dressed. You "have put on the new man." Again, this is a past-tense reality. In Christ, you have been given a new identity, a new nature. You are a new creation. And this new man "is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." Sanctification is the lifelong process of growing into the man you already are in Christ. It is a renewal of the mind, a transformation driven by a true and deep knowledge of God, which restores in us the image of God that was shattered at the Fall.
The New Humanity (v. 10-11)
This transformation is not just individual; it creates a new corporate reality, a new kind of community.
"...who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him, 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." (Colossians 3:10b-11 LSB)
In this new humanity that God is creating, all the old divisions that men use to build walls of hostility are torn down. Paul lists the most significant divisions of his day. Greek and Jew: the great religious divide. Circumcised and uncircumcised: the great covenantal divide. Barbarian, Scythian: the great cultural divide. The Scythians were considered the most savage and uncivilized people imaginable. Slave and freeman: the great social and economic divide. Paul says that in the church, in this new creation, these distinctions are rendered meaningless as categories of ultimate identity or spiritual status.
This is a radical, world-altering truth. It does not mean that a Greek man ceases to be Greek, or a slave is automatically freed from his master. It means that these earthly identities are no longer the defining thing about them. They are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). Their primary identity is now "Christian."
Why? Because "Christ is all and in all." Christ is everything. He is the sum and substance of this new humanity. He is the one who defines us, unites us, and fills us. He is not just one part of our lives; He is our life (Col. 3:4). He is not just in some of us; He is in all of us. This is the goal of all of history, the great reintegration of a world shattered by sin. In Christ, all things hold together, and in His Church, He is creating a people where He is truly all in all.
Conclusion: Live Who You Are
The logic of the Christian life is simple and profound. You are not fighting sin in order to become a new person. You are fighting sin because you are a new person. You are not killing sin in order to be accepted by God. You are killing sin because you have been accepted by God in Jesus Christ.
This is not a call to a grim, joyless legalism. It is a call to joyful warfare. It is the happy business of clearing out the rubble and the weeds so that the life of Christ, which is already in you, can flourish. It is the process of becoming in practice what you already are in position.
So take up your sword. Identify the sins that entangle you. Show them no mercy. Put them to death, not in your own strength, but in the strength that the Spirit supplies. Strip off the old grave clothes of anger and slander. And put on the new man, the Jesus coat. Live out your new identity as a citizen of heaven, a member of the new humanity, where all the old hostilities are dead and buried, and Christ is all, and in all.