Deeper Commentary

CHAPTER 3

3:1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above- Chapter 2 has spoken of baptism as death and resurrection with Christ. If this has happened, then we follow where He went after resurrection, which was to Heaven. Not literally, for heaven going after death is not taught in the Bible; but in our thoughts being with Him there in the Heavens. The structure of Paul's letters shows very clearly the link between doctrine and practice. Colossians 1 and 2 are pure theology, the precise, analytical Paul at his most flowing, intellectually devastating and persuasive; but "then..." (3:1) we are lead on to another two chapters of the practical implications of this. This theology / doctrinal treatise and the pivotal, crucial then... therefore... is likewise the turning point of Romans (12:1), Galatians (6:1-10), Ephesians (4:1) and Philippians (4:1). His theology, his doctrine, always ends in an ethical demand (see too 1 Thess. 5 and 2 Thess. 3). To use pompous words, our orthodoxy (right doctrine) must lead to orthopraxy (right behaviour).

Where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God- Hence the significance of Stephen seeing the Lord standing at the right hand of God in urgent mediation and emotion for him in his sufferings.

3:2 Set your mind on the things that are above- The same word is used in bidding us to "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ" (Phil. 2:5); indeed, Paul uses the word seven times in Philippians. It is Christ who is "above" in that He has ascended to Heaven (:1); so the "things" in view are those of Christ, rather than spiritual, heavenly things generally.

Not on the things that are upon the earth- Paul is repeating the great theme of Philippians, to set our mind on Christ rather than be of those who "mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:19). The appeals in Philippians to be of "one mind" refer to the need to all be focused upon the same mind- Christ. That is the basis of unity, rather than being uniform in all matters of doctrinal interpretation or living.


3:3 For you died- Continuing the baptism allusions. When we were baptized, we died to the natural life, and therefore the only life we have is the life which we are given by reason of our association with the resurrected Lord Jesus. And therefore our spiritual life must be the central thing in our existence- not a hobby. As I dried myself off after my baptism, I opened my Bible at 'random', and came with marvellous appropriacy to Prov. 23:26: "My son, give me thine heart". And Paul taught the same: "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). "The love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that (Christ) has died for all (believers); therefore all have died. And He died for all (of us), that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised... therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old (life) has passed away, behold, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:14-17 RSV). "I was co-crucified with Christ (Gk.): nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me" (Gal. 2:20). And "The love of Christ constrains us", it shuts us up with no other real way to move, as the Greek implies.

And your life is hid with Christ- The idea is of treasure in a totally secure place; for Christ is in "the bosom of the Father" (Jn. 1:18). Our most valuable treasure is our life, who we are, our personality, which is what shall eternally endure. The "life" in view is surely our eternal life. In this we see the supreme, eternal importance of the development of spiritual personality; for it is that which shall last eternally.

3:4- see on 1 Cor. 15:20.

When Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then with him you shall also be manifested in glory- 1 Jn. 3:2 uses the same word in saying that "what we shall be" has not yet been "manifested". The manifesting of the Lord Jesus at the second coming is therefore our manifestation, because Christ is our life. But we are also individuals; our life and eternal being is involved. So our unique eternal personality is in fact an aspect of Him. The fullness of His personality has been shared out amongst all those in Him; one wired more towards His grace, another more towards His justice, e.g. In another figure, we are each unique parts of the body which is Christ.

If we believe we really will be there, then we will look more earnestly for the day to come. We can never be truly enthusiastic about the Lord's return if we are unsure about our ultimate acceptance at His hand. Because we are sure that "When Christ… shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication…" etc. (Col. 3:4,5). We don't control ourselves because we think this will make us good enough to be accepted, but rather because we believe that we have already been accepted. By grace alone.

3:5 Therefore, put to death what is earthly in you: Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness- Gk. 'make a corpse of'. We are alive and yet we are dead, as walking corpses. Putting to death is paralleled with "also put away..." in :8; the idea there is of undressing, of casting away clothes. We are naked corpses, that is the picture being developed. Our real life and being is centered around Heavenly things. The same word is only used elsewhere of Abraham whose body was dead, i.e. sexually impotent (Rom. 4:19; Heb. 11:12). The examples now given in the rest of this verse are all sexual. We are invited to see ourselves as Abraham, whose focus was upon the stars above, the promises of Heavenly things. Paul clearly saw that there was a real temptation for his readers to fall into sexual lust; and at the end of chapter 2 he has warned that claiming to abide by Jewish legal regulations was actually a temptation towards lust. The reasoning seems to be that legal obedience tempts a person to think that other areas of sin are therefore quite acceptable. And this would explain the link between Christian legalism and sexual immorality which has so often become apparent.

Paul saw Mt. 5:29, 30 in a sexual context (= Col. 3:5); which fits the context of Mt. 5:28.
The Colossians still had to "put to death" things like fornication, even though they had put them to death in baptism (Col. 3:5 = Rom. 6:6). Yet they are described as having formerly lived in those things, as if now, they don't do them (Col. 3:7). Yet clearly they did still do those things. Again, Paul is saying that they don't do those things by status, in God's eyes, therefore they shouldn't do them in practice.

Which is idolatry- Paul is writing to those attracted by Judaism, for whom avoiding idolatry was an obsession. But he is warning that the real idolatry is not falling down before statues, but the life of the flesh and the hidden lust of the mind.

3:6 For which things' sake comes the anger of God upon the children of disobedience- The idea of disobedience suggests that the class in view are those who know God's requirements, those responsible to judgment. The similar language of Rom. 1:18 refers to this category of persons. And we can assume there were some in Colosse, as in other New Testament churches, who were justifying serious sexual immorality as perfectly allowable for believers in Christ.

3:7 Things in which you also once walked, when you lived in these things- The parallel Eph. 2:2 says that "in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, according to the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience". That 'spirit' is here defined as that of sexual abandon and lack of internal mental control. This arises from within the flesh; and not as a result of some cosmic being controlling us.

3:8 But now you are to also put away- See on 3:5 Put to death. The commandment to “put away” these behaviours suggests that they were all ongoing amongst the Colossian converts. The same word is used of how Christian converts elsewhere needed to “put off” such carnal behaviour and immorality (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22; 1 Pet. 2:1). Clearly the early churches were full of quite serious immorality, bad language, blasphemy and even violence. The historical accounts of how some very self-sacrificial behaviour attracted the positive notice of outsiders doesn’t take away from this; and this sad scenario is all witnessed by the New Testament itself. We need to give this internal evidence its due weight. It’s clear that Paul preached and then baptized whoever said ‘yes’ without unduly analysing their motives or morality. Inevitably with so many quick baptisms, the communities which developed would have been characterized by the same spiritual immaturities which were in their native societies.

The “also” connects with the list of five forms of sexual sins in :5. Paul now gives another list of five sins which are more internal than external. He may be continuing the theme developed at the end of chapter 2, of needing to focus on the internal and spiritual more than the external.

Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth- The idea is that the five gross sexual sins of :5 are no worse than the five more common failures now listed.

3:9 Lie not one to another- The parallel Eph. 4:24,25 explains the significance of "to each other": "Put on the new man... Therefore, putting away falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour. For we are members one of another". The function of the one body will be hindered by lying to each other within it.


Seeing you have put off the old man with his doings- This is the language of Rom. 6:6 about baptism. It could fairly be said that Colossians is explaining to baptized believers the implications of their baptisms.

3:10 And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator- Because in status we have 'put on the new man', "put on, therefore... mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind", i.e. bring forth in yourself the characteristics of Jesus, seeing you have 'put Him on' in baptism (Col. 3:10,12). Clothe your personality with Him, submerge yourself within Him, seeing you 'put on' Christ in baptism. We are to live out in practice how the Lord sees us by status.

The Lord Jesus is set up in so many ways as the example for us to follow- in a way that some cosmic being descending from outer space never could have been. In the same way as Jesus was the image of the invisible God in His character (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4), so we are bidden put on the image of God (Col. 3:10), being transformed into His image progressively over time (2 Cor. 3:18), through "the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2), being conformed to the image of Jesus our Saviour (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49). Thus the process of our redemption, through the perfect character of Jesus, becomes in turn a personal pattern for each of us who have been saved by that process. And it was only through the successful completion of that work of redemption that Jesus was "made" Lord of all (Rom. 1:4; Acts 2:36). This is a different picture to the Gnostic-Trinitarian idea of a pre-existent Lord of all descending to earth which was apparently troubling the Colossians. Further, their theory gets somewhat confused when they claim that the Angelic appearances on earth in Old Testament times [e.g. the Angel with Israel in the wilderness] were actually appearances of Jesus on earth. If this is so, then when did Jesus come to earth to save men? Did He make several visits...? Why couldn't each of these visits have been enough for human salvation? The idea that the Lord Jesus was an Old Testament Angel is simply unsustainable in Scripture and needs to be rejected, along with all Gnostic-influenced views of Him. We know from Acts 14:11 that there was a strong tendency in the first century to believe that the gods could come to earth in the likeness of men; and Trinitarianism simply reflects the fact that weak Christians in the early centuries sought to accommodate Christianity to their existing beliefs.

3:11 Where there cannot be Gentile and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman- but Christ is all and in all- In the "new man" whom we have "put on", i.e. Christ, "there cannot be Greek and Jew" etc (Col. 3:11 RV). But we have to do something in order to bring this about- mere baptism isn't enough. Paul continues: "Put on therefore... a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience" (Col. 3:12). If we are "in Christ", there "cannot be" division in that body- if there is, from our perspective, then surely we are proclaiming ourselves to be not of that body. But in order to actualize being "in Christ", we have to therefore show kindness, humility, patience etc. in order that there will not be division. We have to live out in practice the status which we have been given at baptism, of being "in" the undivided, indivisible Christ. "Christ is [created in] all [who believe] and in all [places of the world]" (Col. 3:11 Bullinger). It is the common experience of this new creation which binds us together as one body and spiritual nation world-wide.

3:12 Therefore, as God's elect- The language of Old Testament Israel, and also of the Messiah. The new Israel are characterized and identified by their spiritual attributes, as the children of Abraham by the spirit, rather than fleshly identity. We again note that the false teaching plaguing Colosse and its surrounds was connected with a return to Judaism. But the main reference is I believe to us being as Christ, the elect.

And beloved- A title of Christ, whose titles and personality is now counted to all of us in Him (Mt. 12:18; and the clear parallel in Eph. 1:6 is that He "has made us accepted [by being] in the beloved").

Put on- We cannot just sit down and acquire the listed characteristics. But insofar as we are in Christ, we have clothed ourselves with Him, and these characteristics of His personality are counted to us by grace. We have "put on [s.w.] the new man", Christ (:10), who according to Isaiah's servant songs was "the elect". The faith that that is indeed so leads us to naturally be the persons we are counted to be by status.

Sensitivity, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering- These five characteristics are the antidote for the lists of five sins in :5 and :8.

3:13 Forbearing one another and forgiving each other, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as the Lord forgave you, so also forgive- He forgives us on account of our status in Christ, forgiving therefore without demanding specific repentance for every sin. And we are to operate a similar policy with others in Christ. This is the force of the little word "As...". Forgiveness without requiring repentance frees us from so much legalism and bearing of records of wrongs against others. Every "complaint" needs to be gone into, and a judgment reached as to whether the event really happened, or happened as the aggrieved party says it did; and whether there has been real repentance. And there is no ultimate ombudsman or judge on earth who can reach the ultimate truth of the situations. Every judge and jury, within or outside the church, formal or informal, will decide differently. In many cases, mitigating or unconsidered factors will keep on coming out of the woodwork. All this is a recipe for interpersonal strife and division. To forgive without demanding repentance, including forgiving perceived issues, is the way to peace and harmony, both within ourselves and within the believing community.

3:14- see on 1 Cor. 13:11.

And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection- Moses' spiritual pinnacle was characterized by arriving at a profound depth of love. Love is likewise seen by Paul as "the bond of perfection" (Col. 3:14), the sign of ultimate maturity. He has already begun in Colossians 1 by saying that true faith and hope for eternity will bring forth love. The Greek for "bond" is a medical term, referring to the ligaments of the human body. Paul has just used it concerning the anatomy of the body of Christ, the church, in 2:19. The completeness of the body is brought about by love, and the context of that "love" is in the command in the preceding verse :13 to forgive as we have been forgiven, i.e. without demanding repentance. But this is the state of "perfection" or spiritual maturity. Those who insist upon repentance before forgiveness are not therefore mature, and the body of Christ will only be completely functional if this policy of forgiveness without repentance is universally accepted and applied.

3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts- to this you were also called in one body; and be thankful- We are called to the hope of the Kingdom "in one body" (Col. 3:15); all who receive the call of the true Gospel are in the same one body. There is one body, based around sharing the one faith, one hope, understanding of the one Father and Son, having participated in the one baptism (Eph. 4:4-6). So whoever believes the doctrines of the basic Gospel and has been baptized and walks in Christ, we have a duty (and should have a desire) to fellowship. The need for unity amongst us is so very often stressed (e.g. 1 Cor. 1:10; Rom. 15:5,6; Phil. 2:2; Eph. 4:31,32; Col. 3;12-15).

3:16- see on 1 Pet. 2:5.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. In all wisdom teach and encourage one another- This may well be an allusion to the tradition of learning the Gospel of Mark. How can it richly dwell in us if we do not daily meditate upon those inspired records?

With Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs- singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord- There are connections between praise and forgiveness of sin. Col. 3:16 speaks of communal hymn singing as a means of "admonishing" each other- and the Greek translated "admonish" here means just that (cp. Tit. 3:10). The connection between praise and confession / forgiveness makes this appropriate. It may be that Paul is writing with his eye on Dt. 32; the Song of Moses spoke of Israel's weakness and proneness to apostasy. Yet they were bidden sing this to each other, in order to inculcate the culture of forgiveness without repentance- see on :13 and :14. Would anything like that get into a Christian hymn book today?

3:17 And whatever you do, in word or in action, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him- The doing and acting in view is in the policy of forgiving without repentance, on account of a believer's status in Christ; see on :13 and :14. We do this because we are in Christ, we are acting in His Name, and do so giving thanks to God for our blanket forgiveness which we experience in Him, whereby all our sins are blotted out because of our status in Christ (2:13).

3:18 Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord- As all in Christ are to be subject to each other (Eph. 5:21; 1 Pet. 5:5). These commands about family life are added in the context of the preceding argument about love and unconditional forgiveness. The Christian family and home is to be the living and supreme example and microcosm of the principles governing church life. This is why church leaders are to be judged more than anything else by the state and function of their own families.

3:19 Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them- I have argued that these commands about family life are exemplifications of the preceding comments about unconditional forgiveness and treating each other as Christ has treated us. The parallel in Eph. 4:31,32 supports that: "Let all bitterness and wrath... be put away from you... be kind to each other, sensitive, forgiving each other, even as God in Christ also forgave you". Bitterness arises from unforgiveness. Likewise the command in :21 about not provoking others to wrath (AV) must be read in this same context; wrath, according to Eph. 4:31,32, arises from unforgiveness.

3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is pleasing to the Lord- Implying there were baptized young people in the ecclesias. The early critics of Christianity mocked it as a religion of children and women. Those not counted as persons in ancient society found their meaning and acceptance in Christ.

3:21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, in order that they are not discouraged- See on :19 Be not bitter. These commandments are regarding believing families. The discouragement in view was presumably in the context of the children growing up encouraged by their fathers to believe and be baptized. But endless provocation of children in domestic life will only discourage them from that path.

3:22 Servants, obey in all things those that are your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord- The Greek kurios is used here for “masters” rather than the more natural despotes because the idea is being developed that service to human masters can be accepted as service towards the Master- the Lord Jesus.

3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as if to the Lord and not to men- This is in the context of commands to slaves (:22). It would have been so liberating for those in dead end daily situations, similar to those trapped in minimum wage employment today, to realize that their service can be done "to the Lord". He realizes the limitations of human situations in employment, and is willing to accept the toil of the daily grind as done to Him- if we are willing to give it to Him.

3:24 Knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ- The comfort is to first century slaves, and those in the slavery of minimum wage dead end employment in our age, to not look so much to the pittance of salary or reward at the end of each day or month- but to realize that the reward of working as unto the Lord is in fact the inheritance of the Kingdom.

3:25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality- The context is about slaves and masters, and the reference may well be to believing masters who abused their slaves.