Colossians 3:5

(5) Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.—The expression is doubly unique. It is the only passage where “mortification”—the killing of anything in us—is enjoined; and it is also notable, as not explicitly distinguishing between the members themselves, and the evil of which they are made the instruments. The sense is, of course, clear enough. It corresponds to the “crucifying the flesh” of Gal_5:24; and the idea of evil, mostly expressed plainly in the word “flesh,” is here hinted in the phrase “which are on the earth,” that is, which are busied with earth and bind us down to the earthly life. The particular word “members” is perhaps suggested by our Lord’s command to “cut off the right hand” and “pluck out the right eye” if they cause us to offend (Mat_5:29-30). But, as a rule, Scripture more clearly marks the distinction between the members and “the law of sin in the members” (Rom_7:5; Rom_7:23); and we are usually bidden not to “kill our members,” but to turn them from “instruments of unrighteousness” to be “instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom_6:13). The fact is that this passage contains only half the truth, corresponding to the death with Christ, and not the whole truth, including also the resurrection to the new life. Accordingly, as the next verse shows, the members to be mortified are actually identified with the vices of the old man residing in them.

Fornication, uncleanness . . . covetousness, which is idolatry.—See Eph_5:3, and Note there.

Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence.—These words are not found in the parallel passage. The word rendered “inordinate affection” is the general word for “passion” (pathos). It is found united to “concupiscence” in 1Th_4:5, “the lust of concupiscence.” Both words here are general words, denoting the condition of soul, of which “fornication” and “covetousness” are both exemplifications. This is the condition of unrestrained passion and desire, the former word implying a passive receptiveness of impression from without, the other the positive energy of desire to seek gratification. Comp. Gal_5:24, “the affections” (passions) and “lusts.” Of such a temper Article IX. of the Church of England declares with singular accuracy, not that it is sin, but that it has in itself rationem peccati, that is, the initial principle of sin.

Col_3:5-9 contain the negative section of St. Paul’s practical appeal, drawing out the consequences of the “death with Christ,” in the mortification of all tendencies to impurity, malice, and falsehood. For these are the opposites to purity, love, and truth—the three great attributes of God, and therefore the three chief graces of man.

[5. Practical Exhortation, General.

(1) NEGATIVE.—To MORTIFY THE OLD MAN, by fleeing from—

(a) Uncleanness and lust (Col_3:5-7);

(b) Wrath and malice (Col_3:8);

(c) Falsehood (Col_3:9).

(2) POSITIVE.—To PUT ON THE NEW MAN, making Christ our “all in all.”

(a) In love and peace, as shown in mercy, humility, patience, and forgiveness (Col_3:10-15);

(b) In thanksgiving (Col_3:16);

(c) In living to the glory of God (Col_3:17);

(The whole of this section stands in close parallelism, frequently in verbal coincidence, with Eph_4:20 to Eph_6:9. There are, however, constantly emerging indications of independence of handling. Generally speaking, the Ephesian Epistle is fuller and deeper in treatment; and, moreover, it constantly brings out, in relation both to moral duty and to the observation of the relations of life, the great characteristic doctrine of the universal unity in Christ. This Epistle, on the other hand, is briefer and more incisive, and has only slight, though clear, indications of the idea so powerfully worked out in the other Epistle.)]

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col_3:5-9

Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.

Slaying self

Mortify, therefore, because ye were raised with Christ. The homeliest moral teaching of the Epistle is based upon its mystical theology,. Character is the outcome and test of doctrine. But too many people deal with their beliefs as they do with their hassocks and hymn-books in their pews, so it is necessary to put the practical issues very plainly.

I. The paradox of self-slaying as the all-embracing duty of a Christian. Mortify conveys less than is meant. Slay your members is the spiritual duty which stands over against the error of severity to the body against which the Colossians had been warned (Col_2:23). It consists in the destruction of the passions and desires.

1. Pauls anthropology regards men as wrong and having to get right. A great deal of moral teaching talks as if men were rather inclined to be good, and its lofty sentiments go over peoples heads. The serpent has twined itself round my limbs, and unless you give me a knife to cut its loathsome coils it is cruel to bid me walk. Culture is not the beginning of good husbandry. You must first stub up the thorns and sift out the poisonous weeds or you will have wild grapes.

2. The root of all such slaying is being dead with Christ to the world. What asceticism cannot do in that it is weak through the flesh, union with Christ will do; it will subdue sin in the flesh.

3. There must, however, he vigorous determination. Slaying cannot be pleasant and easy. It is easier to cut off the hand which is not me than to sacrifice passions and desires which are myself. The paths of religion are ways of pleasantness, but they are steep, and climbing is not easy. The way to heaven is not by the primrose path. That leads to the everlasting bonfire. Men obtain forgiveness and eternal life as a gift by faith; but they achieve holiness, which is the permeating of their characters with that eternal life, by patient believing effort.

II. A grim catalogue of the condemned to death. Paul stands like a jailer at the prison door, with the fatal roll in his hand, and reads out the names of the evildoers for whom the tumbril waits to carry them to the guillotine. It is an ugly list, but we need plain speaking, for these evils are rampant now.

1. Fornication covers the whole ground of immoral sexual relations.

2. All uncleanness embraces every manifestation in word, look, or deed of the impure spirit.

3. Passion and evil desire are sources of evil deeds, and include all forms of hungry appetite for the things that are upon the earth.

4. Covetousness, whose connection with sensuality is significant. The worldly nature flies for solace either to the pleasures of appetite or acquisition. How many respectable middle-aged gentlemen are now mainly devoted to making money whose youth was foul with sensual indulgence. Covetousness is promoted vice, lust superannuated. And it is idolatry, a fetish worship, which is the religion of thousands who masquerade as Christians.

III. The exhortation is enforced by a solemn note of warning (verse 6).

1. The thought of wrath is unwelcome because thought inconsistent with Gods love. But wrath is love wounded, thrown back upon itself, and compelled to assume the form of aversion, and to do its strange work of punishment. God would not be holy if it were all the same to Him whether a man was good or bad; and the modern revulsion against wrath is usually accompanied with weakened conceptions of Gods holiness. Instead of exalting, it degrades His love to free it from the admixture of wrath, which is like alloy with gold, giving firmness to what were else too soft for use. Such a God is not love but impotent good nature.

2. The wrath cometh. That may express the continuous present incidence of wrath or the present of prophetic certainty. That wrath comes now in plain and bitter consequences, and the present may be taken as the herald of a still more solemn manifestation of the Divine displeasure. The first fiery drops that fell on Lots path as he fled were not more surely percursors of an overwhelming rain, nor bade him flee for his life more urgently, than the present punishment of sin proclaims its own future punishment, and exhorts us to flee to Jesus from the wrath to come.

IV. A further motive is the remembrance of a sinful past.

1. Walking. That in which men walk is the atmosphere encompassing them; or to walk in anything is to have the active life occupied by it. The Colossians had trodden the evil path and inhaled the poisonous atmosphere. Lived means more than Your natural life was passed among them. In that sense they still lived there. But whereas they were now living in Christ, the phrase describes the condition which is the opposite of the present--When the roots of your life, tastes, affections, etc., were immersed, as in some feculent bog, in these and kindred evils.

2. This retrospect is meant to awaken penitence and to kindle thankfulness, and by both emotions to stimulate the resolute casting aside of that evil in which they once, like others, wallowed. The gulf between the present and the past of a regenerate man is too wide and deep to be bridged by flimsy compromises. It is impossible to walk firmly if one foot be down in the gutter and the other up on the curbstone.

V. We have as conclusion a still wider exhortation to an entire stripping off of the sins of the old state (verses 8, 9).

1. The Colossians, as well as other heathen, had been walking and living in muddy ways; but now their life was hid, etc., and that in common with a community to join which they had left another. Let them keep step with their new comrades, and strip themselves, as their new associates do, of the uniform they wore in that other regiment.

2. This second catalogue of vices summarizes the various forms of wicked hatred in contrast with the various forms of wicked love in the other list. The fierce rush of unhallowed passion is put first, and the contrary flow of chill malignity second; for in the spiritual world as in the physical, a storm blowing from one quarter is usually followed by violent gales from the opposite. Lust ever passes into cruelty, and dwells hard by hate. Malice is evil desire iced.

(1) Auger. There is a righteous anger which is part of the new man; but here it is the inverted reflection of the earthly and passionate lust after the flesh. If anger rises keep the lid on, and dont let it get the length of wrath. But do not think that its suppression is enough, saying, I did not show it--strip off anger, the emotion as well as the manifestation. But I have naturally a hot disposition; but Christianity was sent to subdue and change natural dispositions.

(2) Malice. Anger boils over in wrath, and then cools down into malignity; and malice as cold and colourless as sulphuric acid, and burning like it is worse than boiling rage.

(3) It is significant that while the expressions of wicked love were deeds, those of wicked hate are words. The blasphemy of Authorised Version is bitter railing of Revised Version--speech that injures, which when directed against God is blasphemy, and against man vituperation.

4. Lying has its proper place here because it comes from a deficiency of love or a predominance of selfishness. A lie ignores my brothers claims upon me, and is poisoned bread instead of the heavenly manna of pure truth. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The flesh to be crucified

A brave officer said once to his soldiers in a day of battle, Unless you kill your enemies they will kill you. In like manner may it be said, Unless we crucify the flesh, it will be our everlasting ruin.

The mortification of the sinful principle in man

I. The sinful principle has an active outward development.

1. It is mundane in its tendencies. Your members, etc. It teaches the soul to grovel when it ought to soar.

2. It is manifested in acts of gross sensuality. Fornication, etc.

3. It is recognized by debasing idolatry. Covetousness is insatiable lust for material possessions.

II. The active outgoings of the sinful principle call for Divine vengeance (verse 6). The wrath of God is not a malignant unreasoning passion. Nor is it a figure of speech into which the maudlin philosophers of the day would fain resolve it, but an awful reality.

III. The indulgence of the sinful principle in man is inconsistent with the new life he has in christ (verse 7).

IV. That the sinful principle in man is the source of the most malignant passions (verses 8, 9). The former classification embraced sins which related more especially to self: this includes sins which have a bearing upon others.

1. There are sins of the heart and temper.

2. There are sins of the tongue.

V. The sinful principle in man, and all its out-goings, must be wholly renounced and resolutely mortified. Now ye also put off all these (verses 8, 9). (G. Barlow.)

Denying the

flesh:--A brave officer said once to his soldiers in a day of battle, Unless you kill your enemies, they will kill you. In like manner may it be said, Unless we crucify the flesh, it will be our everlasting ruin.

Mortifying the flesh

Punting after perfection Dr. Judson strove to subdue every sinful habit and senseward tendency. Finding that for want of funds the Mission was languishing, he cast into the treasury his patrimonial estate. Finding that his nicety and love of neatness interfered with his labours among the filthy Karens, he sought to vanquish this repugnance by nursing those sick of most loathsome diseases. Finding that his youthful love of fame was not utterly extinguished, he threw into the fire his correspondence, including a letter of thanks he had received from the Governor General of India, and every document which might contribute to his posthumous renown. And finding that his soul still clave unto the earth, he took temporary leave of all his friends, and retired into a but on the edge of the jungle, and subsisting on a little rice, for several weeks he gave himself entirely to communion with God. (T. Hamilton, D. D.)

Corruptions overcome by grace

My gardeners were removing a large tree which grew near a wall and as it would weaken the wall to stub up the roots, it was agreed that the stump should remain in the ground. But how were we to prevent the stump from sprouting, and so disarranging the gravel-walk. The gardeners prescription was, to cover it with a layer of salt. I mused awhile, and thought that the readiest way to keep down my ever-sprouting corruptions in future would be to sow them well with the salt of grace. O Lord, help me so to do. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Corruptions overcome gradually

When Sir Christopher Wren was engaged in demolishing the ruins of old St. Pauls in order to make room for his new cathedral, he used a battering-ram with which thirty men continued to beat upon a part of the wall for a whole day. The work men, not discerning any immediate effect, thought this a waste of time; but Wren, who knew that the internal motion thus communicated must be operating, encouraged them to persevere. On the second day, the wall began to tremble at the top, and fell in a few hours. If our prayers and repentances do not appear to overcome our corruptions, we must continue still to use these gracious battering-rams, for in due time by faith in Jesus Christ the power of evil shall be overthrown. Lord, enable me to give hearty blows by the power of thy Holy Spirit until the gates of hell in my soul shall be made to totter and fall. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Covetousness.

Covetousness

1. Is a thirst for gain. When it burns in a mans heart, he must make some effort to obtain relief. He must try either to extinguish or satisfy it; to starve it by a religious self-denial, or feed it by a carnal indulgence.

2. Covetousness is ruinous to the individual, to the nation, and to the Church, and the elements which go to constitute the material prosperity of each contain in them the seeds of ruin. Hence the stern exhortation, Take heed and beware of covetousness.

I. Its company. Things and men are known by the company they keep. It is the companion of fornication. The collocation is not accidental, it is uniform (1Co_5:11; Eph_5:3; 2Pe_2:14.) When a man has plunged into some fashionable vice, he is indignant to find that the law makes him stand side by side with more vulgar convicts. So with covetous people who find themselves here branded with the same infamy as the unclean. All its respectability is here stripped off. Covetousness is like sins of uncleanness, in that it is--

1. The unlawful direction and acting of desires not in themselves unlawful. Its great strength lies here. The complex apparatus of trade is innocently and dutifully set in motion; but who shall tell when it ceases to be impelled by virtue and begins to be impelled by vice. But the evil spirit enters, and when mammon gets the power, he allows others to retain the name: and the love of money takes the place of a God-fearing, man-loving sense of duty, as the motive-power in a mans soul.

2. It grows by indulgence. It grows by what it feeds on. The desire of the mind as well as of the body is inflamed by tasting its unhallowed gratification. It burns in the breast like a fire, and fuel added, increases its burning. And the man who makes money an object to be aimed at for its own sake is by common consent called a miser (miserable one). Mammon first entraps, and then tortures its victims. Many would be afraid to dally with approaches to lasciviousness (Pro_5:5). But the two lusts are born brothers.

3. The least incipient indulgence displeases God, and sears the conscience. Although the disease may never grow to such a height that men will call you a miser, yet He who looketh on the heart is angry when He sees a covetous desire. He who has said Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her, etc., has not a more indulgent rule whereby to judge this kindred sin.

II. Its character. Idolatry. Other Scriptures less directly, but no less surely, affirm the same (Luk_16:13; 1Ti_6:17; Job_31:25-28). It is not the form or name of the idol that God regards, but the heart-homage of the worshipper. This leads us back to the former topic; idolatry is represented as uncleanness in the Bible. God is our Husband, and to transfer our affections from Him is adultery. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

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Covetousness

The Romans worshipped their standards; and the Roman standard happened to be an eagle. Our standard is only one-tenth of an eagle--a dollar--but we make all even by adoring it with tenfold devotion. (Edgar A. Poe.)

Gold in the heart

Mr. Fuller was one day taken into the Bank of England, where one of the clerks, to whom he had occasion to speak, showed him some ingots of gold. He took one of them into his hand, examined it with some care, and then, laying it down, remarked to his friend, How much better to have this in the hand than in the heart!

Covetousness is idolatry

I. What is covetousness?

1. There is a good covetousness (1Co_12:31), as of grace and glory.

2. Sinful: to love the world inordinately.

(1) In the inordinate desire of riches--above Gods glory and our own spiritual good.

(2) In the sinful acquiring them

(a) As to matter--anothers goods (1Ki_21:1-29.).

(b) As to manner and means--unjust (Pro_10:2; Pro_28:8).

(3) In the wrongful retaining them--not laying them out for the ends God has appointed.

II. What is idolatry?

1. External.

2. Internal: worship given to what is not God (Joh_4:24).

III. How is covetousness idolatry?

1. In that

(1) man admires riches (Rom_11:33).

(2) Loves it (Mat_22:37).

(3) Desires it (Psa_73:25).

(4) Fears losing it (Mat_10:28).

(5) Trusts on (1Ti_6:17; Mar_10:23-24).

(6) Grieves for the loss of.

(7) Rejoices in (Php_4:4).

(8) Labours after (Mat_6:33).

2. Objections.

(1) I worship no images. Yes, of thine own fancy.

(2) I do not fall down to them. But in thy soul, and that is the principal.

(3) I offer no sheep or rams. But thyself. The Phoenicians and Carthaginians offered men, but yours is the greater sin. For they offered bodies not souls, others not themselves.

(4) We do not look upon them as gods. You do in effect, because as the chiefest good. You know them to be no gods, and yet worship them as such.

IV. Signs.

1. Such as whose thoughts run more upon earth than heaven (Luk_12:22; Luk_12:25; Luk_12:29).

2. Whose joy and grief depend on out ward successes (Luk_12:19).

3. Who strive to be rich, but no matter how.

4. Whose desires increase with their estate.

5. Who grudge the time spent in Divine duty (Amo_8:5).

6. Whose hearts are upon the world, while their body is before God (Eze_33:31).

7. Who do not improve the estates God has given them (Mat_25:24-25).

V. USE. Avoid it. Consider--

1. How odious it is to God (Psa_10:3).

2. How injurious to our neighbour.

3. Dangerous to us (1Jn_2:15; 1Ti_6:10). It fills the heart with anxiety (1Ti_6:9-10) and will certainly keep us from heaven (1Co_6:9-10).

4. Foolish in itself.

(1) To act so much below ourselves.

(2) To throw away our souls for vanity (Mat_16:26).

(3) To spend that little time on earth, wherein we should prepare for heaven.

(4) To make oneself a slave for he knows not whom (Psa_39:6; Ecc_4:8).

VI. Means.

1. Think much of the vanity of earth and the glory of heaven.

2. Act faith in the promises (Psa_37:25; Heb_13:5).

3. Meditate on the universal providence of God, and His fatherly care (Luk_12:31-32; Mat_6:25, etc.).

4. Be much in prayer.

5. Often remember the text (1Jn_5:21). (Bp. Beveridge.)

The idolatry of covetousness

Idolatry is the earliest thing mentioned in the decalogue, and coveting the latest. The two tables bend round and touch each other so closely that he who breaks the tenth commandment breaks the first. The inordinate love and pursuit of wealth are simply heathenish, and are put down on the same level as the worship of images. Gold seems in many respects very like a god.

I. In the attributes it possesses.

1. Omniscience. Wealth seems to know everything. Let any novelty be presented and men will know of it instantly. You cannot keep any plan or line of business secret if there is any money in it.

2. Omnipresence. The least opening for business invites competition, and so wealth rushes in. Mammon wins its way where seraphs might despair.

3. Omnipotence. How many of us know to our sorrow the power of riches! the overmastering, crushing opposition it sets up before every poor mans enterprise. Gold rules the world, covers the land, buys up the offices of the nation, sways the sceptre of social influence.

II. The worship it attracts.

1. The roar of excited men who clamour with each other in the death grapple of competition, how little does it differ from the cries of the Town Hall of Ephesus.

2. But this is not mere lip-worship. The devotees are as desperately in earnest as the priests of Baal on Carmel. Body and soul are consecrated.

III. The favours it bestows. The fine residence, the gorgeous apparel, the flowing wine, the tremulous obeisance of the seedy gentleman, the obsequious flattery of the lady whose charms have faded, the adulation of the crowd, the flutter in the market, the cringe of ancient enemies; and then the fine funeral, and the marble tomb. Verily they have their reward. Wealth, as a duty, is not remarkably beneficent, but it would be uncandid to say that he has nothing to bestow on his faithful devotees. The world likes priestcraft; and the priest has power according to his nearness to his duty, and to the faith of the populace. And hence there is no hierarchy so absolutely revered, feared, and obeyed as those who crowd the temples of gold.

IV. The scourges it inflicts. The temples of heathenism are beautiful, but the gods are ugly because malignant. They are supposed to maltreat and even eat their subjects, and mammon is well typed in them. His most noticeable characteristic is that he loves to trample on and devour his devotees. He that trusteth in his riches shall fall. There are some sins which seem to be considered by the Almighty as sufficient for their own punishment, such as pride and anger; passion means suffering. So here this trusting in riches possesses a kind of inflated power to baloon one up to such a height that he suffocates and falls headlong into ruin. It is painful to see how rich men pitch on each other when any one falls into difficulty. The horrible heartlessness with which a neighbourhood will devour a broken estate reminds one of the fabled furies. Conclusion:

1. See, then, why God strikes against this sin. It sets up another god in the place of Him. One of the Roman Emperors offered Jesus a place beside Jupiter. It would not do then, neither will it now. God will have all or none.

2. See how covetousness destroys grace and piety. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

3. See how it ruins all ones future, Ephraim is joined to his idols, etc. But when ones god is gone, where is he! Shrouds have no pockets.

4. See how it prevents all hope of progress in a Church. Will a man rob God, etc. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

For which things sake the wrath of God cometh.--

Dissuasives from evil

I. The destructive consequence

1. The cause, fornication, etc., not that we should conclude that it is peculiar to these sins alone to excite the Divine wrath, but because upon these which especially overthrow human happiness God is especially provoked (Heb_10:31). The apostle wished to point out distinctly the cause of human misery and Divine judgment.

(1) That God might be cleared from all suspicion of injustice. God the Father of mercies is not indifferent to evil, but is incensed against it.

(2) To throw a restraint on the wicked. Those who are proof against reason and right may yield to fear.

2. The effect. The wrath of God; or the punishment inflicted by wrath. Augustine says, The anger of God is not the perturbation of an excited mind, but the tranquil constitution of righteous judgment. This wrath is particularly connected with sins of the kind referred to here (Gen_6:11; Gen_6:17; Gen_18:20; Gen_19:24).

3. The persons subjected to it Children of disobedience. Two crimes are involved--unbelief and disobedience, the latter as the genuine offspring of the former (1Pe_3:20; Mat_24:38-39 : Gen_19:14; Zec_7:11).

4. From these things draw the following instructions.

(1) Under public calamities we must not murmur against God; but impute them to our sins.

(2) Oppose to solicitation to sin the consideration of the Divine wrath.

(3) Nothing is more to be desired than the Divine favour, nothing more to be dreaded than the Divine wrath.

(4) God is not so much prevoked by sin as by the obstinacy of the sinner.

(5) How ever much the children of disobedience flatter themselves, the wrath now cometh upon them, and will come, and will not tarry.

(6) The same holds good of Gods children when disobedient.

II. The removal of the cause (verse 7). Sin is the reigning cause of a wicked life; but sin is not living in you, but mortified; the cause, therefore, having ceased, the effect ceases.

1. From the consideration of their former life learn--

(1) Nothing is more unhappy than unrenewed man. To walk in sin with pleasure is to hasten towards hell with pleasure (Rom_6:23).

(2) The fruits of a man in a corrupt state are not works preparatory to grace, or, deserving of eternal life--congruity, as the schoolmen say--but are preparatory to hell, and meritorious of eternal death, from condignity.

2. From their new state learn--

(1) It is not idle for the renewed to call to mind their former state, inasmuch as the apostle reminds the Colossians of theirs, not to upbraid, but to encourage them.

(2) Christians ought not to take it amiss when ministers remind them of their former state (Rom_6:19; 1Co_6:10-11; Eph_2:11-13).

(3) The regenerate receive a twofold advantage from a notice of this kind. They are excited

(a) To gratitude (Rom_6:17; 1Ti_1:12-13).

(b) To newness of life (Rom_13:12; Eph_5:8). (Bishop Davenant.)

The wrath of God a present thing

It is not merely a thing of the past, as seen in the deluge, the destruction of Sodom, the overthrow of Israel in the wilderness; nor a thing wholly reserved for the world to come. It cometh as an enduring and essential principle of the Divine government. In physical debility and disease, in a shattered constitution, in dethroned reason, in destroyed power, you often witness the working of a righteous retribution, the marks of Divine indignation against sin. A sight of terrible penalty under Gods law is it, to see a man carrying to a premature grave the evidences in his body of Gods curse on sins of sensuality; to see the rich man, who has lived in avarice for gold, and has amassed it in millions, now in his old age unable to enjoy it, and haunted with the idea of dying in a workhouse; to see a man of pleasure, who has tried and exhausted all the resources of the world in finding it, now ending his days as a gloomy maniac. Yet these cases are nothing as compared with the wrath to come; only a few drops from a dark and dismal cloud, which will hereafter discharge itself in a storm of judgment and fiery indignation. (J. Spence, D. D.)

The children of disobedience

Men are sent to the ants to learn diligence, to the conies to learn that there is a way which terminates in a great rock, to the locusts to learn how littles, when combined, may become mighty, sufficient for all the duty and obligation of the day. What if it be found at last that all the lower orders and ranks of creation have been obedient, dutiful, loyal, and that the child only has wounded the great heart. The ox knoweth his owner, etc. God has no trouble with His creatures--no trouble with His great constellations--they never mutinied against Him; He has had no trouble with His forests, no rebel host ever banded themselves there. Where has His sorrow lain! His own child, His beloved one, in whom He has written, in fairest hues, the perfectness of His own beauty, that child has lifted up his puny fist and smitten Him, not in the face only, but in His heart of love, which can be only forgiven by shedding sacrificial blood. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Effects of disobedience

Let the sickles alone, said a farmer to his son, who was left in the fields while the reapers went to dinner. James obeyed his father for a time; but at length he grew lonesome, and took up a sickle, just to look at it. He then felt its edge, and at last thought he would cut one handful. In so doing, he cut his little finger, inflicting a wound which rendered the middle joint useless for life. When it was healed an ugly scar and a stiff finger were lasting mementoes of his disobedience. Disobedience to his heavenly Father leaves a scar on the sinners soul, and lessens his capacity for virtue. (E. Foster.)

The wrath of God

The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the higher the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. If God should only withdraw His hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it. (Jonathan Edwards.)

But now ye also put off all these.--

The believers view of past sin

I once walked into a garden with a lady to gather some flowers. There was one large bush whose branches were bending under the weight of the most beautiful roses. We both gazed upon it with admiration. There was one flower on it which seemed to shine above all the rest in beauty. This lady pressed forward into the thick bush, and reached far over to pluck it. As she did this a black snake, which was hid in the bush, wrapped itself round her arm. She was alarmed beyond all description, and ran from the garden screaming, and almost in convulsions. During all that day she suffered very much with fear; her whole body trembled, and it was a long time before she could be quieted. That lady is still alive. Such is her hatred now of the whole serpent race, that she has never since been able to look at a snake, even though it were dead. No one could ever persuade her to venture again into a cluster of bushes, even to pluck a beautiful rose. Now this is the way the sinner acts who truly repents of his sins. He thinks of sin as the serpent that once coiled itself round him. He hates it. He dreads it. He flies from it. He fears the places where it inhabits. He does not willingly go into the haunts. He will no more play with sin than this lady would afterwards have fondled snakes. (Bishop Meade.)

Conversion and the old nature

There are a great many men who are like one of my roses. I bought a Gloire de Dijon. It was said to be one of the few everblooming roses. It was grafted on a manetti-stalk--a kind of dog-rose, a rampant and enormous grower, and a very good stalk to graft fine roses on. I planted it. It throve the first part of the summer, and the last part of the summer it grew with great vigour; and I quite gloried, when the next spring came, in my Gloire de Dijon. It had wood enough to make twenty such roses as these finer varieties usually have; and I was in the amplitude of triumph. I said, My soil suits it exactly in this climate; and I will write an article for the Monthly Gardener, and tell what luck I have had with it. So I waited and waited and waited till at blossomed; and behold! it was one of these worthless, quarter-of-a-dollar, single-blossomed roses. And when I came to examine it I found that it was grafted, and that there was a little bit of a graft down near the ground, and that it was the manetti-sprout that had grown to such a prodigious size. Now, I have seen a great many people converted, in whom the conversion did not grow, but the old nature did. (H. W. Beecher.)

I. The general persuasion.

1. The circumstance of time--now. Ye did indulge in these as long as sin lived, but now, since sin is mortified, ye must put these things away (Rom_13:12; 1Th_5:5-6).

2. The act commanded. The word may be explained either to put off as men put off their old and dirty clothes, or to lay aside from the affections and senses, as dead bodies shut up in sepulchres. The last best agrees with mortify.

3. Learn then--

(1) We must not account sin a pleasure, but a thing to be hated as deadly poison, or to be avoided as a putrid carcase.

(2) This putting off applies to all sin, of which anger, etc., are only samples.

II. We are to put off sins of the heart.

1. What they are.

(1) Anger, an inordinate desire to injure ones neighbour for some past offence. Damascenus defines it as an appetite for revenge, and in this what the schoolmen term the formal of anger is contained.

(2) Wrath denotes the hasty excitement of this passion, and that accession of blood round the heart which schoolmen call the material of anger. Wrath, says Damascenus, is the boiling up of the blood around the heart, and arises from the kindling of resentment.

(3) Malice some affirm to be that vicious propensity which infects all the affections and desires, and inclines them to evil; and Bernard, the taste for evil, which makes evil sweet and good insipid. But it is rather that machination of evil in the heart which is wont to arise from anger in malevolent minds (Gen_4:5; Gen_27:41).

2. The reasons why they should be extirpated. Because--

(1) Through anger wisdom is lost, and reason for the time extinguished (Ecc_7:19). Anger is a short madness.

(2) Justice is violated for while an exasperated mind sits in judgment everything which its fury may suggest it thinks right (Jam_1:20; cf. Gen_49:7)

(3) The kindness of social life is lost (Pro_22:24).

(4) The illumination of the Spirit is shut out.

(5) Forgiveness of sin is hindered (Mat_11:26).

(6) The attribute of God is usurped with sacrilegious audacity (Pro_20:22; Deu_32:35). An angry man makes himself the judge, and would have God the executioner.

3. But is all anger unlawful? No! for God has implanted in the mind the faculty of anger, and Christ was angry (Mar_3:5). Hence the apostle enjoins, Be ye angry and sin not.

(1) Anger is good--

(a)Which arises from a good motive, viz., from the love of God or our neighbour.

(b) Which tends to a good end, the glory of God and the correction of our neighbour.

(c) Which proceeds according to a good rule, awaiting or following the determination of reason. Basil would have anger to be a bridled horse, which obeys reason as a curb.

(2) Anger is evil--

(a) Which arises from a bad beginning--hatred or love of praise.

(b) Which tends to a bad end--revenge and our neighbours injury.

(c) Which is exercised in an improper manner, forestalling the judgment of reason.

III. Sins of the mouth, arising from the inordinate affections of the heart.

1. What they are.

(1) Evil speaking. Blasphemy means injuring the fame of another by evil words.

(a) It is offered to God; first, when that which is repugnant to His nature is attributed to Him; secondly, when that which most befits Him is taken away; thirdly, when that which is His property is attributed to the creature. So heinous was it that God made it a capital crime (Lev_24:16; Lev_24:23).

(b) It is offered to man (Rom_3:8; 1Co_4:13; Tit_3:2), and is secret (detraction) and open (railing). Rash and angry persons take the open course; the crafty and malicious the secret. Its grievousness is evident. First, it greatly injures the person himself. His reputation, a principal external blessing is wounded, and is not easy to repair, since the quantity of the loss cannot be estimated. Secondly, it greatly injures those who take it up, engendering as it does suspicions and strifes (Psa_120:2). Thirdly, it is a great injury done to God. For as He is praised in the saints when the works He effects in them are praised; so when they are defamed He is defamed.

(2) Corollaries.

(a) Such as respect the blasphemers. First, the habit argues an unregenerate state, for it is one of the principal deeds of the old man. Second, slanderers are unhappy, for, as Nazianzen says, It is the extreme of misery to place ones comfort not in ones own happiness, but in the evils of others. Third, they are the disciples of the devil (Rev_12:10).

(b) Such as respect hearers. First, since it is so great a crime, those who delight to hear it are not void of sin. Each has a devil; this in the ear, that in the tongue. Second, it behoves a pious man to turn away from and reprove slanderers, and to defend his brother (Pro_25:23; Psa_101:5; Job_29:17).

(c) Respecting those injured. First, grieve more for the slanderer than for what he says. Second, slander harms not a good conscience. Third, there is the counterbalancing testimony of conscience and good men. Fourth, do not be provoked to return evil for evil (1Co_5:12).

2. Filthy communication (Eph_2:29; 1Co_15:33). This is to be avoided because--

(1) It makes that most precious and peculiar faculty of speech foul and ridiculous.

(2) It indicates a corrupt mind.

(3) It is opposed to the sacred profession of a Christian (Eph_5:3-4).

(4) It corrupts speaker and hearers. Wherefore rebuke it in others. Avoid it yourselves. (Bishop Davenant.)

Anger

There is an anger that in damnable; it is the anger of selfishness. There is an anger that is majestic as the frown of Jehovahs brow; it is the anger of truth and love. If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that he should not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to think upon it that is sinful. The flame is not wrong, but the coals are. (H. W. Beecher.)

The evils of bad temper

There are households where this demon of anger governs all at its pleasure, incessantly troubling the concord of husband and wife, the union of parents and children, and the peace of masters and servants. There is nothing done, nothing said, but in anger. You would say of these houses, that they are the fabled cavern of Eolus, where the winds shut up in it are heard night and day, roaring and blustering. There is no climate, no sea, no coast in all the earth, where storms are greater or more frequent. For whereas natural tempests happen but at some seasons of the year, in these miserable houses no calm is ever seen; and there needs but one petty action, one word, yea, one look, to raise storms of many days continuance: as it is said of certain lakes in the mountains of Berne, that if one cast but a stone into them, the surrounding air becomes turbid, and is immediately filled with winds and clouds, which soon issue lightning, thunder, and excessive rain. Yea, there are some whose passion is so violent, that it cannot be kept within the enclosure of their houses. It issues out of doors, and without respect to the faces of those who pass by, without apprehension of scandal, audaciously shows itself in public, and acts its tragedies in the presence of all the world. (J. Daille.)

Control of temper

When M. de Persigny was French Minister of the Interior he received a visit one day from a friend. A warm discussion arose between them. Suddenly an usher entered and handed the minister a note. On opening it he at once changed his tone of voice, and assumed a quiet and urbane manner. Puzzled as to the contents of the note, and by the marked effect it had suddenly produced upon the minister, his friend cast a furtive glance at it, when, to his astonishment, he perceived that it was simply a plain sheet of paper. More puzzled than ever the gentleman took his leave, and proceeded to interrogate the usher. Sir, said he, here is the explanation, which I must beg you to keep secret. My master is very liable to lose his temper. As he is aware of his weakness, he has ordered me, each time his voice is raised sufficient to be audible in the ante-room, without delay to place a sheet of paper in an envelope and take it to him. That reminds him that his temper is getting the better of him, and he at once calms himself. Just now I heard his voice rising, and immediately carried out my instructions. (W. Baxendale.)

Malice

The word is of great extent, and signifies in general that venom and evil of sin which is diffused through any one of our passions, whichever it be. But here, as frequently elsewhere, I suppose it is taken for the malignity of anger; when a mischievous and vindictive stomach inwardly broods on its passion, and feeds its fire under the ashes, hatching some ill turn for the person it aims at, and waiting for opportunity to break out. Such a man works under ground, as miners do, and appears not till the ruin he prepares for his enemy is fully ready. His passion is like a stinted fire, that does not burn up till its season. Of all kinds of auger, there is none more black and malignant in itself, or more noxious and pernicious in its effects. Wherefore the apostle calls it malice, naughtiness, or malignity particularly; and it seems to be the same thing he elsewhere calls bitterness. (J. Daille.)

Blasphemy, its nature

Though the term, in our tongue, imports words spoken to the offence of God, when things unworthy of his greatness, and holiness, and truth, are attributed to Him, or those which belong to Him are denied Him; or when that which is proper to His divinity is communicated to creatures; yet in the Greek, that is, in the language the apostle speaks, the word blasphemy generally signifies any offensive, injurious speech, whoever it concerns, whether God, or angels, or men. Tim truth is, this word, if we respect its origin or etymology, simply denotes injuring the reputation, or offending some ones honour. Consequently, St. Paul uses it not only here, but also in other places, to signify such revilings and detractions as are directed properly to men, and not to God (1Co_4:13; Tit_3:2). (J. Daille.)

The evil speaker

While the Lord desires us to consider the good qualities with which He has endowed His creatures, to the end that we might praise and esteem them, and imitate them, the evil-speaker looks upon nothing but their defects and vices. And as vultures fly over fair meadows, and flowery and sweet-smelling fields, and alight only on dunghills, and places full of carrion and infection; and as flies, without touching the sound parts of the body, fasten only upon sores and ulcers; so the evil-speaker, without so much as noticing what is graceful and happy in the lives of men, falls upon that which is weak and sickly in them. If they have chanced to stumble, as is very ordinary in this infirmity of our nature, it is upon this that he fixes; in this he takes pleasure, this he gladly exposes and publishes, amplifying and exaggerating it with his infernal rhetoric. It is by this he knows persons; it is by this he marks them out and describes them; as bad painters, who represent nothing so exactly as the moles and scars of the faces which they draw, the deformity of the nose, the protuberance of the lips, and other such marks which they have from the birth, or receive by some accident. Charity covers sins, and forgets them; the evil-speaker divulges them, and remembers them perpetually, and takes out of the grave that which had been buried in oblivion, and brings it to light again. He loves pollution, and feeds on nothing but poisons and filth. And for this end he has always a sufficient store of such provision by him. His memory is a magazine, or rather a sink, where he heaps up the villainies, the sins, and the scandals, not of his own neighbourhood, or his own quarter only, but of the whole city; yea, if he possibly can, of the whole state. It is from this diabolical treasury that he derives the subject of his sweetest thoughts and most pleasing entertainments. These things are his perfumes and his dainties. But he is not content only to rake together and lay open the imperfections which he finds in his neighbours; he is so malignant that he feigns more, and fancies some where there are none. He spreads it abroad for truth; and that he may persuade others of it, he artificially colours his fictions, giving out shows for truths, and shadows for substances. He so bitterly hates all good, that where he sees any he bespatters, blackens, and disguises it, and causes it to pass for evil. And as the snail sullies the lustre of the fairest flowers with its sordid slime; just so this bad man, by the poison of his malignity, defames the most grateful virtues, and turns them into vices. He takes valour for temerity, and patience for stupidity: justice for cruelty, and prudence for craftiness. Him that is liberal he calls prodigal, and the frugal person covetous. If you be religious, be will not fail to accuse you of superstition; and if you be free and generous, and far from superstition, he will accuse you of being profane. In fact, there is no virtue nor perfection for which this wicked man has not found an infamous name, taken from the vice that borders next upon it. To this iniquity he usually adds a base and black piece of treachery, when, to cause his poisons to be the more easily swallowed, he mischievously sugars them, beginning his detractions with a preface of praise, and with an affected commendation of the persons whom he intends to revile; protesting, at his entrance, that he loves and respects them, for the purpose of creating a belief that it is nothing but the mere force and evidence of truth that constrains him to speak evil of them. He kisses his man at meeting, and then murders him, as Joab formerly did: he crowns his victims before he kills them: a fraud which, notwithstanding its ordinary occurrence, is the blackest that can be perpetrated. (J. Daille.)

Slander cannot be recalled

A lady presented herself to Philip Neri one day, accusing herself of being a slanderer. Do you frequently fall into this fault? inquired he. Yes, my father, very often. My dear child, said Philip, your fault is great, but the mercy of God is still greater. For your penance do as follows: Go purchase a chicken, and walk a certain distance, plucking the feathers as you go along. Your walk finished, return to me. Accordingly she repaired to the market, did as she was bidden, and in a short time returned. Ah, said Philip, you have been very faithful to the first part of my orders. Retrace your steps, and gather up one by one all the feathers you have scattered. But, father, exclaimed the poor woman, I cast them carelessly on every side; the wind carried them in every direction. How can I recover them? Well, my child, replied he, so is it with your words of slander; like the feathers, they have been scattered. Call them back if you can. Go and sin no more. (W. Baxendale.)

Filthy conversation

As offensive breath betokens some inward indisposition and corruption; so filthy and dishonest conversation discovers the impurity and unchastity that are in the soul of him who uses it. Hence the apostle in another place expressly puts this among other parts of Christian sanctity, that our conversation be pure, chaste, and honest (Eph_5:3-4; Eph_4:29). (J. Daille.)

Purity of conversation

It is related that General Grant was once sitting in his tent with officers around him, when a general came in in much glee and said: I have a good story to tell; there are no ladies present, I believe. No, said General Grant, but there are gentlemen present. The mans countenance fell; the good story was never told. Some Christians could learn a good lesson from the great commanders remark. (Christian, Boston.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 3:5-7. Mortify therefore — Put to death, slay with a continued stroke; your members — The members of the old man, which together make up the body of sin; inclinations and dispositions which spread themselves through all the members of the body, and draw even them into a compliance with themselves; which are upon the earth — Where they find their nourishment, or which are earthly, inclining to earthly things, and wholly engaged about them. Uncleanness — In act, word, or thought; inordinate affection — Every passion which does not flow from, and lead to, the love of God; evil concupiscence — Or desire, namely, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life. Covetousness — The desire of having more, as the word signifies, or of any thing independent of God; which is idolatry — Properly and directly, for it is giving the heart to a creature, putting that trust in a creature which ought to be placed in the Creator, and seeking that happiness in a creature which can only be found in God, and ought therefore only to be sought in him. For which things’ sake — Though the carnal and sensual regard them lightly; the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience — Even on the heathen themselves, who bid the most open defiance even to the first principles of all true religion. The apostle speaks in this severe manner against the vices mentioned, because they were commonly practised by the heathen, and had been practised by the Colossians. In the which ye also walked — Had your conversation, partaking with your neighbours in all their enormities; when ye lived in, or among, them — Kept company with the children of disobedience. By their walking in these things, the apostle seems to have meant their committing the vices, mentioned Col 3:5, habitually, and with pleasure. For Colosse being a city of Phrygia, where the rites of Bacchus and those of Cybele, consisting of all sorts of lewdness in speech and action, were practised with a frantic kind of madness, the Colossians, no doubt, had been much addicted to these gross impurities in their heathen state.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. General Christian duties, Col_3:5-17.

a. Avoidance of evil conduct and sinful tempers, Col_3:5-11.

5. Mortify—Make dead. Let nothing live that is at war with a death to sin and a true life in Christ. Kill your bodily members, so far as their action is merely earthly and sinful. Some specimens of it in this direction follow. See notes on Rom_1:24 and Eph_5:5. These sins of impurity, which are connected with the animal nature, have their seat in the soul. Renounced by the will, they must be unpractised in fact, and the tendencies to them destroyed by the sanctifying Spirit.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Make dead, therefore, the (or, your) members that are upon the earth (Col_2:11 Col_3:9; Eph_4:21, Eph_4:22; Php_3:19; Rom_6:6 Rom_8:13 Rom_13:14) "Your" is omitted by most textual critics, but English idiom requires it in translation. In its absence a stronger emphasis falls on the defining clause, "that are upon the earth." As these things may no longer be pursued or studied (vers. 1, 2), the organs devoted to them must be put to death. These members are indeed those of the actual body; (Rom_6:13, 19 7:5, 23 8:13) but these in so far as ruled hitherto by sinful impulse and habit, constituting the body of "the old man" (ver. 9; Eph_4:22; Rom_6:6) "of the flesh", (Col_2:11) "of sin," and "of death", (Rom_6:6 Rom_7:24) with "sinful passions working in its members, bearing fruit unto death": (Rom_7:5) setup, note, Col_2:11. That body is "made dead" by destruction of the evil passions that animated it. The body of "the new man" is physically identical with it, but different in moral habit and diathesis a difference that manifests itself even in bodily expression and manner. (2Co_5:17) Nekrow occurs besides in the New Testament only in Rom_4:19 and Heb_11:12 in Rom_8:13 a still stronger word is used of "the practices" of the body as the aged Abraham had been made dead in respect of the natural possibility of fatherhood, so the body of the Christian is to be dead for purposes of sin. If there were any doubt as to the writer"s meaning, the next clause removes it. His language has approached that of the philosophical ascetics; (see Col_2:23, note and quotations) hence the abrupt explanatory apposition that follows: fornication, uncleanness, (sensual) passion, evil desire, and covetousness, the which is idolatry (Eph_5:3-5; Php_3:19; 1Co_6:9-11 1Co_5:11; Rom_1:29; 1Ti_6:17; Mat_6:24, Mat_6:31, Mat_6:32; Luk_12:21; Psa_49:6 Psa_52:7) To these vices the Colossian Gentiles (some of them at least) had been to such a degree devoted that their members had become virtually identified therewith. The first two sins are related as particular and general. The second pair, paqov and ejpiqumia, are combined in 1Th_4:4 in contrast to "(bodily) sanctification and honour" comp. Col_2:23, and "passions of dishonour,". (Rom_1:26) The former denotes a morbid, inflamed condition of the sensual appetite; the latter, craving for some particular gratification of it (see Trench"s "Synonyms"). Neither of these words is etymologically, or invariably, evil in sense. The degradation of such terms in all languages is a sad evidence of the corruption of our nature. Pleonexia is both wider and more intense in meaning than our "covetousness." It denotes radically the disposition to "have more," "grasping greed," "selfishness grown to a passion." Hence it applies to sins of impurity, greediness for sensual pleasure (1Th_4:6; Eph_4:19) but by the emphatic use of the article ("the covetousness"), and by the words that follow, it is marked out as a distinct type of sin; so in Eph_5:3, Eph_5:5, where "uncleanness" and "greed" are stigmatized as vile forms of sin. This word, often used by St. Paul, is peculiar to him in the New Testament. "The which" (htiv: setup. atina, Col_2:23) gives a reason while it states a fact ("inasmuch as it is idolatry"). For the thought, setup. Eph_5:5 and 1Ti_6:17, also Mat_6:24; it is a commonplace of religion, and appears in Philo and Jewish rabbis (see Lightfoot) Lightfoot places a colon after "upon the earth," and supposes "fornication," etc., to be "proleptic accusatives," looking forward to some verb unexpressed, such as "put off" (ver. 8). But this is needless (see Winer, p. 666), and the command, "make dead your members," requires this qualifying explanation. The grammatical awkwardness of the apposition is not without rhetorical effect.

Vers. 5-7.

The duty of mortifying the old man.

The apostle proceeds to deduce the practical consequences of our "death in Christ" in the mortifying of tendencies to impurity, covetousness, malice, and falsehood. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

I THE NATURE AND DUTY OF MORTIFICATION.

1. Its nature. It is to resist the solicitations of sin, to suppress its first motions, to weaken its power.

(1) It is a gradual process it is "to crucify the flesh," implying a lingering process; it is a destruction that goes on daily, for the remains of the old life still abide, though not in power, in the believer.

(2) The word "mortify" implies that sin is not to be allowed to die out of itself; we must kill it.

(3) It is a painful process.

2. The duty of mortification.

(1) It is commanded. We are to show no more mercy to the "old man" than to the "right eye" or the "right hand" that offends us. (Mat_5:29)

(2) It is done in the power of the Spirit. "For if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live". (Rom_8:13) Therefore it becomes not only possible, but actual. Thus "our instruments of unrighteousness" are turned into "instruments of righteousness unto God". (Rom_6:13)

(3) It is the true consequence of our "death in Christ;" for the apostle says, "Mortify therefore your members," in allusion to this death. (Col_2:20 Col_3:3) We must carry out this principle of death to sin, to the flesh, to the world.

II THE SPHERE OF THIS MORTIFICATION, "Your members which are upon the earth." He refers:

1. To the instruments of sinfulness. They are called members in allusion to the apostle"s figure of sin, as a body of sin, (Col_2:11) and in allusion to the necessity of the bodily organization to their action. They are "upon the earth," because they belong to our body or our earthly condition, or tend to mere earthly gratification. But they are to be turned into "instruments of righteousness unto God.

2. To the various manifestations of this sinfulness.

(1) Sins affecting our personal life.

(a) Sins of impurity.

(a) Fornication.

(i.) It is God"s will we should abstain from it. (1Th_4:3, 1Th_4:4)

(ii.) It is one of the works of the flesh. (Gal_5:19)

(iii.) It ought not once to be named among Christians. (Eph_5:12)

(iv.) It takes away the heart. (Hos_4:11)

(v.) It brings dishonour and shipwreck of character. (Pro_6:27-29 Pro_23:28)

(vi.) The body was made, not for a harlot, but for the Lord. (1Co_6:15, 1Co_6:16) It is a sin against our own bodies.

(vii.) The promises of the gospel ought to engage us to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God". (2Co_7:1)

(b) Uncleanness. This is a generic product, as fornication is a specific product, of "the earthly members." The observations in the one apply to the other. Those who commit such sins are "alienated from the life of God through their ignorance and hardness of heart", (Eph_4:17) and are "delivered up to a reprobate mind". (Rom_1:24, Rom_1:26)

(c) Lustfulness and evil desire. These point to" the lust of concupiscence", (1Th_4:5) which is of the devil, (Joh_8:44) which wars against the soul, (1Pe_2:11) which drowns men in destruction and perdition, (1Ti_6:9) and keeps men from "coming to the knowledge of the truth". (2Ti_3:7)

These various sins of impurity are to be mortified: how?

(a) We can only cleanse our hearts by taking heed to the Word. (Psa_119:9)

(b) By prayer, as the apostle did with the thorn in his flesh. (2Co_12:9)

(c) By watchfulness. (Pro_23:26, Pro_23:27) We ought to guard against idleness, (Eze_46:4-9) fulness of bread, evil company. (Pro_1:20)

(d) We must not "fulfil the lusts of the flesh," but "put on Christ". (Rom_13:14)

(b) The sin of covetousness. The apostle here introduces a new type of sin by the use of the definite article, as if he thus exhausted the full catalogue of sin in the world. It is curious to find it linked with sins of impurity. Yet it is so elsewhere (1Co_5:11; Eph_5:3; 2Pe_2:14) There is a likeness between these two classes of sins. They both imply an unlawful direction of desires not in themselves unlawful, and they both grow by indulgence. Covetousness:

(a) Issues, as a defiling thing, "out of the heart of man". (Mar_7:22)

(b) It implies a greedy and distracting care. (Luk_12:15)

(c) It exposes to many a piercing sorrow. (1Ti_6:10)

(d) It is a trouble to a man"s own house. (Pro_15:27)

(e) It argues little dependence or faith in the Lord. (Luk_12:30) Therefore "let us have our conversation without covetousness and be content with such things as we have". (Heb_13:5)

(f) Its heinousness it is idolatry." It sets up another object of worship besides God. We cannot "serve both God and mammon". (Mat_6:24) Covetousness is base, because it sets up self in the heart, it is odious to God, (Psa_10:3) turns our hearts away from, (1Jn_2:15) and grudges the time spent in God"s worship. (Amo_8:5) Sins of impurity are the sins of youth as the sin of covetousness is the sin of old age.

III ARGUMENTS TO ENCOURAGE US TO THIS DUTY OF MORTIFICATION. "For which things" sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: in the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these things.

1. The consideration of the wrath of God.

(1) There is wrath in God against all sin. It is the displeasure of a personal God, the moral Governor, against sin, and the moving cause of the punishment he inflicts. It is not identical with the punishment, which is only the effect of it. It is a first principle in natural theology; (Rom_1:32) it has its root in the moral excellence of God; and is inseparable from the attitude of God toward moral evil (Heb_3:11; Rom_9:22)

(2) It is an enduring fact of God"s moral government wrath of God doth come." Nothing has occurred to break the connection between sin and God"s anger, except in the case of those whom Christ has "delivered from the wrath to come". (1Th_1:10)

(3) It is directed against the sons of disobedience, who disregard alike the principles of Law and gospel.

2. A consideration of the former state of the Colossians. "In the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these things." It is good to be reminded of our past sin,

(1) because it recalls the misery and guilt of our former state and makes us shrink from the thought of a return to it;

(2) because it humbles us under a sense of our personal unworthiness;

(3) because it quickens our sense of God"s mercy that drew us out of it. T. C.

Vers. 5-11.

Mortification after death.

Paul, having spoken of our death to earthly things and of our heavenly life, speaks next of mortification as succeeding death. It seems at first sight strange, yet, when analyzed, it is seen to convey most important truth. To quote from Coder"s "Etudes Bibliques:" "When this apostle Paul wishes to teach us how one may attempt to die to sin and to live to God, see how he expresses himself: "Reckon that you are dead to sin and living unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord". (Rom_6:11) This language is but little conformed to that of reason. Human wisdom says, "Disengage yourself little by little from the bonds of sin; learn gradually to love God and live for him." But in such a way we should never break radically with sin and we should never give ourselves completely unto God. We dwell in the dark and troubled atmosphere of our own nature and we cannot contemplate the full blaze of the Divine holiness. Faith, on the contrary, raises us, in some sort by a bond, to the royal position which Jesus Christ now occupies and which in him is already ours. From that position we see sin under our feet; there we relish (savourons) the life of God as our true essence in Jesus Christ. Reason says, Become holy by being so." Faith says, " Thou art so; become it, then. Thou art so in Christ; become it in thine own person." Or, as St. Paul says to the Col_3:3, Col_3:5, "Ye are dead; mortify, then, your terrestrial members. Accordingly we have here

I THE IDEAL DEATH TO SIN. The only one in this world who was really dead to sin was our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His real experience is only our ideal. Of course, we get the benefit of his deadness to sin. It encircles as with a halo all believers. But for this very reason we make it the ideal of our heart and aim after it. To be as dead to the allurements of earth as Jesus was upon the cross, as the body of Jesus was when in Joseph"s tomb, this is the goal of our spiritual ambition. Faith bounds across the chasm which separates the real and ideal, and reckons it as already ours. Faith is thus victorious anticipation that the ideal shall be real one day.

II THE REALITY OF MORTIFYING OUR MEMBERS. (Vers. 5-9.) The Colossians seem to have been chained by habits of gross sin. It was no simple matter to break the chain and assert their spiritual freedom. Before death sets in, when mortification of the physical kind is approaching, the suffering is intense. But once the part is deadened, pain has ceased. This has its spiritual counterpart. The process of mortification is painful in the extreme. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the mind and heart, cannot be mortified by magic. It is a slow undermining of the sinful nature, like the crucifixion of the body. But we must be prepared for it, and manfully must we sit, like executioners, beside our darling sins and nail them to Christ"s cross.

III THE DIVINE WRATH AGAINST SIN HELPS US IN OUR MORTIFICATION. (Ver. 6.) When we realize God"s attitude towards our darling sins, that they are abominable in his sight, and that towards those who cherish them his wrath must be manifested, then we are determined to prosecute our mortification work with the utmost zeal. Those who throw doubts upon the Divine anger have failed to appreciate what a mighty moral strength lies within it.

IV THE GLORIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS ALSO COMES THAT CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL. (Ver. 11.) The old man, or old nature, being mortified, the new man, or new nature, which is in the Divine image, takes its place. But in addition Christ is realized as dwelling within and reinforcing our "better self." By his indwelling all the old distinctions of Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian and Scythian, bond and free, are felt to be of no account; for, if Christ dwells within each, he secures the unity of all. It is this glorious consummation which the apostle contemplated. He rejoiced in the thought of unification through the indwelling Christ. "Our mind," it has been said, "must become Christ"s, as Christ is God"s. Our very self consciousness, crucified with him, must cease to be our own. Only then can our work, as being of God that worketh in us, work out the true salvation, the deliverance from self-seeking self." We may also refer to a sermon of Tholuck, in which from this eleventh verse he treats of "Christ before us as our Pattern; Christ in us as our Life; and Christ for us as our Righteousness. R.M.E.

Vers. 5-11.

Dying before rising.

There is an alternating between dying and rising. Having carried out the idea of rising, the apostle goes back to the idea of dying; and, before this paragraph is concluded, he goes back to the idea of rising.

I MORTIFYING OF OUR MEMBERS WITH REFERENCE TO TWO SINS. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." It is not a ground of condemnation that our members are upon the earth. The idea is simply the members through which we hold correspondence with earth. Of these members, collectively, the apostle says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice." Our members may be instruments of righteousness or instruments of unrighteousness. We are to mortify them by refusing to use them as instruments of unrighteousness.

1. Sensuality. "Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire." There are four words used to describe this sin. The first describes a special form of uncleanness. The second is wider, and includes all forms of uncleanness. The third is wider still, and describes such heated desire as may lead to uncleanness. The fourth is widest of all, and includes all such desire as implies want of purity of feeling.

2. Covetousness. "And covetousness, the which is idolatry." The article being used with "covetousness" (not with the other four words) indicates the introduction of a new class. These four form one class; and this fifth is a class by itself. The fact that it is associated (as in Ephesians) with forms of sensuality marks the sense which the apostle had of its evil character. There is not here the thought that it is to be among the things which are not to be named. But there is the thought, which follows in Ephesians, that covetousness is idolatry; that is to say, idolatry by pre-eminence. Sensuality is also idolatry. It is making an idol of self in the form of lower and momentary enjoyment. Covetousness has a certain aspect of unselfishness. It is a giving up of present enjoyment; it is a giving up even of future enjoyment. But when unveiled it is really a more systematic form of selfishness. It is making an idol of self, not in the form of future enjoyment, but (which is no better) in the form of the means of future enjoyment. And experience shows that the one idol is less readily dethroned than the other. The next thought (which also follows in Ephesians) is that for these sins God deals with men. "For which things" sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." They disobey, for the first commandment is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." They transgress the laws of the body; they transgress also the laws of the spiritual nature. They not only disobey, but they persist in courses of disobedience. They are the sons of disobedience. They are as though they had disobedience as their father; so vile is their parentage. They refuse the gospel, by which they could be delivered from their evil courses. And therefore it is that the wrath of God cometh upon them. It cometh upon them incipiently now. It cometh upon them in the shape of a materializing of the spirit. It cometh upon them in the shape of inward dispeace. It cometh upon them in the shape of disturbance from without (bodily malady, loss of estate, loss of respect, complications). God has many ways of showing his displeasure against men for these sins even now, and his displeasure will yet be more decidedly manifested. The next thought (which also follows, though not under the same figure, in Ephesians) is that they were to remember their former participation in these sins. "In the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these things." In heathenism they lived in an atmosphere which was pollution. And then they participated in these sins. If in this fact there was danger of their being decoyed hack to their former ways under false representations, on the other hand there was strength to be got from realizing how much they had benefited by the change from heathenism to Christianity. In their present joys and habits (for which they were indebted to Christ) they had wherewith to oppose temptations from their past.

II THESE AND OTHER SINS TO BE PUT AWAY. "But now put ye also as well as others rescued from heathenism away all these." There seems to be a retrospective as well as a prospective reference in the injunction. The other sins are in two classes.

1. Sins of temper. "Anger, wrath, malice." The first describes a more settled, the second a more eruptive, state of our feeling against others. They are to be condemned

(1) when they are accompanied with want of self possession;

(2) when they are accompanied with want of reasonable ground;

(3) when they are accompanied with malice or anything like delight in the evil condition of others.

When these elements are wanting, they are not to be condemned, but need to be carefully watched.

2. Sins of speech. "Railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth." Railing is speaking abusively (it may not be clamorously) against others. This is to be condemned when it is accompanied with foulness of speech (shameful speaking). The mouth should not be prostituted to such uses. "Lie not one to another." We are not even to lie to ourselves. We are not to make ourselves believe that we are other (even worse) than we really are. We are not to see things other than they really are. We are not to lie to others. We are not to make it appear to them that we are other than we really are. We are not to make them out to be other (even better) than they really are. We are not to state things to be other than they really are. We are to put away all falsehood from our intercourse with others. Reason given for putting away the last and all the sins that have been named. "Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings." Our old condition is personified as "the old man." His doings have been pointed to. In baptism we put off the old man with his doings. We must not be as though unregenerate. We must have nothing to do with practices the time of which is past.

III THE PUTTING ON IN" THE NEW LIFE. "And have put on the new man." Our recent condition is personified as "the new man." There is a prefacing with two important statements.

1. There is a distinctly defined renewal constantly going on. "Which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him." It may be said that Christ perfected the new condition for us. As appropriated by us, it is in the way of a constant renewal of our life. As in a tree, so with us, with repeated endeavours there ever results fresh accession of life. The end of the renewal is here said to be knowledge. The false teachers claimed wisdom, claimed by their philosophy to give the power to know. The apostle shows how knowledge was to be come to. He thinks of it as the terminus of a long process of renewal. It is the word which means thorough knowledge, i.e. of God and redemption. There is thus accordance with the great statement, "And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." There is nothing foreign to our nature in this renewal. God made us in his own image. He designed a renewal to go forward in us according to a God like type. He designed in our renewal that we should come to the thorough knowledge of himself. And this is what redemption effects for us.

2. In respect of this renewal earthly distinctions are of no importance. "Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman: but Christ is all, and in all." There is a parallel passage in Gal_3:28. The first distinction there ("neither Jew nor Greek may be said to cover the first three distinctions here. Distinction is denied as to nationality ("Greek and Jew"). Distinction is denied as to religious position ("circumcision and uncircumcision"). Distinction is denied as to culture; and here the apostle does not take the extremes of culture; but more strikingly takes those who to the cultured Greeks were barbarians, and to them opposes the Scythians who were barbarians to the barbarians. Distinction is denied as to social status ("bondman, freeman"), which distinction had significance in the early Christian Churches, from the number of slaves connected with them, and had special significance in the Colossian Church, from the conversion of a Colossian slave still with the apostle at Rome. There is not, and cannot be, any of these distinctions. In Galatians the apostle teaches that there are no distinctions on the ground of our sonship in Christ. Here he teaches that there are no distinctions (in keeping with the thought of the pre-eminence of Christ) on the ground of Christ being all and in all in the great renewal.

(1) Christ is all in the renewed. The great need of our nature is to be renewed, and Christ fully meets that need. He gives the whole contents and form to our renewal. United to Christ by faith, we become receptacles of Christ. The pleroma dwells in him, and that pleroma floods our being with light, with strength, with purity, with all things. Renewed only from Christ, our life manifests itself only in Christian forms.

(2) Christ is all in all the renewed. Men were broken up into classes, castes. The Jew drew back from the uncircumcised; the Greek despised the barbarian; the barbarian despised the Scythian; the freeman despised the bondman. The apostle points to the fact that the great renewal takes place in all alike. Alike in being created in the image of God, they are also alike in the renewal that takes place on that ground and according to that fact. The poor Scythian can be filled full and beautified in the possession of Christ as well as the Greek, the bondman as well as the freeman. In view of this essential identity, all these earthly distinctions become of no account. R.F.

Vers. 5-11.

Death to evil.

The central thought around which the strange and striking ideas of these sentences gather is "Death to evil." St. Paul exhorts us to put evil to death, to make a corpse of it. Here we have truly "Mors janua vitae." We inquire

I IN WHAT THIS DEATH CONSISTS. "Put to death your members which are upon the earth." The meaning seems to be the same as Christ"s command, "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out," etc. Neither Christ"s nor Paul"s injunction can mean hack, hew, maim, the limbs and organs of the body. For that is contradicted by such other teaching as "Yield your members as the instruments of righteousness;" and such disabling of limbs and organs would be useless, for the dumb can be profane, and the blind lustful, and the crippled dishonest. "Out of the heart proceeds evil." The figure in the injunction of our text may be that which the whole context suggests, namely, put these members to death, so far as evil practices are concerned; be as dead to them. Or the figure may have reference to that which describes the entire sinful character as "the old man an old man having limbs, organs, etc., here called members.

So these physical members are but symbols of the moral. Anyhow, there is clearly enjoined here:

1. Death to corrupt living. This corrupt living is divided here into two classes impurity and covetousness. These divided between them include the whole domain of sin and selfishness. Covetousness, which is cherished by many who have the repute of respectability and even of Christianity, is so base, so loathsome, so irreligious, that it is here linked with hideous uncleanness, and is distinctly declared to be idolatrous. Avarice becomes the worldling"s religion; greed of gain the miser"s worship. Evils such as these, and on which the apostle says God"s wrath rests, must be slain.

2. Death to wrong conversation. Paul deals with the sins of speech which seemed, like echoes of the past, to linger on the lips of the Colossians. They are to put off

(1) "anger," i.e. settled hatred;

(2) "wrath," i.e. tumultuous outburst of passion;

(3) "malice," i.e. malignity, spitefulness;

(4) "blasphemy," i.e. slandering;

(5) "foul-mouthed abuse," i.e. all such rough speech as now is known as the Billingsgate of social, political, or theological controversy;

(6) "falsehood," a word, alas! that needs no description. All these six evils of speech are to be slain.

3. Death to conventional distinctions. The special errors that we have seen were prevalent at Colossae were those that primarily led Paul to deal with this evil. Four conventional distinctions that, wherever they separate men"s interests or destroy their mutual sympathies, must be slain, are here described.

(1) National distinctions: "Greek and Jew.

(2) Ceremonial: "circumcision or uncircumcision.

(3) Distinctions of culture: "barbarian, Scythian." Max Muller finely shows how, until Christianity inserted the word "brother" instead of "barbarian," as descriptive of humanity, there was no science of language.

(4) Social: "bond and free." There seems to be special reference here to the runaway slave who was going to carry to his master the apostle"s letter, and who was to be received as a brother both of Philemon and Paul.

II HOW THIS DEATH IS TO BE EFFECTED. Evil does not die of itself, but must be slain. Nor does it die easily; it must be struggled with. It is to be put to death:

1. By human endeavour. "Put to death." You are wrestler in some tragic game, soldier in the momentous battle, executioner in the solemn judgment; therefore you must throw your opponent, stay your enemy, hang or gibbet the culprit. Here is abundant and righteous scope for all our fighting instincts.

1. By Divine renewal "Which is renewed." The death of the old is ensured by the life of the new; just as old leaves are pushed off the boughs and branches by the young vegetation of spring, so the old character is displaced by the new. This power is

1. Divine;

2. constantly put forth;

3. according to Divine ideal

the image of him that created him." Christ the Ideal is Christ theSource of all. He is in the renewed man as the germ of life, whose outbursting, as by one blow, kills evil, and whose constant development insures all good. U.R.T.

Vers. 5-7.

Sins of the flesh and the sin of covetousness.

Paul, an example to faithful preachers, is not satisfied with general exhortations; he is pointed and personal in his allusion to special sins. The great motive power is in the preceding truths (vers. 1-4, "Mortify therefore, etc.). What neither Jewish ceremonialism nor Gnostic teaching could secure, (Col_2:23) Christ "our Life," our "Hope of glory," could effect. Note the use of similar lofty motives in Rom_6:1, 2 12:1; 1Co_6:15, 1Co_6:19, 1Co_6:20. The term "members" is used, not physically but figuratively, as is "old man" in ver. 9, including those bodily and mental faculties which may be the occasion of sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit. We find first a list of various

I SINS OF THE FLESH. (Ver. 5.) Contrast freedom of the apostolic speech on such subjects and the reserve of the present day, which may be excessive, seeing that sins of intemperance and unchastity are the most frequent causes of Church discipline. The conscience must be instructed as well as aroused. Hints as to safeguards to be thrown around the young by Christians; their duties to their own sons and daughters, their apprentices, and domestic servants; social customs, such as "statute fairs" for hiring servants, "treating," crowded homes, etc.; bad laws (young girls insufficiently protected; state recognition of vice; licensing laws, etc.). The censure and treatment of offenders of both sexes should be far more impartial, and profligate men be branded by the indignation of Christians as one faint image of "the wrath of God" (ver. 6). While seeking to put away these sins from our midst, we must also put to death the very roots of these prolific evils in our own hearts. (Mat_5:27, Mat_5:28) Govern the thoughts. (Distinguish between a thought injected into the mind as a temptation, and indulged as a sin, (Heb_4:15) Guard all the avenues of temptation. (cf. Job_31:1; Psa_17:3; Eph_5:4) bad books; dangerous company; amusements that excite the passions; intoxicants (Mat_5:29, Mat_5:30; Rom_8:12, Rom_8:13; Gal_5:24) Let the body and the brain and the mind be kept in healthy exercise; this will aid us to "keep under the body". (1Co_9:27) God knoweth our frame;" Christ "our Life has passed through our temptations. Elevation of spirit (vers. 1 and 2), unlike pride, (Pro_16:18) may guard us from debasing ourselves: "Ye were raised with Christ; mortify therefore, etc.

II THE SIN OF COVETOUSNESS. Covetousness (pleunexia) has been described as "the fierce and ever fiercer longing of the creature which has turned from God to fill itself with the inferior objects of sense." It is a wider term than "the love of money," though that "root of all evil" is the most glaring form of it and the one we take as our illustration. It is significant that here and in Eph_5:5 St. Paul couples covetousness with the most loathsome sins. A covetous man is an idolater because he loves, trusts, and serves money more than God. This sin is:

1. Multiform. It is Proteus-like in its shapes: the avarice of the miser, the ostentation of the nouveau fiche, or "that loudest laugh of hell, the pride of dying rich." One of its most common and yet scandalous forms is withholding "more than is meet," robbing God of "the first fruits of all our increase," which God claims under the gospel, though not in the form of Jewish tithe. (cf. Pro_3:9, 10 11:24; 1Co_16:1, 1Co_16:2; 2Co_8:12 2Co_9:6, 2Co_9:7) This form of covetousness among Christians may need to be mortified by repeated acts of giving, though painful at first, till duty becomes privilege and the lesson is learned, "It is more blessed to give than to receive.

2. It is specious. It is a subtle spirit, needing great discernment for its detection and great grace for its expulsion. It transforms itself into an angel of light, and calls itself "prudence and other deceptive names. It is said that St. Francis de Sales received at the confessional a greater number of persons than were ever known to visit one confessor besides, but that he did not remember a single instance in which covetousness had been confessed. No wonder, then, that Church censure for covetousness is exceedingly rare. (1Co_5:9)

3. It is odious to God. (Ver. 6.)

4. It is ruinous to the soul. (Gal_6:7, Gal_6:8; Eph_5:5, Eph_5:6; 1Ti_6:9, 1Ti_6:10)

5. It needs ceaseless vigilance and all the powers of the heavenly life to mortify this "member," which is so peculiarly tenacious of life. Christ"s love and power alone can avail. E.S.P. (Tit_2:14)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Col_3:5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.—“Quite so!” the heretic teacher might say; “this is just what we ourselves advise.” “Yes,” rejoins the apostle; “but let us know what it is we are to slaughter.” It is no hewing and hacking of the body, but what is as much more difficult as it is noble—the excision or eradication of evil thoughts (Mat_15:19-20). Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence.—R.V. “passion, evil desire.” The former of these seems to indicate the corrupt conditions from which the latter springs. Covetousness, which is idolatry.—“Covetousness,” or “having more.” There is many a man, beside the clown in Twelfth Night, who says, “I would not have you to think my desire of having is the sin of covetousness.” The full drag can afford to sacrifice (Hab_1:16).

Col_3:8. Anger, wrath.—The former is the smouldering fire, the latter the fierce out-leaping flame. Malice, blasphemy.—The former is the vicious disposition, the latter the manifestation of it in speech that is meant to inflict injury. Filthy communication.—One word in the original; R.V. gives it as “shameful speaking.” The word does not occur again in the New Testament. It means scurrilous or obscene speech. A glimpse of Eastern life helps us to understand the frequent injunctions as to restraint of the tongue in the New Testament. Dr. Norman Macleod says: “In vehemence of gesticulation, in genuine power of lip and lung to fill the air with a roar of incomprehensible exclamations, nothing on earth, so long as the body retains its present arrangement of muscles and nervous vitality, can surpass the Egyptians and their language.” But the same thing is witnessed of other Eastern tongues.

Col_3:9. Lie not one to another.—“Very elementary teaching,” we should be inclined to say. Whether there was any special tendency to this vice in the Colossian converts we cannot know.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_3:5-9

Mortification of the Sinful Principle in Man.

Practice follows doctrine. The genuineness of a precept is tested by its adaptability to the practical working out of life’s problem. The apostle has laid down his doctrine clearly and emphatically, and now he proceeds to enforce the use of the best methods for securing the highest degree of personal holiness. These methods are in perfect harmony with the exalted experience into which the believer is introduced when he is risen with Christ and participates in that glorious life which is hid with Christ in God.

I. That the sinful principle in man has an active outward development.—

1. It is mundane in its tendencies. “Your members which are upon the earth” (Col_3:5). It is earthly, sensual, depraved. It teaches the soul to grovel when it ought to soar. It is in sympathy with the whole mass of earthly things—riches, honour, pleasure, fame—which stand opposed to the higher aspirations of the soul, whose affection is fixed on things above.

2. It is manifested in acts of gross sensuality.—“Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence” (Col_3:5). A revolting catalogue, a loathsome index to the festering mass of corruption within! A rake’s progress has been portrayed by the genius of a Hogarth; but where is the pencil that can delineate the dark progress of evil? For there is an order observed in its abhorrent development. The mischief begins in evil concupiscence; yielding to the first unholy impulse, it goes on to lustful and inordinate affection; proceeds to uncleanness—pollutions which follow on the two preceding vices; and ends in fornication, both in its ordinary meaning and in that of adultery. Possibly the apostle had reference to the rites of Bacchus and Cybele, which were wont to be celebrated with many peculiar impurities in Phrygia, of which Colossæ, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were cities, and which so deeply depraved the morals of the people. The outgoings of evil are not less rampant and shocking in modern times. Evil is the same in principle everywhere.

3. It is recognised by a debasing idolatry.—“And covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col_3:5). Covetousness is a sin that comes the earliest into the human heart, and is the last and most difficult to be driven out. It is an insatiable lust after material possessions—the greed of getting more for the sake of more, till often the brain is turned and the heart withered. The apostle brands it with the significant term “idolatry.” With the covetous man his idol is his gold, which, in his eyes, answereth all things; his soul is the shrine where the idol is set up; and the worship which he owes to God is transferred to mammon. Avarice is the seed of the most hateful and outrageous vices. The exhortation to mortify the flesh is pressed home by reminding them of the certainty of the divine wrath which would overtake the contumacious and disobedient.

II. That the active outgoings of the sinful principle in man call for the infliction of divine vengeance.—The wrath of God is not a malignant, unreasoning passion, like that with which we are familiar among men. Nor is it a strong figure of speech, into which the maudlin philosophers of the day would fain resolve it. It is an awful reality. It is not merely a thing of the past, to the terrible havoc of which history bears faithful and suggestive testimony. It is the wrath to come, and will be “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” It is not inconsistent with infinite love, but is an impressive form in which the divine righteousness expresses itself against all disobedient and impenitent workers of iniquity.

III. That the indulgence of the sinful principle in man is inconsistent with the new life he has in Christ.—There was a time when the sins here enumerated formed the atmosphere in which the Colossians lived, moved, and breathed; they represented the condition of their life and the character of their practice: they lived and walked in sin. But that time was past. A great change had taken place. They were surrounded by a purer atmosphere; they lived in another world; they aspired to a nobler destiny. To return to the vices and idolatries of their former life was utterly inconsistent with their exalted character; it was unworthy the high and holy vocation wherewith they were called. It is salutary to be reminded now and then of our former life of sin. It magnifies the grace of God in the great change He has wrought. It warns against the danger of being drawn into old habits and associations. It stimulates the heavenward tendencies of the new life.

IV. That the sinful principle in man is the source of the most malignant passions.—The former classification embraced sins which related more especially to self; this includes sins which have a bearing upon others.

1. There are sins of the heart and temper.—“Anger, wrath, malice” (Col_3:8). There is an anger which is a righteous indignation against wrong, and which is so far justifiable and sinless. It is the anger without cause or beyond cause, and which degenerates into a bitter feeling of revenge, that is here condemned. Wrath is the fierce ebullition of anger, expressed with ungovernable passion; and is at all times unseemly and unlawful. Malice is anger long cherished, until it becomes a settled habit of mind. It involves hatred, secret envy, desire of revenge and retaliation, and universal ill-will towards others. It is altogether a diabolical passion. If anger exceeds its bounds, it becomes wrath; if wrath lies brooding in the bosom, it degenerates into malice.

2. There are sins of the tongue.—“Blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another” (Col_3:8-9). Blasphemy in a lower sense includes all calumny, evil-speaking, railing, slandering, scoffing, ridiculing—all vile insinuations, whether against God or man. Filthy communication refers to all foul-mouthed abuse, indelicate allusions, details of vicious scenes, and whatever hurts the feelings and shocks the sense of propriety rather than injures the character. Lying is also here condemned. Wherever this vice prevails society is rotten to the core. The almost total want of truthfulness is one of the saddest features of the moral condition of heathendom. Lying basely violates the gift of speech, saps the foundation of human intercourse, and overturns the first principles of morals. That which is spoken in ignorance, though untrue, is not a lie; but to equivocate, to speak so as to lead another to a false conclusion, is to lie as really as if the speaker deliberately stated what he knew was a falsehood. All these sins are directly opposed to that ingenuous sincerity which is the leading characteristic of the new life in Christ.

V. That the sinful principle in man, and all its outgoings, must be wholly renounced and resolutely mortified.—“But now ye also put off all these” (Col_3:8). “Mortify, therefore, your members” (Col_3:5). There is much force in the word “therefore.” Since ye are dead with Christ and are risen with Him, since ye possess a glorious life hid with Christ in God, therefore mortify—put to death the members of your earthly and corrupt nature, and encourage the expansion of that pure, beauteous, and exalted life which ye have received through the faith of the operation of God. Not that we are to kill or mutilate the members of the body that have been the instruments of sin, but to crucify the interior vices of the mind and will. It is wholly a moral process; the incipient inclination to sin must be restrained, deadened, crushed. In order to this there must be the total renunciation of all sin. “But now ye also put off all these.” The verb is imperative and the exhortation emphatic. There must be not only an abstinence from open vice—heathen morality insists on as much as this—but there must be the putting away of every secret evil passion—removing it out of sight as we would remove a dead body to burial. As the prince casts off the coarse garment in which he has been disguised, and stands forth in an apparel befitting his rank and dignity, so the believer is to divest himself of the unsightly and filthy garment of the old man, and allow the new man to appear adorned with heavenly magnificence and bright with the inextinguishable lustre of a divine spiritual life.

Lessons.—

1. The sinful principle in man is a great power.

2. The new spiritual life in the believer is in ceaseless antagonism with the old.

3. The constant duty of the believer is to subdue and destroy the sinful principle.

4. In fulfilling this duty all the powers of good are on his side.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Col_3:5. Covetousness, which is Idolatry.

I. In its essence.—It is putting the creature in the place of the Creator, and giving it the worship due to God alone.

II. In its practice.—Body and soul are consecrated to the service of mammon.

III. In its punishment.—Idolatry is a sin peculiarly obnoxious to God—is not merely the breach of His law, but treason against His government. God deprives the covetous of his idol at last, and sends him treasureless into the unseen world, wrecked and ruined, to endure the wrath to come.—Preacher’s Magazine.

Col_3:6. The Wrath of God—

I. A reality to be dreaded.

II. Is roused by the workings of iniquity.

III. Will overtake the disobedient.

Col_3:7-9. The New Life—

I. Must break thoroughly away from the old life of sin.

II. Is evident in temper and speech.

III. Is the interpretation of all that is pure and true.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. General exhortations

Col_3:5-17

a) Exhortation to put off the old fleshly nature

(Col_3:5-11.)

5Mortify therefore your4 members which are upon the earth: fornication, unclean-ness, inordinate affection [lustfulness],5 evil concupiscence [or shameful desire],6 and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6For which things’7 sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:8 7In the which [Among whom]9 ye also walked sometime 8[once], when ye lived [imperfect, were living] in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy [evil speaking],10 filthy [abusive]11 communication out of your mouth. 9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10And have put on the new man, which is renewed [is being renewed]12 in [unto, εἰς] knowledge [,] after the image of him that created him: 11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor [ omit nor]13 free: but Christ is all, and in all.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The first exhortation concerning the relation to the pleasures and possessions of earth. Col_3:5-7.

Col_3:5. Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth.—“Mortify therefore” is joined to Col_3:1-4, containing an inference from “were raised together” (Col_3:1) and “died” (Col_3:3). Their being dead has as its result a new life, in which a “making dead” (νεκροῦν) is possible and necessary. The verb (only here and Rom_4:19; Heb_11:12) is reddere νεκρόν, i. e, cadaver omnibus viribus privatum (πτῶμα), stronger than θανατοῦν (Rom_8:13). See Tittmann, Syn. I. p. 168. [The aorist denotes a definite act, which Ellicott thus expresses: “kill at once;” Alford: “put to death.”—R.] After the Christian died (Col_3:3), he has as quickened (Col_3:1), with the newly gained vital power, to kill the “members which are upon the earth.” This expression corresponds with the context, and refers in its sense to “putting off the body of the flesh” (Col_2:11). There the whole organism was brought into view, here the individual members; there “of the flesh” describes what here, in accordance with Col_3:3, is described by “which are upon the earth” (Bengel: where is found the sustenance of those members, of which collectively the body of sin consists). Because they are “fleshly,” there is a motive for putting them to death. This must be understood in an ethical, not a physical sense (Huther, Unger and others), not of the Church members as the vital activities of the body of the Church (Schenkel); for the Christian is not required to mutilate his body, nor are members or masses of members “who are on the earth,” organs of the Church and its activity, since it is a creation of God; the words might be applied to Christians, who are worldly minded, but, as regards these, νεκροῦν, putting to death, is a duty only in the view of fanatics.

[Ellicott thus aptly paraphrases: “As you died, and your true life is hidden with Christ, and hereafter to be developed in glory, act conformably to it—let nothing live inimical to such a state, kill at once the organs and media of a merely earthly life.” Put to death the portions of your body, which are the instruments of sin, as respects the sphere (on the earth) of these sinful activities, and the actions and desires below specified: a duty very different from and more difficult than asceticism, or obedience to “the commandments of men” (Col_2:21-22).—R.]

The substantives, which follow in appositional relation to “members,” show more specifically what is meant: fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.—Bengel: “these (μέλη, members) are enumerated.” There is no metonymy here (De Wette), nor are these the ethical ingredients inhering in the members (Meyer, Winer’s Gram. p. 494). On the first two and the last substantives, see on Eph_5:3. “Lustfulness” (πάθος) [not limited to unnatural lust, as Rom_1:26.—R.] and “evil concupiscence” (ἐπιθυμία κακή) are to be referred, according to the context, to sexual sin; the former denoting rather the formal eagerness, the latter the intrinsic unworthiness, determined by the object; the former is always the latter also, but not vice versa (1Th_4:5 : “in the lust of concupiscence,” ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας). [The latter being more general.—R.] The category introduced by “fornication,” on account of its manifold and frequent manifestations (Gal_5:19), is prominently set forth in detail; unnatural uncleanness is included in the last two substantives, but not specially described (Erasmus and others).

By the side of “fornication” thus specified, the Apostle puts “covetousness” as a second category, indicated by the article. Bengel: articulus facit ad epitasin et totum genus vitii a genere enumeratarum modo specierum diversum complectitur. He gives prominence to this by means of the relative clause, which characterizes it and gives a motive for mortifying it. “Which” (quippe quæ, “which indeed;” Winer’s Gram. pp. III, 157). See on Eph_5:5. It is incorrect to apply it to insatiable voluptuousness (Estius and others) or to “gains from lust” (Baehr and others). [Braune in the parallel passage extends the application of the relative clause to all the preceding forms of sin, which application is grammatically inadmissible here, though allowable there. Πλεονεξία, “covetousness,” is marked by the article as the notorious form of sin, not merely introduced thus as forming a new category; for while it is another form of sin, there is an intimate connection in point of fact, “monsters of covetousness have been also monsters of lust.” Covetousness has as its primary object—wealth—but there is no objection to expanding its meaning here, as Trench does. He intimates that the Greek Fathers use this word to designate both the sins of impurity and avarice, “even as the root out of which they alike grow; namely, the fierce and ever fiercer longing of the creature which has turned from God, to fill itself with the inferior objects of sense is one and the same.” Syn. N. T. § 24. This is idolatry. It is worthy of notice too that idolatry and lust are connected historically, as well as in the O. T. passim.—R.]

Col_3:6. For which things’ sake the wrath of God Cometh.—Thus he adds a motive for the necessity of the exhortation, “mortify:” you must either kill or be killed. The relative refers to the sins mentioned above,14 on account of which “the wrath of God Cometh.” See on Eph_5:6. [Also for notes upon: on the children of disobedience, which Braune rejects here.—R.] The absence of “on the children of disobedience” denotes a reference to God’s judgment on earth, under which the saints also suffer. The expression, which is to be distinguished from “the day of wrath” (Rom_2:5), and the context which is to be distinguished from 1Th_1:10, “the wrath to come,” does not refer to the future judgment (Meyer, Bleek and others). [Ellicott, following Theophilus, refers it to punishment here and hereafter. There is this strong objection to Braune’s view, that the New Testament does not represent the wrath of God as coming in any sense upon the saints. If the longer reading be adopted, his remark is also grammatically incorrect. Whatever interpretation be put upon ἐν οἷς, the following verse excludes the Colossian Christians from the threatened wrath.—R.]

Col_3:7. Among whom ye also once walked.—If “on the children of disobedience” be retained, the relative must be joined to that antecedent; otherwise it refers as δι’ἄ to the enumerated sins. “Once walked” denotes their conduct in different relations. See on Eph_2:2.—When ye were living in them.—[That is, in these sins, as the sphere of life. There is no tautology if the personal reference of the last clause be adopted.—R.] The verb, in emphatic position, marks the internal life with undisturbed gratification, while “walk” denotes the manifestations of it in thought, word and deed; the imperfect (“were living”) refers to a continued state, the aorist (“walked”) to the individual acts, corresponding thus with the meaning of the verbs. Their sinful walk was conditioned by their sinful nature, not merely by habit and circumstance. Bengel: Vivebatis tanquam in veslro principio, origins, elemento (Gal_5:25). Hence ἐντούτοις and ἐνοἷς refer to the same antecedent. This is not tautological (Meyer) but emphatic: the first is not merely walking in heathenism, and the other a vicious life (Schenkel); the former is rather the “act” and the latter the “power” of sin (Calvin) or the one “energy,” ἐνεργεία, the other “habit of nature” (Estius).—[It is obvious how much is gained in the exegesis of this verse, by retaining “on the children of disobedience.” It then means: “Among which children of disobedience ye also walked, when ye wore living in these sins.” Surely with preponderant uncial authority, this exegetical advantage should decide in favor of retaining it, instead of being used to support the omission as lectio difficilior.—R.]

The second exhortation concerning their social relations to each other. Col_3:8-11.

Col_3:8. But now ye also put off all these.—“But now” (νυνὶδέ), in contrast with “once,” (ποτέ, ὄτε), is the present Christian state, which begins with conversion. Hence “put off” corresponds with “mortify” (Col_3:5), or “put away from you” (Eph_4:31), and “ye also” puts the readers here beside other Christians, as in Col_3:7 by other heathen. “All these” (τὰπάντα) refers to what follows (Winer’s Gram. p. 102); not to all those (Col_3:5) and these also which follow (Meyer, Schenkel). [Ellicott, Alford follow Meyer, but Braune’s view is more strictly grammatical. Eadie unfortunately makes the verb indicative instead of imperative.—R.]—Anger, wrath, malice, evil-speaking, abusive communication out of your mouth.—See on Eph_4:31. The last substantive is wanting there, but corresponds to αίσχρότης καὶ μωρολογία (Eph_5:4). It describes shameful speech in-general, which, according to the context injures the neighbor, who hears it or of whom it is spoken, as “evil speaking” (βλασφημία). It is not to be applied to lewd speaking (Huther and others), at least not exclusively, though it may include it. The first three substantives form a climax, describing the internal condition, from perceptible excitement to passionateness which is its basis, then to deep-seated malicious nature; the other two refer to speech, hence to both is significantly added: “out of your mouth.” It might be joined with “put off,” but without any reference to the first three, since it would not be enough that among Christians these never found expression in words (Schenkel); they should not be found at all.

Col_3:9. Lie not one to another.—See Eph_4:25. Εἰς denotes the direction: belie not one another. [The practice is thus stamped as a social wrong (Ellicott). Michaelis observes that it is only in this Epistle and that to the Ephesians, that the Apostle warns his readers against lying (Barnes).—R.] The aorist participles which follow (Col_3:9 b–11) give a motive for the injunction in Col_3:8-9 a.—Seeing that ye have put off the old man.—[The E. V. thus admirably expresses the force of the aorist participle ἀπεκδυσάμενοι.—R.] The aorist requires this as the Apostle’s view: first, the experienced death and rising, then the active mortification of the members, first the experienced putting off the old man and putting on the new, then the active removal of what is contrary thereto, here a motive, drawn from what has preceded, is pre-supposed. Hence the Vulgate: exspoliantes, and Bengel: “putting off,” as if it were contemporaneous, are incorrect; Luther also: put off, as though it were an injunction. The verb is to be taken according to the parallel expression (Eph_4:22 : ἀπόθεσθε) like the substantive Col_2:11, and its object as in Eph_4:22. The old man, the sinful nature as it is before conversion and regeneration is to be laid off as a garment that has become useless, with all its peculiarities, hence: with his deeds.—Here is the stringent conclusion that what was detailed above must of course be put away. Comp. Rom_8:13; Gal_5:24 : “the flesh with the affections (παθήμασιν) and lusts.”

Col_3:10. And have put on the new man.—The putting off and on, connected by καί, are to be regarded as contemporaneous, according to the principle: natura et gratia non patiuntur vacuum (nature and grace do not tolerate a vacuum); only in the domain of grace in distinction from the physical, the initiative is with the new man and in virtue of the divine power creating him. In contrast with παλαιός, old, we have in Eph_4:24, καινός, new, as not yet present, here νέος; παλαιός being therefore old, superannuated, senile; both are found in Eph_4:23-24 [ἀνανεοῦσθαι—καινόν) and here in the adjective and added participle. The motive drawn from νέον, recent, young, as it were [newly entered and fresh state. Ellicott.—R.], lies in the danger prepared by the false teachers for Christians, who had been just now or not long converted.

The condition of the new man and his immediate task is more closely defined: which is being renewed, τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον.—The present participle denotes what is to go on in the present. The context requires the middle sense to denote the self-exertion, the active life. The new man is not anything complete at once, but in a state of vital growth, of further development, and that by the Holy Spirit (Tit_3:5). [This seems to contradict the last opinion that the participle is middle. Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth all regard it as passive. The latter naturally suggests: “the new man was born in you at your regeneration in baptism, but needs the daily renewal of the Holy Ghost.” Omit “in baptism,” and the explanation will be generally received as correct. The passive or middle interpretation will be adopted as the stress is laid upon the divine or human side of the progressive work of sanctification, and yet as the Apostle is speaking of the new man, of our becoming holy, which lies back of active holiness, the passive is to be preferred. The new man is being renewed, rather than renewing himself.—R.] Comp. 2Co_4:16. The preposition ἀνά marks the further, upward, onward striving, which is then more closely defined:

Unto knowledge, after the image of him that created him.—“Unto knowledge” denotes the end, “after the image of Him that created him,” the norm. According to Col_2:2; Col_1:9, “knowledge” is not further characterized as a knowledge corresponding to the image of the Creator, for by thus regarding both clauses as one (Hoffmann, Meyer), no natural sense is given. In this knowledge, which cannot be supplied by worldly wisdom, the new man must grow according to the image of his Creator, God; this image is Christ, since the Christian is a “new creature” (2Co_5:17). There is an unmistakable allusion and reference to the first creation” (Gen_1:26-27). The second new creation is not to be separated from the first, the Christian is the genuine man, Christianity is true, God-willed humanity. [The latter clause is to be joined with “being renewed” (Alford, Ellicott). The final word “him” refers to the “new man.” The passage means more than the restoration of the image of God lost by Adam. “It is certain that the image of God, in which Christ’s Spirit re-creates us, will be as much more glorious than that, as the second man is more glorious than the first” (Alford). So Eadie in loco. Compare Eph_4:24.—R.]

Col_3:11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, free.—“Where” refers to the region of the new creation in Christ, in contrast with the domain of creation without Christ; in the latter there is division, contrariety and discord; in the former union, fraternity. Just as in the parallel passage (Eph_4:25 : “for we are members one of another”), this fellowship of the regenerate, the converted, requires truth and friendship among each other. It is incorrect to join “where,” as =qua in se, to the yet remote “knowledge” alone, finding here its object now brought in (Schenkel). ̓́Ενι means, as in Homer: there is there, therein; οὐκ ἔνι denies division as respects nationality (“Greek and Jew”),15 as respects religion (“circumcision and uncircumcision”), culture (“Barbarian, Scythian”), social status (“bond, free”). It is worthy of note, that, in nationality, the Greek who ruled in language is put before the Roman who held empire; in religion, Israel honored with revelation takes precedence; in culture, the step is from the uncultivated to the extreme savage (Bengel: “Scythians, more barbarous than the Barbarians;” βαρβαρώτατοι), as in Rom_1:14, the polished Greek not being again mentioned, while the summary is indicated by the omission of the conjunction; in the social category, the slave stands before the freeman to note the receptivity of the insignificant, and the exalting power of the gospel. Comp. Gal_3:28. [Lange’s Com. pp. 88, 91.—R.]

But Christ is all and in all.—“But” presents the contrast to the condition in the region of the natural life; hence within the Church there is not difference, divisions; in spite of the distinctions, there is no schism there, but union, concord on the ground of unity; in all these four directions (τὰπἀντα), and in all the individual persons, the Christians (“in all,” καὶἐνπᾶσι) is the same (Χριστός), “who alone occupies the whole, as the saying is, between stem and stern, and is both beginning and end” (Calvin). Comp. 1Co_15:28; Gal_6:15. Bengel: “Scythian is not Scythian, but Christ’s; Barbarian is not Barbarian, but Christ’s. Christ is all things, and that in all who believe. In Christ are new creatures.” [Meyer: “The subject is placed at the end, for the greatest emphasis, He, the all determining principle of the new life and activity (τἁ πάντα) in all his believers (ἐν πᾶσι), forms the higher unity, in which all those old divisions and antitheses become without significance and as if no longer existing.” Ellicott: “Christ is the aggregation of all things, distinctions, prerogatives, blessings, and moreover is in all, dwelling in all, and so uniting all in the common element of Himself.”—R.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Christian Exhortation. All truly Christian exhortation to a moral life, internal and external alike, is directed mainly towards the right use of salvation as already possessed, towards its preservation in given circumstances, and the maintenance of conduct which meets the conditions of the rightly adjusted relations of the Christian. What is accepted and received as a germ through faith in the mercy of God in Christ, must be held fast, ever more vitally appropriated, nourished and developed practically in every direction. The regenerated believer, with the powers imparted to him by God, must now so work, that his action and conduct are as much his consenting, as God’s continued action. Christ for us becomes Christ in us, and Christ before us becomes Christ through us.

2. The world in and about the Christian. With respect to its pleasure, sensual, especially sexual pleasure, he must strive after purity; with respect to its possessions, after contentment, in order not to fall away from God and under His wrath. [For the sin of sensuality is not only intimately connected with that of covetousness, but both are essentially idolatrous. Those “without God” (Eph_2:12) are “in the world,” and the world’s pleasures and possessions are put by them in the place of God.—R.]

3. Towards his neighbor, especially the brethren, there must be friendliness in disposition, word and truth.

4. All sin must be repelled. All that is opposed to what is required, both in its various shades from coarser to finer and finest, and in its different manifestations in act, word, thought, perception, from external to internal and inmost, must be contended against and repelled. Only what is sinful, yet all that is sinful, is contrary to Christianity and Christian character.

5. Christ the point of unity. Upon the absolute dignity of Christ and His central position toward the world (Col_1:17 : “in Him all things subsist”), which points to His Divine Fulness (Col_1:19; Col_2:9), to Him as the image of the Creator, rests the fact that He is the absolute point of unity, the central and terminal point for men. What He is for the macrocosm He is also for the microcosm; He is the Second Adam, “a quickening spirit” (1Co_15:45). Hence the requirement to become a Christian and be a Christian must be deemed absolute for every man. Union with Christ is absolutely right, but it alone; contrasted with it all diversities as to nationality, confession, culture and station (Col_3:11) are only relatively right; this they are, in so far as that absolute right remains unimpaired. Cosmopolitism in political and social life, union in denominational life are fruitless, or stunted products of the natural man working within the Church, when and where they do not recognize and maintain union with Christ, established above all unions. This is then the rule: one with Christ, united with one another. By this every Christian, that is every evangelical Christian, and every age, such as that of the Reformation, must be tested. [By it too must be tested many human organizations, which aim at uniting selfish men so as to contribute to the common good. Many social and political problems remain to be solved, but social science has not always remembered that “the putting on of the new man” alone brings man “where there is neither Greek nor Jew—bond nor free, but Christ all and in all.”—R.] Compare the notes on Eph_4:22 sq.; Eph_5:25; Eph_5:5-6.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

With every sin look at its concealed beginning in the heart, and its public issue in the judgment of God, who regards the heart.—Be not content with strength enough to prevent the sin of the heart from breaking out unto word and work. Be so ashamed of the past, that the present may not be as it was, and the future become far worse.—As a rule lying to others is closely connected with lying about others.

Starke:—Improvement of the sinful life is as difficult for the flesh, as if the man should go to his death; for he is as much in love with fleshly lusts, as if this were his life. One of the chiefest members of the old man is “the lust of the flesh;” this secret poison hides in all. Though this fire be at once quenched in believers, yet, if they do not take care, the ever-glowing cinders may easily and quickly burst into a flame again. 2Sa_11:2 sq.—Covetousness breaks not only the eighth and tenth commandments of the second table, but the first and second of the other also; hence the covetous are idolaters too.—Old rags we throw away; sin, which makes us so old and deformed and ugly before God, the Christian must so put away, that he not only restrains its outbreak, but also exhausts the spring itself, draining it more and more, even if he does not dry it up entirely.—[What a mark of our great corruption, that the tongue, which should be the means of doing our neighbor good, is so often the instrument to injure him.—R.]—The state of the regenerate is a putting off the old and a putting on the new man. Hence in a believer there are as it were, two men or a double nature. Spirit and flesh, which contend against each other. Gal_5:17. The one from its corrupt propensity wills what is evil, the other from divine operation what is good.

Rieger:—With all that belongs to the old nature, we are never done; yet we should not be grieved by the, way: the quietest plan is with childlike mind to learn, and to regard the matter as ever in progress.—Gerlach:—The capacity for knowing and loving God is that alone wherein man excels the rest of creation, whereby he rules it. Is he a mirror of the Most High, then there is in him an image of God, which sin has not obliterated, but so polluted and marred that his own power can never more restore it.—When the image of God is restored in the soul, the partition-walls among men fall down.

Schleiermacher:—When Christians seem to us to be not yet permeated entirely by the new life in Christ, we may not thence infer an entire lack of the Spirit.—Paul admonishes them to put off their old members, not by virtue of the old man itself, but by virtue of the new and because the vital strength of the new man in them is presupposed.—This work of putting off the old man and putting on the new is a common one, and we should not believe in the fancy that somewhere it is wanting altogether.

Passavant:—[Col_3:15. Covetousness which is idolatry can be found among Christians, in men who rejoice in a Christian education, and bow before the cross of Christ as the tree of life. The life of the covetous man is hid with his hoards in iron chests; the life of the Christian is “hid with Christ in God.”

Col_3:7. It is better, if one has never walked in these things, if they have never been the elements of our life, for then our sanctification is easier. On this account we should learn the fear of God from our youth.]

Col_3:8. A single word, slipping from the mouth of the Christian can pollute the whole God-sanctified new man.—[Col_3:9. It is long before a tongue, hitherto unaccustomed to lie, becomes accustomed to the truth; this is the work of the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of truth.

Col_3:11. God regards in us only His Son and His image, as He hates only the old man and his corruption.—R.]

[Burkitt:

Col_3:7. No argument will prevail more with a Christian to follow on the work of mortification closely for the time to come, than the remembrance of his long continuance in sin. in time past.

Col_3:9. Lying makes a man like the devil, who was a liar as well as a murderer from the beginning.

Col_3:11. O blessed Jesus! Art thou thus all to me? I will labor to be all to thee; to give thee all that I am.—R.]

[Henry:

Col_3:5. It is very observable, that among all the other instances of sin which good men are recorded in the Scripture to have fallen into; (and there is scarcely any but some or other in one or other part of their life, have fallen into;) there is no instance in all the Scripture of any good man charged with covetousness.

Col_3:9. Lying makes us like the devil (who is the father of lies), and is a prime part of the devil’s image upon our souls.

Col_3:10. The-new man is said to be renewed in knowledge; because an ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. Light is the first thing in the new creation, as it was in the first.—R,]

[Eadie:

Col_3:5. If the heart is dead let all the organs which it once vivified and moved die too—nay, put them to death. Let them be killed from want of nutriment and exercise.—This desire of having more, and yet more, is idolatry. What it craves it worships, what it Worships it makes its portion.

Col_3:11. 1. Such distinctions do not prevent the on-putting of the new man. 2. In the church, prior and external distinctions do not modify the possession of spiritual privilege and blessing.—Wordsworth:

Col_3:5. You must be dead to earth, in order to life in heaven. While we mortify our members upon the earth, we quicken our members in heaven.—R.]

Footnotes:

[4]Col_3:5.—Ὑμῶν is wanting in א. A. B. and others. [It is omitted by Tischendorf (ed. 2, not 7), Alford, and by Braune; retained however by Rec. Lachmann. Meyer, De Wette, Wordsworth. Ellicott; the latter remarks: “The great preponderance of MSS. and the accordant testimony of so many versions seem to render this otherwise not improbable omission here very doubtful.”—R.]

[5]Col_3:5.—[Alford and Ellicott thus render πάθος; not merely “just,” but the disposition toward it.—R.]

[6]Col_3:5.—[“Evil concupiscence” is correct, but “shameful desire” would be more generally understood.—R.]

[7]Col_3:6.—Διʼ ἅ on the authority of א. B. C. and others, is better supported than διʼ ὅ. [The former reading is adopted by Lachmann. Tischendorf, Ellicott: the latter by Meyer and Alford.—R.]

[8]Col_3:6.—The clause ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας, “on the children of disobedience,” is wanting in B.; apparently taken from Eph_5:6, where it is supported by all. [Rejected by Tischendorf and Alford. The uncial authority, א. A. C. D. E. K. L., in support of it is so preponderant, that it cannot safely be omitted. The two Epistles might well contain expressions exactly alike. Meyer retains it.—R.]

[9]Col_3:7.—[Ἐνοἷς refers to “the children of disobedience,” if that clause be retained. If it be rejected, the E. V. is correct, but is incorrect as it now stands. (Braune, Ellicott.)—R.]

[10]Col_3:8.—[“Evil-speaking” or “calumny” is evidently the meaning of βλασφημίαν here, as in Eph_4:31, where the E. V. reads: “evil-speaking.”—R.]

[11]Col_3:8.—[“Abusive,” perhaps “foul-mouthed communication,” is better than “filthy;” the idea of obscenity is not necessarily included in αἰσχρολογίαν.—R.]

[12]Col_3:10.—[The present participle here denotes a process going on. See Exeg. Notes.—R.]

[13]Col_3:11.—Before ἐλεύθερος, A. and others read καί, a few also before Σκύθης, but both weakly supported. [“Nor” is unnecessarily supplied in the E. V.—R.]

[14][Alford, reading διʼ ὅ, refers it to “idolatry” alone, and hence in his exegesis, make it “the all-comprehending and crowing sin.” Meyer, adopting the same reading, refers it to the whole immoral character just named.—R.]

[15][The E. V. places the negation in the conjunctions. A more literal rendering would be: “There is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,” etc.—R.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 3 Part 2

SLAYING SELF THE FOUNDATION PRECEPT OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY

Col_3:5-9 (R.V.)

"Mortify therefore"-wherefore? The previous words give the reason. Because "ye died" with Christ, and because ye "were raised together with Him." In other words, the plainest, homeliest moral teaching of this Epistle, such as that which immediately follows, is built upon its "mystical" theology. Paul thinks that the deep things which he has been saying about union with Christ in His death and resurrection have the most intimate connection with common life. These profound truths have the keenest edge, and are as a sacrificial knife, to slay the life of self. Creed is meant to tell on conduct. Character is the last outcome and test of doctrine. But too many people deal with their theological beliefs as they do with their hassocks and prayer books and hymn books in their pews-use them for formal worship once a week, and leave them for the dust to settle on them till Sunday comes round again. So it is very necessary to put the practical inferences very plainly, to reiterate the most commonplace and threadbare precepts as the issue of the most recondite teaching, and to bind the burden of duty on mens backs with the cords of principles and doctrines.

Accordingly the section of the Epistle which deals with Christian character now begins, and this "therefore" knits the two halves together. That word protests against opposite errors. On the one hand, some good people are to be found impatient of exhortations to duties, and ready to say, Preach the gospel, and the duties will spring up spontaneously where it is received; on the other hand, some people are to be found who see no connection between the practice of common morality and the belief of Christian truths, and are ready to say, Put away your theology; it is useless lumber, the machine will work as well without it. But Paul believed that the firmest basis for moral teaching and the most powerful motive for moral conduct is "the truth as it is in Jesus."

I. We have here put very plainly the paradox of continual self-slaying as the all-embracing duty of a Christian.

It is a pity that the R.V has retained "mortify" here, as that Latinised word says to an ordinary reader much less than is meant, and hides the allusion to the preceding context. The marginal alternative "make dead" is, to say the least, not idiomatic English. The suggestion of the American revisers, which is printed at the end of the R.V, "put to death," is much better, and perhaps a single word, such as "slay" or "kill" might have been better still.

"Slay your members which are upon the earth." It is a vehement and paradoxical injunction, though it be but the echo of still more solemn and stringent words-"pluck it out, cut it off, and cast it from thee." The possibility of misunderstanding it and bringing it down to the level of that spurious asceticism and "severity to the body" against which he has just been thundering, seems to occur to the Apostle, and therefore he hastens to explain that he does not mean the maiming of selves, or hacking away limbs, but the slaying of the passions and desires which root themselves in our bodily constitution. The eager haste of the explanation destroys the congruity of the sentence, but he does not mind that. And then follows a grim catalogue of the evil doers on whom sentence of death is passed.

Before dealing with that list, two points of some importance may be observed. The first is that the practical exhortations of this letter begin with this command to put off certain characteristics which are assumed to belong to the Colossian Christians in their natural state, and that only afterwards comes the precept to put on (Col_3:12) the fairer robes of Christlike purity, clasped about by the girdle of perfectness.

That is to say, Pauls anthropology regards men as wrong and having to get right. A great deal of the moral teaching which is outside of Christianity, and which does not sufficiently recognise that the first thing to be done is to cure and alter, but talks as if men were, on the whole, rather inclined to be good, is for that very reason perfectly useless. Its fine precepts and lofty sentiments go clean over peoples heads, and are ludicrously inappropriate to the facts of the case. The serpent has twined itself round my limbs, and unless you can give me a knife, sharp and strong enough to cut its loathsome coils asunder, it is cruel to bid me walk. All men on the face of the earth need, for moral progress, to be shown and helped first how not to be what they have been, and only after that is it of the slightest use to tell them what they ought to be. The only thing that reaches the universal need is a power that will make us different from what we are. If we are to grow into goodness and beauty, we must begin by a complete reversal of tastes and tendencies. The thing we want first is not progress, the going on in the direction in which our faces are turned, but a power which can lay a mastering hand upon our shoulders, turn us right round, and make us go in the way opposite to that. Culture, the development of what is in us in germ, is not the beginning of good husbandry on human nature as it is. The thorns have to be stubbed up first, and the poisonous seeds sifted out, and new soil laid down, and then culture will bring forth something better than wild grapes. First-"mortify"; then-"put on."

Another point to be carefully noted is that, according to the Apostles teaching, the root and beginning of all such slaying of the evil which is in us all, lies in our being dead with Christ to the world. In the former chapter we found that the Apostles final condemnation of the false asceticism which was beginning to infect the Colossian Church, was that it was of no value as a counteractive of fleshly indulgence. But here he proclaims that what asceticism could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, union with Jesus Christ in His death and risen life will do; it will subdue sin in the flesh. That slaying here enjoined as fundamental to all Christian holiness, is but the working out in life and character of the revolution in the inmost self, which has been effected, if by faith we are joined to the living Lord, who was dead and is alive for evermore. There must, however, be a very vigorous act of personal determination if the power of that union is to be manifested in us. The act of "slaying" can never be pleasant or easy. The vehemence of the command and the form of the metaphor express the strenuousness of the effort and the painfulness of the process, in the same way as Pauls other saying, "crucify the flesh," does. Suppose a man working at some machine. His fingers get drawn between the rollers or caught in some belting. Another minute and he will be flattened to a shapeless bloody mass. He catches up an axe lying by and with his own arm hacks off his own hand at the wrist. It takes some nerve to do that. It is not easy nor pleasant, but it is the only alternative to a horrible death. I know of no stimtilus that will string a man up to the analogous spiritual act here enjoined, and enjoined by conscience also, except participation in the death of Christ and in the resulting life.

"Slay your members which are upon the earth" means tears and blood and more than blood. It is easier far to cut off the hand, which after all is not me, than to sacrifice passions and desires which, though they be my worst self, are myself. It is useless to blink the fact that the only road to holiness is through self-suppression, self-annihilation; and nothing can make that easy and pleasant. True, the paths of religion are ways of pleasantness and paths of peace, but they are steep, and climbing is never easy. The upper air is bracing and exhilarating indeed, but trying to lungs accustomed to the low levels. Religion is delightsome, but self-denial is always against the grain of the self which is denied, and there is no religion without it. Holiness is not to be won in a moment. It is not a matter of consciousness, possessed when we know that we possess it. But it has to be attained by effort. The way to heaven is riot by "the primrose path." That leads to "the everlasting bonfire." Forever it remains true that men obtain forgiveness and eternal life as a gift for which the only requisite is faith, but they achieve holiness, which is the permeating of their characters with that eternal life, by patient, believing, continuous effort. An essential part of that effort is directed towards the conquest and casting out of the old self in its earthward looking lusts and passions. The love of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His renewing spirit make that conquest possible, by supplying an all-constraining motive and an all-conquering power. But even they do not make it easy, nor deaden the flesh to the cut of the sacrificial knife.

II. We have here a grim catalogue of the condemned to death.

The Apostle stands like a jailor at the prison door, with the fatal roll in his hand, and reads out the names of the evil doers for whom the tumbril waits to carry them to the guillotine, It is an ugly list, but we need plain speaking that there may be no mistake as to the identity of the culprits. He enumerates evils which honeycombed society with rottenness then, and are rampant now. The series recounts various forms of evil love, and is so arranged as that it starts with the coarse, gross act, and goes on to more subtle and inward forms. It goes up the stream as it were, to the fountain head, passing inward from deed to desire. First stands "fornication," which covers the whole ground of immoral sexual relations, then "all uncleanness," which embraces every manifestation in word or look or deed of the impure spirit, and so is at once wider and subtler than the gross physical act. Then follow "passion" and "evil desire"; the sources of the evil deeds. These again are at once more inward and more general than the preceding. They include not only the lusts and longings which give rise to the special sins just denounced, but all forms of hungry appetite and desire after "the things that are upon the earth." If we are to try to draw a distinction between the two, probably "passion" is somewhat less wide than "desire," and the former represents the evil emotion as an affection which the mind suffers, while the latter represents it as a longing which it actively puts forth. The "lusts of the flesh" are in the one aspect kindled by outward temptations which come with terrible force and carry men captive, acting almost irresistibly on the animal nature. In the other aspect they are excited by the voluntary action of the man himself. In the one the evil comes into the heart; in the other the heart goes out to the evil.

Then follows covetousness. The juxtaposition of that vice with the grosser forms of sensuality is profoundly significant. It is closely allied with these. It has the same root, and is but another form of evil desire going out to the "things which are on the earth." The ordinary worldly nature flies for solace either to the pleasures of appetite or to the passion of acquiring. And not only are they closely connected in root, but covetousness often follows lust in the history of a life just as it does in this catalogue. When the former evil spirit loses its hold, the latter often takes its place. How many respectable middle-aged gentlemen are now mainly devoted to making money, whose youth was foul with sensual indulgence? When that palled, this came to titillate the jaded desires with a new form of gratification. Covetousness is "promoted vice lust superannuated."

A reason for this warning against covetousness is appended, "inasmuch as (for such is the force of the word rendered the which) it is idolatry." If we say of anything, no matter what, "If I have only enough of this, I shall be satisfied; it is my real aim, my sufficient good," that thing is a god to me, and my real worship is paid to it, whatever may be my nominal religion. The lowest form of idolatry is the giving of supreme trust to a material thing, and making that a god. There is no lower form of fetish worship than this, which is the real working religion today of thousands of Englishmen who go masquerading as Christians.

III. The exhortation is enforced by a solemn note of warning: "For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." Some authorities omit the words "upon the children of disobedience," which are supposed to have crept in here from the parallel passage, Eph_5:6. But even the advocates of the omission allow that the clause has "preponderating support," and the sentence is painfully incomplete and abrupt without it. The R.V has exercised a wise discretion in retaining it.

In the previous chapter the Apostle included "warning" in his statement of the various branches into which his Apostolic activity was divided. His duty seemed to him to embrace the plain stern setting forth of that terrible reality, the wrath of God. Here we have it urged as a reason for shaking off these evil habits.

That thought of wrath as an element in the Divine nature has become very unwelcome to this generation. The great revelation of God in Jesus Christ has taught the world His love, as it never knew it before, and knows it now by no other means. So profoundly has that truth that God is love penetrated the consciousness of the European world, that many people will not hear of the wrath of God because they think it inconsistent with His love-and sometimes reject the very gospel to which they owe their lofty conceptions of the Divine heart, because it speaks solemn words about His anger and its issues.

But surely these two thoughts of Gods love and Gods wrath are not inconsistent, for His wrath is His love, pained, wounded, thrown back upon itself, rejected and compelled to assume the form of aversion and to do its "strange work"-that which is not its natural operation-of punishment. When we ascribe wrath to God, we must take care of lowering the conception of it to the level of human wrath, which is shaken with passion and often tinged with malice, whereas in that affection of the Divine nature which corresponds to anger in us, there is neither passion nor wish to harm. Nor does it exclude the coexistence of love, as Paul witnesses in his Epistle to the Ephesians, in one verse declaring that "we were the children of wrath," and in the next that God "loved us with a great love even when we were dead in sins."

God would not be a holy God if it were all the same to Him whether a man were good or bad. As a matter of fact, the modern revulsion against the representation of the wrath of God is usually accompanied with weakened conceptions of His holiness, and of His moral government of the world. Instead of exalting, it degrades His love to free it from the admixture of wrath, which is like alloy with gold, giving firmness to what were else too soft for use. Such a God is not love, but impotent good nature. If there be no wrath, there is no love; if there were no love, there would be no wrath. It is more blessed and hopeful for sinful men to believe in a God who is angry with the wicked, whom yet He loves, every day, and who cannot look upon sin, than in one who does not love righteousness enough to hate iniquity, and from whose too indulgent hand the rod has dropped, to the spoiling of His children. "With the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward." The mists of our sins intercept the gracious beams and turn the blessed sun into a ball of fire. The wrath "cometh." That majestic present tense may express either the continuous present incidence of the wrath as exemplified in the moral government of the world, in which, notwithstanding anomalies, such sins as have been enumerated drag after themselves their own punishment and are "avenged in kind," or it may be the present tense expressive of prophetic certainty, which is so sure of what shall come, that it speaks of it as already on its road. It is eminently true of those sins of lust and passion that the men who do them reap as they have sown. How many young men come up into our great cities, innocent and strong, with a mothers kiss upon their lips and a fathers blessing hovering over their heads! They fall among bad companions in college or warehouse, and after a little while they disappear. Broken in health, tainted in body and soul, they crawl home to break their mothers hearts-and to die. "His bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust." Whether in such extreme forms or no, that wrath comes even now, in plain and bitter consequences on men, and still more on women who sin in such ways.

And the present retribution may well be taken as the herald and prophet of a still more solemn manifestation of the Divine displeasure, which is already as it were on the road, has set out from the throne of God, and will certainly arrive here one day. These consequences of sin already realised serve to show the set and drift of things, and to suggest what will happen when retribution and the harvest of our present life of sowing come. The first fiery drops that fell on Lots path as he fled from Sodom were not more surely precursors of an overwhelming rain, nor bade him flee for his life more urgently, than the present punishment of sin proclaims its sorer future punishment, and exhorts us all to come out of the storm into the refuge, even Jesus, who is ever even now "delivering us from the wrath which is" ever even now "coming" on the sons of disobedience.

IV. A further motive enforcing the main precept of self-slaying is the remembrance of a sinful past, which remembrance is at once penitent and grateful. "In the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in them."

What is the difference between "walking" and "living" in these things? The two phrases seem synonymous, and might often be used indifferently; but here there is evidently a well marked diversity of meaning. The former is an expression frequent in the Pauline Epistles as well as in Johns; as for instance, "to walk in love" or "in truth." That in which men walk is conceived of as an atmosphere encompassing them; or, without a metaphor, to walk in anything is to have the active life or conduct guided or occupied by it. These Colossian Christians, then, had in the past trodden that evil path, or their active life had been spent in that poisonous atmosphere-which is equivalent to saying that they had committed these sins. At what time? "When you lived in them." That does not mean merely "when your natural life was passed among them." That would be a trivial thing to say, and it would imply that their outward life now was not so passed, which would not be true. In that sense they still lived in the poisonous atmosphere. In such an age of unnamable moral corruption no man could live out of the foul stench which filled his nostrils whenever he walked abroad or opened his window. But the Apostle has just said that they were now "living in Christ," and their lives "hid with Him in God." So this phrase describes the condition which is the opposite of their present, and may be paraphrased, "When the roots of your life, tastes, affections, thoughts, desires were immersed, as in some feculent bog, in these and kindred evils." And the meaning of the whole is substantially 'Your active life was occupied and guided by these sins in that past time when your inward being was knit to and nourished by them.' Or to put it plainly, conduct followed and was shaped by inclinations and desires.

This retrospect enforces the main exhortation. It is meant to awaken penitence, and the thought that time enough has been wasted and incense enough offered on these foul altars. It is also meant to kindle thankfulness for the strong, loving hand which has drawn them from that pit of filth, and by both emotions to stimulate the resolute casting aside of that evil in which they once, like others, wallowed. Their joy on the one hand and their contrition on the other should lead them to discern the inconsistency of professing to be Christians and yet keeping terms with these old sins. They could not have the roots of half their lives above and of the other half down here. The gulf between the present and past of a regenerate man is too wide and deep to be bridged by flimsy compromises. "A man who is perverse in his two ways," that is, in double ways, "shall fall in one of them," as the Book of Proverbs has it. The attempt to combine incompatibles is sure to fail. It is impossible to walk firmly if one foot be down in the gutter and the other up on the curbstone. We have to settle which level we shall choose, and then to plant both feet there.

V. We have, as conclusion, a still wider exhortation to an entire stripping off of the sins of the old state.

The whole force of the contrast and contrariety between the Colossian Christians past and present lies in that emphatic "now." They as well as other heathen had been walking, because they had been living, in these muddy ways. But now that their life was hid with Christ in God; now that they had been made partakers of His death and resurrection, and of all the new loves and affinities which therein became theirs; now they must take heed that they bring not that dead and foul past into this bright and pure present, nor prolong winter and its frosts into the summer of the soul.

"Ye also." There is another "ye also" in the previous verse-"ye also walked," that is, you in company with other Gentiles followed a certain course of life. Here, by contrast, the expression means "you, in common with other Christians." A motive enforcing the subsequent exhortation is in it hinted rather than fully spoken. The Christians at Colossae had belonged to a community which they have now left in order to join another. Let them behave as their company behaves. Let them keep step with their new comrades. Let them strip themselves, as their new associates do, of the uniform which they wore in that other regiment.

The metaphor of putting clothing on or off is very frequent in this Epistle. The precept here is substantially equivalent to the previous command to "slay," with the difference that the conception of vices as the garments of the soul is somewhat less vehement than that which regards them as members of the very self. "All these" are to be put off. That phrase points back to the things previously spoken of. It includes the whole of the unnamed members of the class, of which a few have been already named, and a handful more are about to be plucked like poison flowers, and suggests that there are many more as baleful growing by the side of this devils bouquet which is next presented.

As to this second catalogue of vices, they may be summarised as, on the whole, being various forms of wicked hatred, in contrast with the former list, which consisted of various forms of wicked love. They have less to do with bodily appetites. But perhaps it is not without profound meaning that the fierce rush of unhallowed passion over the soul is put first, and the contrary flow of chill malignity comes second; for in the spiritual world, as in the physical, a storm blowing from one quarter is usually followed by violent gales from the opposite. Lust ever passes into cruelty, and dwells "hard by hate." A licentious epoch or man is generally a cruel epoch or man. Nero made torches of the Christians. Malice is evil desire iced.

This second list goes in the opposite direction to the former. That began with actions and went up the stream of desire; this begins with the sources, which are emotions, and comes down stream to their manifestations in action.

First we have anger. There is a just and righteous anger, which is part of the new man, and essential to his completeness, even as it is part of the image after which he is created. But here of course the anger which is to be put off is the inverted reflection of the earthly and passionate lust after the flesh; it is, then, of an earthly, passionate, and selfish kind. "Wrath" differs from "anger" in so far as it may be called anger boiling over. If anger rises keep the lid on, do not let it get the length of wrath, nor effervesce into the brief madness of passion. But on the other hand, do not think that you have done enough when you have suppressed the wrath which is the expression of your anger, nor be content with saying, "Well, at all events I did not show it," but take the cure a step further back, and strip off anger as well as wrath, the emotion as well as the manifestation. Christian people do not sufficiently bring the greatest forces of their religion and of Gods Spirit to bear upon the homely task of curing small hastinesses of temper, and sometimes seem to think it a sufficient excuse to say, "I have naturally a hot disposition." But Christianity was sent to subdue and change natural dispositions. An angry man cannot have communion with God, any more than the sky can be reflected in the storm-swept tide; and a man in communion with God cannot be angry with a passionate and evil anger any more than a dove can croak like a raven or strike like a hawk. Such anger disturbs our insight into everything; eyes suffused with it cannot see; and it weakens all good in the soul, and degrades it before its own conscience.

"Malice" designates another step in the process. The anger boils over in wrath, and then cools down into malignity-the disposition which means mischief, and plans or rejoices in evil. falling on the hated head. That malice, as cold, as clear, as colourless as sulphuric acid, and burning like it, is worse than the boiling rage already spoken of. There are many degrees of this cold-drawn, double-distilled rejoicing in evil, and the beginning of it in a certain faint satisfaction in the misfortunes of those whom we dislike is by no means unusual.

An advance is now made in the direction of outward manifestation. It is significant that while the expressions of wicked love were deeds, those of wicked hate are words. The "blasphemy" of the Authorised Version is better taken, with the Revised, as "railing." The word means "speech, that injures," and such speech may be directed either against God, which is blasphemy in the usual sense of the word, or against man. The hate blossoms into hurtful speech. The heated metal of anger is forged into poisoned arrows of the tongue. Then follows "shameful speaking out of your mouth," which is probably to be understood not so much of obscenities, which would more properly belong to the former catalogue, as of foul-mouthed abuse of the hated persons, that copiousness of vituperation and those volcanic explosions of mud, which are so natural to the angry Eastern.

Finally, we have a dehortation from lying, especially to those within the circle of the Church, as if that sin too were the child of hatred and anger. It comes from a deficiency of love, or a predominance of selfishness, which is the same thing. A lie ignores my brothers claims on me, and my union with him. "Ye are members one of another," is the great obligation to love which is denied and sinned against by hatred in all its forms and manifestations, and not least by giving my brother the poisoned bread of lies instead of the heavenly manna of pure truth, so far as it has been given to me.

On the whole, this catalogue brings out the importance to be attached to sins of speech, which are ranked here as in parallel lines with the grossest forms of animal passion. Mens words ought to be fountains of consolation and sources of illumination, encouragement, revelations of love and pity. And what are they? What floods of idle words, foul words, words that wound like knives and sting and bite like serpents, deluge the world! If all the talk that has its sources in these evils rebuked here were to be suddenly made inaudible, what a dead silence would fall on many brilliant circles, and how many of us would stand making mouths but saying nothing.

All the practical exhortations of this section concern common homely duties which everybody knows to be Such. It may be asked-does Christianity then only lay down such plain precepts? What need was there of all that prelude of mysterious doctrines, if we are only to be landed at last in such elementary and obvious moralities? No doubt they are elementary and obvious, but the main matter is-how to get them kept. And in respect to that, Christianity does two things which nothing else does. It breaks the entail of evil habits by the great gift of pardon for the past, and by the greater gift of a new spirit and life principle within, which is foreign to all evil, being the effluence of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Therefore the gospel of Jesus Christ makes it possible that men should slay themselves, and put on the new life, which will expel the old as the new shoots on some trees push the last years lingering leaves, brown and sere, from their places. All moral teachers from the beginning have agreed, on the whole, in their reading of the commandments which are printed on conscience in the largest capitals. Everybody who is not blind can read them. But reading is easy, keeping is hard. How to fulfil has been wanting. It is given us in the gospel, which is not merely a republication of old precepts, but the communication of new power. If we yield ourselves to Christ He will nerve our arms to wield the knife that will slay our dearest tastes, though beloved as Isaac by Abraham. If a man knows and feels that Christ has died for him, and that he lives in and by Christ, then, and not else, will he be able to crucify self. If he knows and feels that, by His pardoning mercy and atoning death, Christ has taken off his foul raiment and clothed him in clean garments, then, and not else, will he be able, by daily effort after repression of self and appropriation of Christ, to put off the old man and to put on the new, which is daily being renewed into closer resemblance to

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:5 So put to death: Our death to this life (3:3) must be made real in the way that we live day by day. • a greedy person is an idolater: Greedy people pursue the objects of their greed—money, sex, power, possessions—in the place of God, with the hope of finding satisfaction in those things.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Col 3:5. Νεκρώσατε, Mortify[21]) [not knowing to spare.[22]—V. g.]—τὰ αέλη, your members) of which united the body of sin consists, ch. Col 2:11. [Here all impurity, without exception, is repelled and excluded.—V. g.]—ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, upon the earth) where they find their support. These things are presently enumerated.—πορνείαν, κ.τ.λ., fornication, etc.) Eph 5:3-4.—πάθος, passion [inordinate affection]) the disorder of lust within.—ἐπιθυμίαν, concupiscence) the disorder of the external senses.—τὴν πλεονεξίαν, covetousness) The article has the effect of Epitasis [an emphatic addition], and includes the whole genus of vice, which is different from the genus of the species just now enumerated. Avarice most of all makes men cling to the earth.

[21] Lit. Punish with every kind of death.

[22] Strangers to all tender-heartedness, such as would lead you to spare the flesh.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col_3:5.[142] Οὖν] draws the inference from Col_3:3-4, in order now to lead to that which must be done with a view to the carrying out of the μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τ. γῆς. The inference itself is: Since, according to Col_3:3-4, ye are dead, but have your life hidden with Christ in God and are destined to be glorified with Christ, it would be in contradiction of all this, according to which ye belong no longer to the earth but to the heavenly state of life, to permit your earthly members still to live; no, ye are to put them to death, to make them die (Rom_4:19; Heb_11:12; Plut. Mor. p. 954 D)!

νεκρώσατε] prefixed with emphasis as the point of the inference; the term is selected in significant reference to ἀπεθάνετε and ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν, Col_3:3-4.

τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν] means nothing else, and is not to be explained otherwise than: your members (hand, foot, eye, etc.). That these were not to be put to death in the physical sense, but in an ethical respect (comp. Col_2:11)seeing, namely, that they, as the seat and organs of sinful lusts (Rom_7:23), which they still are even in the case of the regenerate (Gal_5:17; Gal_5:24), are to lose their vigour of life and activity through the Christian moral will governed by the Holy Spirit, and in so far to experience ethical deadening (comp. Rom_7:5; Rom_7:23; Rom_8:13, and the analogous representation by Jesus as to plucking out the eye, etc., Mat_5:29 f., Mat_18:8 f.; comp. also Mat_19:12)was self-evident to the reader, as it was, moreover, placed beyond doubt by the following appositions πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. Hence there was neither ground nor warrant in the context to assume already here (see Col_3:9) the conception of the old man, whose desires are regarded as members (Beza, Flacius, Calvin, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, Calovius, and others, including Böhmer, Olshausen, and Bleek), although the required putting to death presupposes that the old man is still partially alive. Nor is sin itself, according to its totality, to be thought of as body and its individual parts as members (Hilary, Grotius, Bengel, Bähr, and others; comp. also Julius Müller, v. d. Sünde, I. p. 461, ed. 5, and Flatt),a conception which does not obtain even in Col_2:11 and Rom_6:6, and which is inadmissible here on account of ὑμῶν. The view of Steiger, finally, is erroneous (comp. Baumgarten-Crusius), that the entire human existence is conceived as σῶμα. We may add that the νέκρωσις of the members, etc., is not inconsistent with the death (ἀπεθάνετε, Col_3:3) already accomplished through conversion to Christ, but is required by the latter as the necessary, ever new act of the corresponding morality, with which faith lives and works.[143] And in view of the ideal character of this obligation the command νεκρώσατε κ.τ.λ.this requirement, which is ever repeating itself, of the ethical mortificatiois never superfluous.

τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς] which are upon the earth, corresponds to the τὰ ἐπὶ τ. γ. in Col_3:2; in contrast, not to the glorified human nature of Christ (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, I. p. 560), but to the life hidden with Christ in God. In this antithetical addition is involved an element which justifies the requirement νεκρώσατε τ. μ. ὑμ., not expressing the activity of the μέλη for what is sinful (de Wette, comp. Flatt and others, in connection with which Grotius would even supply τὰ φρονοῦντα from Col_3:2), which the simple words do not affirm, but: that the μέλη, as existing upon earth, have nothing in common with the life which exists in heaven, that their life is of another kind and must not be spared to the prejudice of that heavenly ζωή! Comp. also Hofmanns present view. The context does not even yield a contrast of heavenly members (Huther), i.e. of a life of activity for what is heavenly pervading the members, or of the members of the new man (Julius Müller), since the ζωή is not to be understood in the sense of the spiritual, ethical life.

πορνείαν κ.τ.λ.] Since Paul would not have the members slain as such absolutely and unreservedly, but only as regards their ethical side, namely, the sinful nature which dwells and works in them (Rom_7:23), he now subjoins detailed instances of this sinful nature, and that with a bold but not readily misunderstood directness of expression appositionally, so that they appear as the forms of immorality cleaving to the members, with respect to which the very members are to be put to death. In these forms of immorality, which constitute no such heterogeneous apposition to τὰ μέλη ὑμ. as Holtzmann thinks, the life of the μέλη, which is to be put to death, is represented by its parts. Paul might have said: λέγω δὲ πορνείαν; but by annexing it directly, he gave to his expression the form of a distributive apposition (see Kühner, II. 1, p. 247), more terse and more compact after the σχῆμα καθʼ ὅλον καὶ μέρος. It is neither a sudden leap of thought nor a metonymy.

ἀκαθαρσ.] in reference to lustful uncleanness; comp. on Rom_1:24; Gal_5:19; 2Co_12:21; Eph_4:19; Eph_5:3. Paul gives, namely, from πορν. to κακήν, four forms of the first Gentile fundamental vice, unchastity, beginning with the special (πορνείαν), and becoming more and more general as he proceeds. Hence follows: πάθος, passion (the ἡττᾶσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς, Plat. Prot. p. 352 A; Dem. 805. 14; Arist. Eth. ii. 4), heat; Rom_1:26; 1Th_4:5; and Lünemann in loc. Comp. also Plat. Phaed. p. 265 B: τὸ ἐρωτικὸν πάθος, Phaedr. p. 252 C. And finally: ἐπιθυμ. κακήν (Plat. Legg. ix. p. 854 A), evil desire, referring to unchaste longing. Comp. Mat_5:28; Breitenbach, ad Xen. Hier. 6. 2. Unnatural unchastity (Rom_1:26 f.; 1Co_6:9) is included in ἀκαθ., παθ., and ἐπιθ. κακ., but is not expressly denoted (Erasmus, Calovius, Heinrichs, Flatt, Böhmer) by πάθος (comp pathici, Catullus, xvi. 2; παθικεύεσθαι, Nicarch. in Anth. xi. 73), a meaning which neither admits of linguistic proof, nor is, considering the general character of the adjoining terms (ἀκαθαρσ. ἐπιθ. κακ.), in keeping with the context. ἐπιθ. κακ. is to be distinguished from πάθος as the more general conception; the πάθος is always also ἐπιθυμία and relatively ἐπιθ. κακή, but not the converse, since a ἡγεῖσθαι or κρατεῖν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας may also take place.

κ. τὴν πλεονεξίαν] After the vice of uncleanness comes now the second chief vice of the Gentiles (comp. on Eph_4:19): covetousness. Hence the connection here by means of καί, which is not even, but (in opposition to Hofmann) the simple and, and the article, which introduces the new category with the description of its disgraceful character,[144] associating this descriptive character as a special stigma with the vice of πλεονεξία. In opposition to the erroneous interpretations: insatiable lust (Estius, Michaelis), or: the gains of prostitution (Storr, Flatt, Bähr), see on Eph. l.c., and Huther. The πλεονεξία is not separated by the article from the appositional definitions of the μέλη, and co-ordinated with τὰ μέλη, so that the latter would only be the members which minister to unchaste lust (Huther); for ΤᾺ ΜΈΛΗ ὙΜ. can only denote the members generally, the collective members; and ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ΜΈΛΕΣΙΝ (Rom_7:5; Rom_7:23) understood generically, and not as referring to particular individual members, sin is operating with all its lusts, as, in accordance with this ethical mode of viewing the matter, the collective members form the σῶμα τῆς σαρκός of Col_2:11. Bengel remarks aptly that the article indicates totum genus vitii a genere commemoratarum modo specierum diversum.

ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρ.] quippe quae est, etc., further supports the νεκρώσατε specially in reference to this vice, which, as the idolatry of money and possessions, is κατʼ ἐξοχήν of a heathen nature. It has been well said by Theodoret: ἐπειδὴ τὸ μαμωνᾶ κύριον ὁ σωτὴρ προσηγόρενσε, διδάσκων, ὡς ὁ τῷ πάθει τῆς πλεονεξίας δουλεύων ὡς Θεὸν τὸν πλοῦτον τιμᾶ. In 1Co_5:11, the ΕἸΔΩΛΟΛΑΤΡ. is to be taken differently (in opposition to Holtzmann). Moreover, see on Eph_5:5. Observe, further, that the addition of the ΠΛΕΟΝΕΞΊΑ to unchastity (comp. 1Co_5:11) can afford no ground for supposing that the author of the Ephesians borrowed this combination from 1Th_2:3, and that it was taken into our present Epistle from that to the Ephesians (Holtzmann). Comp. also 1Co_6:9 f.

[142] In the section vv. 517, in which Hönig, in relation to Eph_4:1-5; Eph_4:20, finds the stamp of originality, Holtzmann discovers the concentrating labour of the interpolator, whose second (and better) effort is the passage in Colossians.

[143] Chrysostom illustrates the relation by comparing the converted person to a cleansed and brightened statue, which, however, needs to be afterwards cleansed afresh from new accretions of rust and dirt.

[144] Looking to the so closely marked twofold division of the vices adduced, it is inconsistent with the text to take, with Hofmann, the three elements, ἀκαθαρσ., πάθος, and ἐπιθυμ. κακ., in such a general sense as to make ἀκαθαρσία mean every action which mars the creaturely honour (?) of man, πάθος, the passion which enslaves through excitement of the blood, and ἐπιθυμία κακή, all evil desire, which is, as such, a morbid excitement of the blood. The excitement of the blood, thus sanguinely enough invented without any hint whatever from the text, is then held to convert the second and third elements into cases in which one sins against his own body,a characteristic point, which Paul has not in view at all in connection with the apposition to τὰ μέλη κ.τ.λ., as is plain from the appended κ. τ. πλεονεξίαν belonging to the same apposition.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 3:5 . Partially parallel to Eph 5:3-5 . νεκρώσατε οὖν . “Put to death, therefore” ( cf. Rom 8:13 ). The aorist implies a single decisive act. Perhaps νεκ . is chosen as a weaker word than θανατόω (Cremer, Haupt), implying the cessation of functions during life, οὖν is interesting. It seems strange that the assertions in the previous verses, of their death and resurrection with Christ and hidden life with Him in God, should be followed by the exhortation to put their members to death. Clearly these assertions are idealistic. The death and resurrection potentially theirs are to be realised in the putting to death of their members, τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς . The members are referred to in so far as they are the instruments of the σάρξ , and are included in the “things on the earth,” with which the Christian has no more concern (Col 3:2 ). Lightfoot places a stop at γῆς , and regards πορνείαν κ . τ . λ . as governed by ἀπόθεσθε (Col 3:8 ). He thinks Paul intended to make these accusatives directly dependent on ἀπ ., but, owing to the intervening clauses, changed the form of the sentence. It is true that the apposition of μέλη and the list of sins that follows is strange, but not so strange as to make this very forced construction preferable. We should have expected ἀπ . at the beginning of the sentence. καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν : “and covetousness,” not “impurity”. It comes fitly here, for gold provided the means for indulging these lustful passions. For the noun with the article at the end of a series without it, see Winer-Moulton, 9 p. 145. ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία : “inasmuch as it is idolatry”. ἥτις refers simply to πλ ., not to the whole series of vices enumerated, nor to μέλη , by attraction for ἅτινα . The lust for wealth sets riches in the place of God ( cf. Mat 6:24 ).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5–4:1. Practical duties

Col 3:5-17, in the individual life;

Col 3:18 to Col 4:1, in the social relations of a household.

5–17. The individual life

Col 3:5-11. Negatively (together with a general description of the new life), for sins are inconsistent with the new self.

Col 3:12-17. Positively, especially love, and knowledge of God’s word, and thanksgiving.

(Col 3:5) The hidden life which will hereafter be manifested must, by all logic, take effect now. Put therefore to death your bodies and their parts; all of which have only to do with earth and are instruments of sin, thus including immoral actions, and wrong desires, and greed, for this is idolatry; (Col 3:6) on account of which things God’s wrath comes down on the ungodly; (Col 3:7) and in these things you too once walked, when you found your interest and pleasure in such things as these; (Col 3:8) But, as matters stand with you now, and in contrast to your former life, put off as disused garments all these things, including sins of disposition and speech. (Col 3:9) Tell no lies to one another (lying marks “the old man”), thus stripping off the old worn-out self together with all the actions that belong to it; (Col 3:10) and putting on the new self, which is maintained fresh and vigorous with the object of gaining full knowledge (of God and all that pertains to our relation to Him) with no less a standard than God’s image, in accordance with the original design after which man was made; (Col 3:11) the image in which there do not exist any differences of either nationality, or ceremonial religion, or culture, or social standing, but everything means Christ, and in everything is Christ.

5. νεκρώσατε οὖν. St Paul here begins the directly “practical” part of his Epistle, but characteristically (cf. Rom 12:1; Eph 4:1) joins it to the more doctrinal part by a “therefore.” Life is indeed “hidden,” but it is hereafter to be manifested in its true nature, and must logically be taking effect in the present.

οὖν gathers up the logical result of Col 2:20 to Col 3:4, with probably special reference to Col 3:4 b, the glorious future. It is inconsistent with this future to let sins now live in us.

νεκρώσατε, “put to death.” Cf. Gal 5:24, and νέκρωσις in 2Co 4:10.

τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς (Col 3:2). Observe, first, “Our bodies and all that pertains to them belong to the earth” (Beet); secondly, our several members which are the instruments of sins are spoken of as independent agents committing sin. Thus the thought is similar to our Lord’s words, Mat 5:29-30. Compare also Rom 7:5; Rom 7:23.

Of course the death is ethical not physical, but it is the physical limbs that are intended, to which St Paul attributes as it were separate individualities. τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς does not differentiate the kind of members but is a term that excellently suits our members.

There appears to be no reason for thinking that St Paul already refers to the “old man” Col 3:9, contrasting the use of the physical limbs for his earthly purposes with their possible use for Christ.

πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. In apposition to τὰ μέλη and giving examples of the way in which the members work if left to themselves. As included under the members, as their effects, these sins are of course to be put to death with them.

Lightfoot puts a colon after γῆς and makes πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. “prospective accusatives which should be governed directly by some such word as ἀπόθεσθε” (Col 3:8). It is true that the contrast between ποτέ and νυνί has dislocated the sentence in Col 1:21, cf. Col 1:26; cf. Eph 2:1-5, but in those examples there is no doubt as to the beginning of the sentence, whereas here πορνείαν would be strangely abrupt. In any case surely a much stronger term than ἀπόθεσθε was to be expected with πορνείαν.

πορνείαν, ἀκαθαρσίαν, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν. Transition from the more specific to the more general, in two pairs, the first pair mentioning actions, the second states of mind, πορνεία, fornication, the common sin, not understood to be a sin, of all heathen peoples. ἀκαθαρσία, a general term, including all forms of sexual vice, cf. Eph 5:3. πάθος, ungovernable desire, see Trench, Synon. § lxxxvii. ἐποθυμία desire generally, sometimes in a good sense (Php 1:23; 1Th 2:17), and therefore (because St Paul in this of all Epistles would be the least likely to teach the mortification of all human desires) defined here as κακή. Compare ἐπιθυμίαι σαρκικαί, 1Pe 2:11; αἱ ἐπιθ. (τοῦ σώματος), Rom 6:12, ἡ ἐπιθ. τῆς σαρκός, 1Jn 2:16, and other phrases quoted in Trench, loc. cit.

καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν ἥτις κ.τ.λ. The article is remarkable and its force is uncertain. (1) Blass, Gram. § 46. 8, says that “the additional clause ἥτις κ.τ.λ. entails its use,” and translates “and that principal vice covetousness.” Compare Col 3:14, τὴν ἀγάπην. (2) “The particles καὶ τὴν show that a new type of sin is introduced with πλεονεξίαν” (Lightfoot), as in Eph 5:3 the same distinction is indicated by the change from καί to ἤ. (3) Perhaps πορνείαν, which as a concrete action does not so easily take the article, determined the anarthrous state of ἀκαθαρσία, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, but with πλεονεξία a new and abstract idea is presented and the article comes readily. (4) Possibly it is nearly parallel to τὰ μέλη the figure of which corresponds well to πορνεία, etc., but not to πλεονεξία (apparently P. Ewald).

In any case it is most improbable that πλεονεξία is regarded as a species of the general term ἐπιθυμία, as Meyer-Haupt proposes.

πλεονεξία. Connected with fleshly lusts in Mar 7:22; Rom 1:29; Eph 4:19; Eph 5:3; 1Th 4:6; 2Pe 2:3 (perhaps), 14, and similarly πλεονέκτης in 1Co 5:10-11; 1Co 6:10 (perhaps), Eph 5:5.

Yet nowhere, as it seems, does it directly bear the sense of impurity, its connexion with this both here and in those passages being probably due to its representing the second of the two most striking aspects of a materialistic aim, viz., sexual sin and the undue desire to possess. Observe that the latter is not necessarily miserliness. πλεονεξία includes all excessive desire to have, whether the object of this be money, or land, or other means of self-gratification.

Lightfoot has many interesting quotations from Jewish and Christian writers on “the cult of wealth.”

ἥτις ἐστὶν, “seeing that it is”; cf. Php 1:28. More than a relative, for, by classifying, it adds a reason for the preceding prohibition; cf. Col 2:23, Col 4:11.

εἰδωλολατρία. By putting the visible before the invisible. For the connexion of idolatry with πλεονεξία cf. 1Co 5:11, and esp. Eph 5:5. The clause reproduces the thought of our Lord’s saying, Mat 6:24.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let not your dead nature be any more effectual in you, but let your living nature be effectual. Now the force of nature is known by the motions. Therefore let the affections of the flesh die in you, and let the contrary motions which are spiritual, live. And he reckoneth up a great long scroll of vices, and their contrary virtues.

The motions and lusts that are in us, are in this place very properly called members, because that the reason and will of man corrupted, doth use them as the body doth his members.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The apostle exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin, the great hindrance to seeking the things which are above. Since it is our duty to set our affections upon heavenly things, it is our duty to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and which naturally incline us to the things of the world: "Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them, suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you." - Your members which are upon the earth; either the members of the body, which are the earthly part of us, and were curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth (Psa 139:15), or the corrupt affections of the mind, which lead us to earthly things, the members of the body of death, Rom 7:24. He specifies,

I. The lusts of the flesh, for which they were before so very remarkable: Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence - the various workings of the carnal appetites and fleshly impurities, which they indulged in their former course of life, and which were so contrary to the Christian state and the heavenly hope.

II. The love of the world: And covetousness, which is idolatry; that is, an inordinate love of present good and outward enjoyments, which proceeds from too high a value in the mind, puts upon too eager a pursuit, hinders the proper use and enjoyment of them, and creates anxious fear and immoderate sorrow for the loss of them. Observe, Covetousness is spiritual idolatry: it is the giving of that love and regard to worldly wealth which are due to God only, and carries a greater degree of malignity in it, and is more highly provoking to God, than is commonly thought. And it is very observable that among all the instances of sin which good men are recorded in the scripture to have fallen into (and there is scarcely any but some or other, in one or other part of their life, have fallen into) there is no instance in all the scripture of any good man charged with covetousness. He proceeds to show how necessary it is to mortify sins, Col 3:6, Col 3:7. 1. Because, if we do not kill them, they will kill us: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, Col 3:6. See what we are all by nature more or less: we are children of disobedience: not only disobedient children, but under the power of sin and naturally prone to disobey. The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies, Psa 58:3. And, being children of disobedience, we are children of wrath, Eph 2:3. The wrath of God comes upon all the children of disobedience. Those who do not obey the precepts of the law incur the penalties of it. The sins he mentions were their sins in their heathen and idolatrous state, and they were then especially the children of disobedience; and yet these sins brought judgments upon them, and exposed them to the wrath of God. 2. We should mortify these sins because they have lived in us: In which you also walked some time, when you lived in them, Col 3:7. Observe, The consideration that we have formerly lived in sin is a good argument why we should now forsake it. We have walked in by-paths, therefore let us walk in them no more. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more, Job 34:32. The time past our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, Pe1 4:3. - When you lived among those who did such things (so some understand it), then you walked in those evil practices. It is a hard thing to live among those who do the works of darkness and not have fellowship with them, as it is to walk in the mire and contract no soil. Let us keep out of the way of evil-doers.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mortify--Greek, "make a corpse of"; "make dead"; "put to death."

therefore--(See on Col 3:3). Follow out to its necessary consequence the fact of your having once for all died with Christ spiritually at your regeneration, by daily "deadening your members," of which united "the body of the sins of the flesh" consists (compare Col 2:11). "The members" to be mortified are the fleshly instruments of lust, in so far as the members of the body are abused to such purposes. Habitually repress and do violence to corrupt desires of which the members are the instruments (compare Rom 6:19; Rom 8:13; Gal 5:24-25).

upon the earth--where they find their support [BENGEL] (Compare Col 3:2, "things on earth"). See Eph 5:3-4.

inordinate affection--"lustful passion."

evil concupiscence--more general than the last [ALFORD], the disorder of the external senses; "lustful passion," lust within [BENGEL].

covetousness--marked off by the Greek article as forming a whole genus by itself, distinct from the genus containing the various species just enumerated. It implies a self-idolizing, grasping spirit; far worse than another Greek term translated "the love of money" (Ti1 6:10).

which is--that is, inasmuch as it is "idolatry." Compare Note, see on Eph 4:19, on its connection with sins of impurity. Self and mammon are deified in the heart instead of God (Mat 6:24; see on Eph 5:5).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. Mortify, therefore, you members] νεκρωσατε. Put them to death: the verb is used metaphorically to signify, to deprive a thing of its power, to destroy its strength. Use no member of your body to sin against God; keep all under dominion; and never permit the beast to run away with the man. To gratify any sensual appetite is to give it the very food and nourishment by which it lives, thrives, and is active. However the body may suffer by excessive sensual indulgences, the appetite increases with the indulgence. Deny yourselves, and let reason rule; and the animal will not get the ascendency over the rational man. See Clarke on Ro 6:11, c.

Inordinate affection] παθος. Unnatural and degrading passion bestial lusts. See Ro 1:26; Ro 1:27; and the notes there.

Evil concupiscence] επιθυμιαν κακην. As επιθυμια signifies strong and vehement desire of any kind, it is here joined with κακη, evil, to show the sense more particularly in which the apostle uses it.

Covetousness, which is idolatry] For the covetous man makes his money his god. Now, it is the prerogative of God to confer happiness; every godly man seeks his happiness in God; the covetous man seeks that in his money which God alone can give; therefore his covetousness is properly idolatry. It is true his idol is of gold and silver, but his idolatry is not the less criminal on that account.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Mortify therefore. Hitherto he has been speaking of contempt of the world. He now proceeds further, and enters upon a higher philosophy, as to the mortification of the flesh. That this may be the better understood, let us take notice that there is a twofold mortification. The former relates to those things that are around us. Of this he has hitherto treated. The other is inward — that of the understanding and will, and of the whole of our corrupt nature. He makes mention of certain vices which he calls, not with strict accuracy, but at the same time elegantly, members. For he conceives of our nature as being, as it were, a mass made up of different vices. They are, therefore, our members, inasmuch as they in a manner stick close to us. He calls them also earthly, alluding to what he had said — not the things that are on earth, (Colossians 3:2,) but in a different sense. “I have admonished you, that earthly things are to be disregarded: you must, however, make it your aim to mortify those vices which detain you on the earth.” He intimates, however, that we are earthly, so long as the vices of our flesh are vigorous in us, and that we are made heavenly by the renewing of the Spirit.

After fornication he adds uncleanness, by which term he expresses all kinds of wantonness, by which lascivious persons pollute themselves. To these is added, πάθος that is, lust, which includes all the allurements of unhallowed desire. This term, it is true, denotes mental perturbations of other kinds, and disorderly motions contrary to reason; but lust is not an unsuitable rendering of this passage. As to the reason why covetousness is here spoken of as a worshipping of images, consult the Epistle to the Ephesians, that I may not say the same thing twice.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

5–12. Universal Holiness the necessary issue of the life of Union: the negative side

5. Mortify therefore] Observe the “therefore.” Because of the possession of a hidden life, and in its power, they were to put sin to death. Here is no mere assertion of duty, but an implied assurance of power, the power of life, life welcomed and developed. So, in nature, the rising sap of the tree makes the dead leaf fall.

“Mortify”:—the verb occurs elsewhere, in Biblical Greek, only Rom_4:19; Heb_11:12; in both cases of Abraham’s physical condition in old age. Its plain meaning is to reduce to a state of death, or like death; a state helpless, inoperative. The Christian, in the power of his hidden life in Christ, is thus to deal with his sins; entirely to renounce the thought of compromise or toleration, and to apply to them the mighty counter-agent of his union with his Head.

The verb is in the aorist tense; decisive and critical action is in view. The believer, reminded of his resources and of the will of God, is now, with full purpose, to “give to death” (Conybeare) all his sins, and to carry that purpose out with critical decision at each moment of temptation, in the power of his true life.

No assertions of an attained “sinless perfection” are warranted by such a word. The following context is enough to shew that St Paul views his converts as all along morally imperfect. But that side of truth is not in view here; the Christian is called here to an unreserved decision of will and to a full use of Christ’s power.

In the closely parallel words, Rom_8:13, the verb (another verb in the Greek) is in the present tense, indicating the need of continuous action after however critical a decision.

your members] Your limbs, as if of an invisible, non-material, body, viewed in its separate organs. A bold but intelligible transition of thought thus speaks of the organ rather than of its action; giving a more concrete effect to the mental picture. See below, the next note but one.

Lightfoot compares the phrases “old man, new man.”—See below however on Col_3:9-10.

upon the earth] Conversant, sympathetic, with “earth” as the scene of temptation, and not with heaven, where lies the Source of victory.—Cp. the language of Article xvii—“Such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things.”

fornication, &c.] Lightfoot places a colon before this word in the Greek, and goes on to the imperative verb “put off” (Col_3:8) for the (broken) grammatical government. The startling identification of “members” with sins is thus avoided. But the construction is extremely difficult and really unlikely. The R.V. constructs as the A.V.

“Fornication”:—a sin often in view in the Epistles; evidently an evil wofully rife, but not the less ruthlessly condemned. Cp. 1Co_6:9; 1Co_6:13; 1Co_6:18; Gal_5:19; Eph_5:3; 1Th_4:3; Heb_13:4. See our note on Eph_5:3. It is to be decisively “done to death” by the Christian.

uncleanness] A word of wider reference than “fornication,” and so conveying a still stronger appeal. Act, word, thought, unworthy of the member of the All-Pure Christ—all are to be put to death in the power of His life.

inordinate affection] Lit. and better, passion (R. V.). Cp. Rom_1:26; 1Th_4:5; the other places where the Greek (pathos) occurs in N. T. The word denotes lust from the passive side of experience, uncontrollable desire, to which the man is a slave. All the more significant is the implied statement that even this form of sin is to be, and can be, “done to death” in Christ.

evil concupiscence] Concupiscentiam malam, Latin Versions; and so all the English Versions, except Wyclif, “yvel coveitise,” and R. V., evil desire.—“Passion” and “desire” (or, in older English, “lust”) are combined, 1Th_4:5, and collocated, Gal_5:24. “The same vice may be viewed as a [passion] from its passive and a [desire] from its active side … The epithet (“evil”) is added because [“desire”] is capable of a good sense.” (Lightfoot).

covetousness … idolatry] “Avarice, whiche is servyce of mawmetis”[84] (Wyclif).—See Eph_5:3; Eph_5:5 for a close parallel. Lightfoot here sees a reference to covetousness in its ordinary sense; “the covetous man sets up another object of worship besides God.” And he shews clearly that the Greek word never, of itself, denotes sensual lust. But cp. this passage with Eph_4:19; Eph_5:3; Eph_5:5; 1Co_5:11; 1Th_4:6; and it will appear that it at least lends itself to a connexion with sensual ideas, just as our word “greed” lends itself to a connexion with avarice. If so, the “idolatry” of the matter lies in its sensuous and unwholesome admiration, developing into acts of evil.

[84] i.e. idols. Strangely enough, the word is a corruption of Mahomet, the name of the great Iconoclast.

“Which is”:—more precisely, seeing that it is.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mortify therefore your members,.... Not your bodies, as the Ethiopic version reads, nor the members of the natural body, but of the body of sin, indwelling sin; which as a body consists of various members, which are parts of it, rise out of it, and are used by it, as the members are by the body; and intend the sins of the flesh, or sinful actions, which are generally performed by the members of the natural body, in which the law of sin is, and by which it operates; so that the mortification the saints are here exhorted to, in consideration of having a spiritual life in them, and a hope of eternal life in Christ, from whence the apostle argues, is not a mortification or destruction of the body of sin itself, or of the being and principle of it in the soul, where it is, and lives, and dwells, and will as long as the saints are in this tabernacle, but of the deeds of the body, or of sinful actions, as to the life and conversation; and signifies a denial of them, an abstinence from them, and a non-performance of them; See Gill on Rom 8:13. These members, or deeds of the body, or acts of sin, are called "your": for as the old man is ours, the vitiosity of nature is what we bring into the world with us, and is rooted and incorporated into us; so the actions that flow from it, and are done by it, are not to be ascribed to God, nor even to Satan, but they are our own actions, and which are performed by the members of our mortal body, or by the faculties of our souls: and are,

which are on earth: or earthly; are concerned about earthly things, the things of the world, worldly lusts and pleasures, which rise out of earthly mindedness, and incline unto it, and are only what are done here on earth, and will have no place in heaven. The particulars of which follow:

fornication; the sin of uncleanness committed by single persons, or out of the state of marriage, and which the Gentiles did not account sinful: hence so much notice is taken of it, with a censure, and so often, by the apostle, in almost all his epistles, and dehorted from, as a sin against the body, as what disqualified for church communion, and was not to be named among the saints, who should be dead to that, and that to them, as to the commission of it.

Uncleanness; of every sort, all other impure actions, as adultery, incest, sodomy, and every other unnatural lust; all which should be abstained from, and never committed by those who profess to be alive unto God.

Inordinate affection; which may intend the passions, or first motions of sin, stirred up by the law, and which work in, and operate by the members of the body, and bring forth fruit unto death, and therefore to be opposed by such as have a life in Christ; and also those vile affections, which some in a judicial way are given up unto, and prevail with those who are effeminate, and abusers of themselves with mankind, and which are to be abhorred and denied by all who are heirs of the grace of life, and expectants of an heavenly one.

Evil concupiscence; so called to distinguish it from that natural concupiscence, or desire after things lawful and necessary, and which is implanted in nature by God himself; and from that spiritual concupiscence or desire after spiritual things, and that lusting against the flesh and carnal things, which is formed in the heart of a regenerate man by the Spirit of God. It is the same with , "the evil imagination", or corruption of nature so much spoken of by the Jews. This here is what is forbidden by that law, "thou shalt not covet", Exo 20:17; and includes every fleshly lust and inordinate desire, or every desire after that which is not lawful, or does not belong to a man; as what is another's property, his wife, or goods, or anything that is his; and so very naturally follows,

covetousness; an immoderate love of money, the root of all evil, an insatiable desire of having more, and of having more than a man's own; and is enlarged as hell, and as death is not satisfied, but still craves more, without making any good use of what is possessed:

which is idolatry. The covetous man, and the idolater, worship the same for matter and substance, even gold and silver; the covetous man lays up his money, makes no use of it, as if it was something sacred; he looks at it, and adores it, and puts his trust and confidence in it, and his heart is so much set upon it, that he neglects the worship of the true God; and indeed no man can serve God and mammon. Some think, that by this rendered "covetousness", is meant, that greedy desire after the commission of all uncleanness, and impure actions, which were perpetrated by the followers of Simon Magus in their religious assemblies, and under the notion of worship, and as acceptable to God, and therefore called idolatry; and which ought not to be once named, much less practised, among the living members of Christ. Moreover, such filthy actions were performed by the Gentiles in the worship of their deities.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Ver. 5. Mortify therefore] Sin hath a strong heart, and will not be done to death but with much ado. Peccata saepe raduntur, sed non eradicantur. Sins often are itchy but are not rooted out. Something is done about sins, little against them; as artificial magicians seem to wound themselves, but do not; or as players seem to thrust themselves through their bodies, but the sword passeth only through their clothes. Some part with sin, as Jacob did with Benjamin, because otherwise he should starve; or as Phaltiel did with Michal, lest he should lose his head; but to cast it away because it is offensivum Dei, et aversivum a Deo, an offence against God, and a breach of his law, this is mortification; this is more than to have seraphical knowledge and cherubinical affections in any duty. This (saith a Father) is the hardest text in all the Bible, and the hardest task in all Christianity that we can go about; but hard or not hard, it must be done, or we are undone, and check must be given to our corruptions, though full mate we cannot give.

Covetousness, which is idolatry] For it robs God of his flower, his trust, and draws a man away from all the commandments, Psa 119:36. {See Trapp on "Eph 5:5"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mortify therefore your members - Since you are dead to sin and the world, and are to appear with Christ in the glories of his kingdom, subdue every carnal and evil propensity of your nature. The word mortify means to put to death (Rom 8:13, note; Gal 5:24, note), and the meaning here is that they were entirely to subdue their evil propensities, so that they would have no remains of life; that is, they were not at all to indulge them. The word “members” here, refers to the different members of the body - as the seat of evil desires and passions; compare the notes at Rom 6:13. They were wholly to extirpate those evil passions which he specifies as having their seat in the various members of the earthly body.

Fornication - Notes, Rom 1:2.

Uncleanness - Notes, Rom 1:24.

Inordinate affection - πάθος pathos. Rendered in Rom 1:26, “vile affections;” see the notes at that verse. In 1Th 4:5, the word is rendered “lust” - which is its meaning here.

Evil concupiscence - Evil desires; licentious passions; Rom 1:24. Greek.

And covetousness, which is idolatry - It is remarkable that the apostle always ranks covetousness with these base and detestable passions. The meaning here is:

(1) That it is a low and debasing passion, like those which he had specified; and,

(2) That it secures the affections which properly belong to God, and is, therefore, idolatry. Of all base passions, this is the one that most dethrones God from the soul. See this whole passage more fully explained in the notes at Eph 5:3-5.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Your members,...fornication, uncleanness, &c. He considers man’s body as made up of sins and sinful inclinations. (Witham) --- It is not to bring back Judaism we practise abstinences and fasts, nor with the same motive as the Jews, but to accomplish the precepts of mortifying the irregular desires of the flesh among which gluttony must find a place. In a mortified body sensuality is more easily subdued. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

That they might not think he, who had given check to superstitious abstinences, was for the indulging of any carnal affections, he infers here, how the exercise of truly Christian mortification was incumbent on those who were dead to sin and had their life hid in Christ. Neither is it any incongruity, that they who are in a sort already dead should be exhorted to mortification, if we do but distinctly consider of mortification, and what they are to mortify, or endeavour to make dead.

1. As to mortification; which may be considered either as to its inchoation, when, upon effectually calling, a mortal wound is by the Spirit of God given to the old man, or to the habit of sin, which will in the end or consummation be a total privation of its life, though as yet it be but partial. It is not in regard of this inchoative mortification, which was begun upon their effectual calling, that the apostle exhorts the saints at Colosse in this verse to mortify. But mortification may be considered as to its continuation, and the carrying on the life of grace, in the making dead all that is contrary to it; even the renewed person should be continually solicitous to have the old man killed outright without any reprieve. This is it that the apostle put the believing Colossians upon, not to spare any remaining ill dispositions or depraved habits of the old man; but by the assistance of the Spirit, (for it is not a natural, but spiritual work), Rom 8:13; Gal 5:24, continually to resist to the killing of it, or putting it to death: never to desist in this war.

2. As to the earthly members of it. The apostle expresseth the object of mortification, or what they are to mortify, by their members upon the earth; not as if he designed to put them upon a dismembering of their bodies, or a deadening of those bodily natural parts whereby the sex is distinguished, Rom 6:13, (though, agreeably to his own practice, he would have the body kept under and brought into subjection, 1Co 9:27), but upon subduing inordinate motions and carnal concupiscences, as is evident from the particular vices following, which, taken as collected and heaped up together, may well pass under the notion of a body. He had before in this Epistle mentioned the body of the sins of the flesh, Col 2:11; this he might say not only metonymically, by reason such lusts do reside in the natural body and members of it, Rom 6:6,12,19; but (and that chiefly) metaphorically, the mass of corrupt nature dwelling in us is compared to a person, the old man, or old Adam, or body of sin, Col 3:9; Rom 6:6; 7:24; Eph 4:22; and, continuing the metaphor, the parts of this corrupt body are called members, and our members, the whole body of the old man being made up of them, which are said to be upon the earth, as being inclined to earthly things and employed about them, taking occasion from sensual objects here below to get strength, unless we be continually upon our watch to abolish all that contributes to the life of the old man in the particular members; viz. fornication: see the parallel place, Eph 5:3, with 1Co 6:9, where he begins with this, as most turbulent, understanding by it not only the outward act, but the inward affection, which the heathens were apt to reckon no fault, though the Spirit of God in the Scripture do greatly condemn it, Mat 5:28; Rom 1:29; 1Co 5:1; 6:18; 7:2; 10:8; 1Th 4:3.

Uncleanness: see Eph 5:3; impurity which is more unnatural, whereby they dishonour their own bodies, Rom 1:24,27; Ga 5:19; 1Th 4:7; Rev 17:4.

Inordinate affection; that passion which some render softness, or easiness to receive any impression to lust, i.e. the filthy disposition of a voluptuous, effeminate heart, delighted with lascivious objects, Psa 32:9; Rom 1:26,27; 1Co 6:9, with 1Th 4:3,5.

Evil concupiscence; that concupiscence which in nature and measure is excessive, being an irregular appetite, and an undue motion against reason, especially against the Spirit, Gal 5:17.

And covetousness; and an immoderate desire after and cleaving to the things of this world, either in progging for them, or possessing of them to the feeding of other lusts, and so estranging the heart from God, Ecc 5:10; Luk 12:18; trusting in riches rather than in the living God, Job 31:24; Mat 6:24; 1Ti 6:17.

Which is idolatry; upon which account it may pass under the title of idolatry, as the covetous person is an idolater; see Eph 5:5; and further he might reckon covetousness to be idolatry, because nothing was more execrable in the judgment of the Jews than idolatry was, it being ordinary with the Hebrews to note sins by the names of those most detested; as rebellion against God by witchcraft, 1Sa 15:23, not that it is so formally, but that the Spirit of God may show how odious an incorrigible obstinacy of mind against God is unto him. Hence, considering the odiousness of these vices, the apostle would have us not to content ourselves to cut off some branches of them, but to grub them up by the roots.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Mortify therefore - Put to death, slay with a continued stroke. Your members - Which together make up the body of sin. Which are upon the earth - Where they find their nourishment. Uncleanness - In act, word, or thought. Inordinate affection - Every passion which does not flow from and lead to the love of God. Evil desire - The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life. Covetousness - According to the derivation of the word, means the desire of having more, or of any thing independent on God. Which is idolatry - Properly and directly; for it is giving the heart to a creature.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Putting Off the Old Man and Putting On the New.

v. 5. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry;

v. 6. for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience;

v. 7. in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them.

v. 8. But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

v. 9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds,

v. 10. and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him;

v. 11. where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all.

The apostle here shows how the life of the believers in and with Christ should be manifested: Put to death, therefore, your members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. The apostle here speaks of the members of the body in its unregenerate state as servants and instruments of sin, bidding the Christians to put them to death in that capacity, by a single decisive act to terminate their functions in this respect. See Rom 6:13. Among the sins that are performed by the members of the body the apostle mentions especially such as were prevalent among the heathen in those days, sexual vices: fornication, when people that are not husband and wife cohabit as husband and wife; uncleanness, impurity, the being addicted to erotic thoughts and acts in one’s own mind and body; lustfulness, to desire the gratification of sexual desire outside of holy wedlock; evil lust, out of which all the other sins against the Sixth Commandment flow. With these sins was often associated that of covetousness, of devising ways and means for indulging in lustful passions. Monsters of covetousness have usually been also monsters of lust. But covetousness, which kills brotherly love and hardens the heart against the gentle working of God’s Holy Spirit, is, as St. Paul specifically states, idolatry, a gross transgression of the First Commandment, Mat 6:24. Faith cannot live in a heart which is devoted to Mammon, 1Ti 6:9-10. And the end is: On account of which things comes the wrath of God on the children of disobedience. All these things, all the sins which the apostle has mentioned, are under God’s judgment of condemnation; His righteousness and holiness demands the punishment of the transgressor by death, eternal death. There is, therefore, an alternative held before the Colossians: Either put to death the members that perform such deeds, or suffer eternal punishment on account of your transgressions. All the children of disobedience that refuse to heed the gentle call, the warning admonition of the Lord, are under the wrath of God, which will eventually overtake and condemn them.

The apostle now places the Colossian Christians in direct contrast to the children of unbelief and disobedience: in which also you formerly led your lives when you lived in these. The moral conduct of all men by nature is subject to the censure and condemnation of God. The Colossian Christians also, before their conversion, had been habitual transgressors with reference to the one or the other, or to all the vices named above. They had been living in these vices; they represented the sphere of their conduct, the state in which any one could find them. See Rom 7:5; Eph 2:2.

The contrast between the converted and unconverted state is stressed still more: But now do you also put away all of them: anger, rage, malignity, slander, abusive speech out of your mouth. The life of heathendom, of disobedience and unbelief, lies behind the Colossian Christians, and yet the apostle addresses this urgent admonition to them, since by reason of the Christian’s evil nature the tendency, the proclivity, toward all these sins is found also in their hearts. A Christian’s entire life is a battle against the efforts of the old Adam to regain supremacy in his heart. Only a few of the most flagrant offenses are named: anger, the settled, continued condition of extreme displeasure against one’s neighbor, which is so apt to culminate in hatred; indignation or rage, the sudden and passionate outburst which, in a way, is worse than is low anger, since the enraged person loses all control over himself; malignity, the feeling which causes a person to make a habit of injuring his neighbor; slander, by which the neighbor’s good name is dragged into the mire; abusive talk and language which reveal the malice of the heart. Even as the finest garden will be ruined quickly if the weeds are permitted to gain a foothold, so the Christian community life, in home and congregation, will soon be utterly spoiled if these sins gain a foothold. And one more sin the apostle adds to the transgressions of the mouth which he has enumerated: Lie not to one another. For Christians to belie one another, deliberately to pervert the truth in order to work harm to their neighbor, is the very opposite of their calling, it cannot be reconciled with the life in and with Christ of which they have become partakers. To lie is characteristic of the devil’s domain, Joh 8:44.

The apostle now brings the motive for proper Christian conduct from another point of view: Seeing you have put off the old man with his practices, and have put on the new man that is being renewed toward knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him. When they were converted, the Christians put off the old man, the old sinful nature, like an old, filthy garment. This putting off, this laying aside, included also that of the evil deeds and practices in which the old evil nature of man delights, the denying of the flesh with all its affections and lusts. See Rom 8:13; Gal 5:24. This was a single process, it took place in regeneration; but it is also a continued process, for the evil thoughts and desires in the heart, murders, adulteries, fornications, false witness, blasphemies, are always seeking to overcome the resistance of the Christian and to plunge him again into the filth of the children of disobedience. The believer, therefore, will at the same time put on the new man, the nature which is created by God, a product of His grace, consisting in righteousness and holiness in truth, Eph 4:24. This new man, this new, spiritual nature of the Christian, is continually being renewed. So long as we live in the flesh, so long must this process go on without ceasing; we must be renewed in knowledge and unto knowledge. We must grow in the knowledge of God’s Word and will, after the image of God, who wrought the new nature in us in conversion. We are not only to be restored to the image of God which Adam possessed, but we shall eventually know and see our heavenly Father face to face, in everlasting glory and majesty. The more we Christians, by daily, prayerful study, penetrate into the wonderful Gospel-message, the more we understand the wonderful depth of love which was revealed in Jesus Christ, the more the image of God is impressed upon our soul, until finally, in the light of the eternal glory, we shall know Him even as we are known, 1Co 13:12.

In this respect, so far as this renewal unto the perfect knowledge is concerned, the fact stands out: Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but all and in all Christ. See Gal 3:28. Wherever there are Christians, wherever the new man is created, all these distinctions vanish. Whether a person be a Greek, a person versed in all the wisdom of this present world, a member of the most advanced and enlightened nation of the world, or a Jew, priding himself upon his descent from Abraham and upon certain outward advantages which his nation enjoyed; whether a person is circumcised or uncircumcised: whether a person is a barbarian or even a Scythian, the most extreme example of lack of civilization and culture; whether a person is a slave and subject to an earthly master, or free and his own master before the earthly law,—all these factors have no influence with reference to the power of God in the Gospel and with regard to the standing of the individual Christians before God. There is no difference: all are sinners before the righteous and holy God, all are in need of redemption, for them all Christ died on the cross, for them all He obtained a perfect reconciliation, and so all Christians are in a state of absolute equality before God. And Christ is all and in all. The fullness of all blessings is found in Him, and this fullness He transmits, He gives to His members, to the believers, Eph 1:23. In the Church, as the vessel filled with the fullness of Christ’s grace and mercy and with all the gifts which they include, the great union is brought about, by virtue of which all man-made distinctions are abrogated and perfect love and harmony in Him results. "Christ is the aggregation of all things, distinctions, prerogatives, blessings, and, moreover, is in all, dwelling in all, and SO uniting all in the common element of Himself."

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Note here, 1. That although the apostle told them in the third verse, that they were dead to sin, yet here, in the fifth verse, he bids them mortify sin; intimating, that the work of mortification, at the best, is but imperfect, and must be carried on daily and progressively; they were mortified but in part; the old man has a strong heart, and is a long time a dying, after it has received its deadly wound: Sin lives a dying life, and dies a lingering death; Mortify therefore, &c.

Note, 2. What it is they are called upon to mortify, their members upon earth; where, by members, we are to understand all the lusts and corruptions of our hearts and natures, all the relics and remains of sin unsubdued and unpurged out of the soul; he instances in fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affections and desires and covetousness, which loveth the world above God, and is therefore no better than idolatry.

But why are these called members, and members upon earth?

Ans. They are called members, in allusion to what St. Paul had called sin before, namely, a body of sin Col 2:11; therefore he calls particular lusts members of that body; and also because they require and call for the members of the body, as instruments to bring them into act; likewise, because these lusts are naturally as dear to men as their bodily members, they can as soon part with a right hand or a right eye, as with a bosom and beloved lust; they are also called members upon the earth, because they are conversant about earthly things, because they will cleave to us as long as we live upon earth; and to intimate, that none of these must be carried to heaven with us, but be mortified on earth.

But what is it to mortify these members?

Ans. To mortify sin is to deny our consent to the solicitations of sin, to suppress the first motions of sin, to enervate the power and activity of sin.

Learn hence, 1. That in the holiest and best of God’s children and servants, there are relics and remains of sin, to be daily mortified, and gradually subdued.

Learn, 2. That after God has brought a person into a state of grace, it is his duty, and ought to be his endeavour, daily to mortify sin, and all the remains of unsubdued corruption. A caution, Take heed of concluding sin is mortified, because it is restrained, because the acts of sin are intermitted, because some particular sins are subdued: Is all sin hated of thee, loathed and left by thee? It is more to loath a sin, than it is to leave a sin; sin may be left, and yet be loved; but no man can loath a sin, and love it at the same time.

Learn, 3. That covetousness is a sin, which, above others, a Christian should set himself against, and endeavour to mortify and subdue, it having a sort of idolatry in it, drawing our love, our trust, our fear, our joy, from God, and placing the supremacy of our affections in and upon the creatures. True, the covetous man does not believe his money to be God; but by his inordinate loving of it; and fiducial trusting in it he is as truly guilty of idolatry, as if he bowed his knee unto it: for God more regards the internal acts of the mind, than he doth the external acts of the body.

In like manner, the Papist do not believe their saints and angels to be gods; but by praying to them, and trusting in them for relief and help, they give them the inward worship of the soul, and consequently they are as guilty of idolatry as if they did believe them to be God.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 14

GOD’S METHOD WITH SIN, EXTERMINATION

5. “Therefore kill your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, covetousness, which is idolatry.” Mortify, E.V.— which theologians have endeavored to construe, gradualistic—is nekrosate, from nekros, a corpse. Hence, the word here used by the Holy Ghost is the strongest possible expression for “kill.” It literally means “kill instantaneously,” because the Greek verb is in the aorist tense, which means a sudden momentary action. God, in his providence, put that instantaneous tense in the Greek language (which is not used in English), to reveal to the world his wonderful work in the destruction of sin and the salvation of the soul. Here we are commanded to kill the evil surviving in our hearts suddenly as you could fire a revolver. Can I thus instantly slay the man of sin in my own heart The Bible is pre-eminent for common sense. Charles Wesley says, “How can I cleanse my hands or my heart but by believing Thee. O Lord!” These variations in phraseology and attitude wonderfully relieve the Bible of monotony. Here we have especial prominence given to human agency. While it is impossible for me to kill old Adam in my heart, either suddenly or gradually, I can, in the twinkling of an eye, turn him over to omnipotent Adam the Second, who, pursuant to my faith, will kill him before I can open my eye to see him fall. So the way you kill all the evil in your heart is simply to trust for it.

7. “In which you also at one time walked about when you lived in them.” This verse shows that Paul is not commanding sinners to “kill” all the evil tempers surviving in them, but Christians, as he here alludes to their former lives when they once lived under the dominion of these evil tempers. They are not there now. Their service to these evil tempers is a matter of the bygones. Yet they have them on hand, though in a subjugated state, an everlasting annoyance till exterminated. Some holiness people teach only the suppression, and not the extermination of sin. That is simply the Bible standard of regeneration, while sanctification here, and in hundreds of other plain passages, is sin’s extermination.

8. “Now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, evil speaking, disgraceful talk out of your mouth.” The Greek here is the same aorist tense, imperative mood, setting forth the instantaneous and utter removal of these hereditary evils. Hence, it is simply another expression parallel with verse five for the extermination and complete elimination of these evil tempers.

9. “Lie not one to another, having put off the old man along with his habit;

10. “And having put on the new man, who is renewed in perfect knowledge, according to the image of him who created him.” These verses speak of the old man eliminated suddenly and completely, and the new man instantaneously put on, involving the reception of the Divine image lost in the fall. In this paragraph we have a beautiful variety of expression, all fulminating instantaneous death to the man of sin, surviving in the heart of the regenerate. While we have this variety of expression, in two instances ordering us to kill and utterly remove the members of old Adam—i.e., our evil tempers—in two other instances the man himself is specified. Of course, these statements are substantially synonymous. When you kill all the members, you kill the man, “et vice versa.” When old Adam dies, all is over.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5–8. Mortify therefore your members. The Greek word is stronger. It means, “Put to death.” Since you died to the world and the flesh, slay also the earthly lusts and passions which belong to the flesh. They belong to the old nature, not to the new creature. Uncleanness. Every kind of impure act. Inordinate affection. Lustful passion. Covetousness. See note on Eph. 5:5.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Put to death, then, the members that are on earth

Paul speaks of sinful desires as though they were the body parts people use to satisfy them. (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)

uncleanness

impure behavior

passion

strong, lustful desire

greed, which is idolatry

"greed, which is the same thing as idolatry" or "do not be greedy because that is the same as worshiping idols"

wrath of God

God's anger against those who do evil as shown by what he does to punish them.

the sons of disobedience

This is an idiom that means they were characterized by disobedience. The abstract noun "disobedience" can be stated as a verb. AT: "disobedient people" or "people who disobey him" (See: Idiom and Abstract Nouns)

It is in these things that you also once walked

Paul speaks of the way a person behaves as if it were a road or path a person walks on. AT: "These are the things you used to do" (See: Metaphor)

when you lived in them

Possible meanings are 1) "when you practiced these things" or 2) "when you lived among the people who disobey God" (See: Metaphor)

evil intentions

"desire to do wicked deeds"

insults

speech used to hurt others

obscene speech

words that do not belong in polite conversation

from your mouth

Here "mouth" is a metonym for talk. "in your talk" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

die

sexual immorality

clean

false god

wrath

disobey

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

5-17.] General exhortations: and herein (5-11)—to laying aside of the vices of the old man,—(12-17) to realizing the new life in its practical details. Put to death therefore (the οὖν connects with the ἀπεθάνετε of ver. 3: follow out, realize this state of death to things on earth—νεκρώσατε—notice the aorist implying a definite act:—cf. ἐσταύρωσαν Gal 5:24, θανατοῦτε Rom 8:13, in the same reference) your members which are on the earth (literally, as to τὰ μέλη: your feet, hands, &c.: reduce these to a state of death as regards their actions and desires below specified—as regards, in other words, their denizenship of this earth. With this you have no concern—they are members of Christ, partakers of His resurrection, renewed after His image. The metaphorical sense of μέλη, regarding πορν. &c., as ‘membra quibus vetus homo, i.e. ratio ac voluntas hominis depravata perinde utitur ac corpus membris.’ Beza,—‘naturam nostram quasi massam ex diversis vitiis conflatam imaginatur.’ Calv.,—seems unnecessary. And the understanding of φρονοῦντα with τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, as Grot., after Thdrt. (τουτέστι τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω τοῦ φρονήματος ῥοπήν), is certainly a mistake: cf. τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς above, ver. 2),—fornication (these which follow, are the carnal functions of the earthly members. It is one instance of that form of the double accusative, where the first denotes the whole, the second a part of it, as τὸν δʼ ἄορι πλῆξʼ αὐχένα, λῦσε δὲ γυῖα, Il. λ. 240,—ποῖόν σε ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος ὀδόντων; Od. α. 64 See Kühner, ii. p. 230), impurity (reff.), lustfulness (see Rom 1:26, whence it would appear that the absolute word need not be understood of unnatural lust, the specifying genitive ἀτιμίας giving it there that meaning. We may understand it generally as in Plato, Phædr. p. 265 b, τὸ ἐρωτικὸν πάθος,—‘morbum libidinis,’ Beng.), shameful desire (more general than πάθος: as Mey. remarks, π. is always ἐπιθ., but not vice versa. The relation is the same as between πορνεία and ἀκαθαρσία), and covetousness (τὴν πλ. as Beng.—‘articulus facit ad epitasin, et totum genus vitii a genere enumeratarum modo specierum diversum complectitur.’ On πλεονεξία, see on Eph 4:19, and Trench, N. T. Synonyms, § xxiv.), for it is (‘quippe quæ, sit’) idolatry (the πλεονέκτης has set up self in his heart—and to serve self, whether by accumulation of goods or by satiety in pleasure, is his object in life. He is therefore an idolater, in the deepest and worst, namely in the practical significance. τὸ μαμωνᾶ, κὺριον ὁ Σωτὴρ προσηγόρευσε, διδάσκων ὡς ὁ τῷ πάθει τῆς πλεονεξίας δουλεύων, ὡς θεὸν τὸν πλοῦτον τιμᾷ, Thdrt.), on which account (on account of the πλεονεξία, which amounts to idolatry, the all-comprehending and crowning sin, which is a negation of God and brings down His especial anger) cometh (down on earth, in present and visible examples) the wrath of God: in which (vices. Mey.’s remark that the reading διʼ ὅ makes this ἐν οἷς necessarily refer to the ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τ. ἀπειθ. which he reads after θεοῦ, does not apply if διʼ ὅ be interpreted as above to refer to πλεονεξία. There does not seem to occur in St. Paul any instance of ἐν, after περιπατεῖν absolute, referring to persons. Cf. 2Th 3:11 (περιπ. ἀτάκτως), Joh 11:54, Eph 2:3, which last, if the clause ἐπ. τ. υἱ. τ. ἀπ. were inserted here, would certainly go far to decide the matter) ye also walked once, when ye lived (before your death with Christ to the world) in these things (the assertion is not tautological: cf. Gal 5:25, εἰ ζῶμεν πνεύματι, πνεύματι καὶ στοιχῶμεν. When ye were alive to these things, ye regulated your course by them, walked in them. “Vivere et ambulare inter se differunt, quemadmodum potentia et actus: vivere præcedit, ambulare sequitur.” Calv.):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5-11. Sins to be destroyed, as well the more subtle sins of temper as the grosser ones of appetite

5. Νεκρώσατε οὖν. “Make dead, therefore.” As ye died, and your true life is hidden, carry out this death to the world, and kill whatever is carnal in you.

τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Meyer understands by μέλη the literal members, hand, foot, eye, etc. (Mat 5:29), of course, taking the verb in an ethical sense. But this would be too strong a figure, and is not sufficiently supported by the passage in St. Matt., where the precept is not, as here, unqualified and absolute, and the verbs, moreover, are used in as literal a sense as the substantives. The whole precept there is symbolical, but the words have their natural sense. Besides, this interpretation of μέλη makes the connexion with the following more difficult. It is more natural to explain the word by the idea of the “old man,” “In the σῶμα τῆς σαρκός.” And this is suggested by the added qualification τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. The members spoken of are those which belong to the body as the instrument of the carnal mind.

With the whole precept compare θανατοῦτε: Rom 8:13, εἰ δὲ πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος θανατοῦτε ζήσετε: and Gal 5:24, οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν σὺν τοῖς παθήμασι καὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις.

πορνείαν, κ.τ.λ. Usually taken in apposition with μέλη, either directly, as if πορνεία, etc., were themselves called μέλη, “membra quibus vetus homo, i. e. ratio ac voluntas hominis depravata perinde utitur ac corpus membris,” Beza; “naturam nostram quasi massam ex diversis vitiis conflatam imaginatur,” Calvin; or indirectly, i.e. “when I say νεκρώσατε τὰ μέλη, I mean νεκρώσατε πορνείαν, κ.τ.λ., of which τὰ μέλη are instruments.” On either view the apposition of the instruments and the activities is extremely harsh. Severianus (followed by many moderns) regards sin as the body of which the special sins enumerated are the members: σῶμα καλεῖ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ἧς καὶ τὰ μέλη καταριθμεῖ; but this only evades the difficulty. Alford regards the construction as an instance of that form of the double accusative where the first denotes the whole, the second a part of it, as in ποῖόν σε ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος ὀδόντων,—an explanation which does not touch the difficulty. Braune thinks the body in question is the body of the Church.

Lightfoot proposes to meet the difficulty by placing a colon after γῆς. Then πορνείαν, κ.τ.λ., will be viewed as prospective accusatives, which should be governed directly by some such word as ἀπόθεσθε: but several dependent clauses interpose, and the last of these suggests incidentally a contrast between the past and the present, the thought of which predominating in the apostle’s mind leads to a recasting of the sentence, νυνὶ δὲ ἀπόθεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ πάντα. Lightfoot illustrates this dislocation of the construction occasioned by the contrast of ποτέ and νῦν by reference to 1:22, νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατηλλάγητε (or ἀποκατήλλαξεν): and 26, νῦν δὲ ἐφανερώθη: and to Eph 2:1-5, καὶ ὑμᾶς … ἐν αἷς ποτέ … ἐν οἷς καί. … ποτε … ὁ δὲ Θεός … καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς … συνεζωοποίησεν. This construction has been characterised as “extremely difficult”; but the difficulty is only of the same kind as that in the passages cited.

After ὑμῶν the Rec. Text adds ὑμῶν, with א* A C3 D G H K L P most MSS., Vulg., Goth., other versions, Chrys., al.

It is omitted by א B C* 17 672 71, Clem. al.

πάθος is used by classical writers of any passive emotion. Thus, Aristotle distinguishes these three ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ γινόμενα: πάθη, ἕξεις, δυνάμεις. πάθη he defines as οἷς ἕπεται ἡδονὴ ἢ λύπη, including ἐπιθυμία, ὀργή, etc. But it is specially used of a violent emotion or “passion.”

In the other two places in which the word occurs in St. Paul it is defined by a genitive (πάθη ἀτιμίας, Rom 1:26; ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας, 1Th 4:5). Here the enumeration appears to proceed from the more special to the more general, so that πάθος probably means not specially “lustfulness.” Still less the πάθη ἀτιμίας of Rom 1:26,—an interpretation which has no linguistic justification,—but generally “passion,” as RV.

ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν. This includes all evil longings, and so is wider than πάθος. ἰδού, γενικῶς τὸ πᾶν εἶπε· πάντα γὰρ ἐπιθυμία κακὴ, βασκανία, ὀργή, λύπη, Chrys. ἐπιθυμία in the N.T. has a wide sense; cf. Joh 8:44; hence the necessity for κακήν.

καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, κ.τ.λ. See on Eph 4:19, Eph 5:5.

ἥτις ἐστιν. “Seeing it is.”

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mortify [νεκρωσατε] . Only here, Rom 4:19; Heb 11:12. Mortify is used in its literal sense of put to death.

So Erasmus : "Christ was mortified and killed." And Shakespeare :

"- his wildness mortified in him, Seemed to die too."

"I Henry v, 1, 26"

Members [μελη] . See on Rom 6:13. The physical members, so far as they are employed in the service of sin. The word falls in with the allusions to bodily austerities in ch. 2.

Which are upon the earth. Compare ver. 2. The organs of the earthly and sensuous life.

Fornication, etc. In apposition with members, denoting the modes in which the members sinfully exert themselves.

Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence [παθος, επιθυμιαν κακην] . See on Rom 1:26.

And covetousness [και πλεονεξιαν] . And has a climactic force; and especially; see on Rom 1:29.

Which is [ητις εστιν] . The compound relative, explanatory and classifying. Seeing it stands in the category of. Compare Eph 5:5. Idolatry. See on 1Co 5:10.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5–11. ‘So then realise this death to the world; kill all your earthly members. Is it fornication, impurity of whatever kind, passion, evil desire? Or again, is it that covetousness which makes a religion, an idolatry, of greed? Do not deceive yourselves. For all these things God’s wrath will surely come. In these sins ye, like other Gentiles, indulged in times past, when your life was spent amidst them. But now everything is changed. Now you also must put away not this or that desire, but all sins whatsoever. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy abuse; banish it from your lips. Be not false one to another in word or deed; but cast off for ever the old man with his actions, and put on the new, who is renewed from day to day, growing unto perfect knowledge and refashioned after the image of his Creator. In this new life, in this regenerate man, there is not, there cannot be, any distinction of Greek or Jew, of circumcision or uncircumcision; there is no room for barbarian, for Scythian, for bond or free. Christ has displaced, has annihilated, all these; Christ is Himself all things and in all things’.

5. The false doctrine of the Gnostics had failed to check sensual indulgence (ii. 23). The true doctrine of the Apostle has power to kill the whole carnal man. The substitution of a comprehensive principle for special precepts—of the heavenly life in Christ for a code of minute ordinances—at length attains the end after which the Gnostic teachers have striven, and striven in vain.

νεκρώσατε οὖν] i.e. ‘Carry out this principle of death to the world (ii. 20 ἀπεθάνετε, iii. 3 ἀπεθάνετε), and kill everything that is mundane and carnal in your being’.

τὰ μέλη κ.τ.λ.] Each person has a twofold moral personality. There is in him the ‘old man’, and there is in him also ‘the new’ (vv. 9, 10). The old man with all his members must be pitilessly slain. It is plain that τὰ μέλη here is used, like ἄνθρωπος in ver. 9, not physically, but morally. Our actual limbs may be either τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς or τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐράνοις, according as they are made instruments for the world or for Christ: just as we—our whole being—may identify ourselves with the παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος or with the νέος ἄνθρωπος of our twofold potentiality. For this use of the physical, as a symbol of the moral of which it is the potential instrument, compare Matt. v. 29 sq. εἰ δὲ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου ὁ δεξιὸς σκανδαλίζει σε, ἔξελε αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ.

I have ventured to punctuate after τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Thus πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. are prospective accusatives, which should be governed directly by some such word as ἀπόθεσθε. But several dependent clauses interpose; the last of these incidentally suggests a contrast between the past and the present; and this contrast, predominating in the Apostle’s mind, leads to an abrupt recasting of the sentence, νυνὶ δὲ ἀπόθεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ πάντα in disregard of the original construction. This opposition of ποτέ and νῦν has a tendency to dislocate the construction in St Paul, as in i. 22 νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατηλλάγητε (or ἀποκατήλλαξεν), i. 26 νῦν δὲ ἐφανέρωθη: see the note on this latter passage. For the whole run of the sentence (the parenthetic relative clauses, the contrast of past and present, and the broken construction) compare Ephes. ii. 1–5 καὶ ὑμᾶς ... ἐν αἷς ποτέ ... ἐν οἷς καὶ ... ποτε ... ὁ δὲ Θεός ... καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς συνεζωοποίησεν.

With the common punctuation the interpretation is equally awkward, whether we treat τὰ μέλη and πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. as in direct apposition, or as double accusatives, or in any other way. The case is best put by Severianus, σάρκα καλεῖ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ἧς καὶ τὰ μέλη καταριθμεῖ ... ὁ παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν τὸ φρόνημα τὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, μέλη δὲ αὐτοῦ αἱ πράξεις τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων; but this is an evasion of the difficulty, which consists in the direct apposition of the instruments and the activities, from whatever point they are viewed.

πορνείαν κ.τ.λ.] The general order is from the less comprehensive to the more comprehensive. Thus πορνεία is a special kind of uncleanness, while ἀκαθαρσία is uncleanness in any form, Ephes. v. 3 πορνεία δὲ καὶ ἀκαθαρσία πᾶσα; comp. Gal. v. 19 πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, ἀσέλγεια, with the note there. Thus again πάθος, though frequently referring to this class of sins (Rom. i. 26, 1 Thess. iv. 5), would include other base passions which do not fall under the category of ἀκαθαρσία, as for instance gluttony and intemperance.

πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν] The two words occur together in 1 Thess. iv. 5 μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας. So in a passage closely resembling the text, Gal. v. 24 οἱ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τὴν σάρκα ἐστάυρωσαν σὺν τοῖς παθήμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις. The same vice may be viewed as a πάθος from its passive and an ἐπιθυμία from its active side. The word ἐπιθυμία is not used here in the restricted sense which it has e.g. in Arist. Eth. Nic. ii. 4, where it ranges with anger, fear, etc., being related to πάθος as the species to the genus (see Gal. l.c. note). In the Greek Testament ἐπιθυμία has a much more comprehensive sense; e.g. Joh. viii. 44 τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν θέλετε ποιεῖν. Here, if anything, ἐπιθυμία is wider than πάθος. While πάθος includes all ungovernable affections, ἐπιθυμία κακή reaches to all evil longings. Ἰδού, says Chrysostom, γενικῶς τὸ πᾶν εἶπε· πάντα γὰρ ἐπιθυμία κακή, βασκανία, ὀργή, λύπη. The epithet is added because ἐπιθυμία is capable of a good sense: comp. 1 Cor. x. 6 ἐπιθυμητὰς κακῶν.

καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν] ‘and especially covetousness’. Impurity and covetousness may be said to divide between them nearly the whole domain of human selfishness and vice; ‘Si avaritia prostrata est, exsurgit libido’ (Cypr. de Mort. 3). The one has been already dealt with; the other needs now to be specially denounced; comp. Ephes. v. 3 πορνεία δὲ καὶ ἀκαθαρσία πᾶσα ἢ πλεονεξία. ‘Homo extra Deum’, says Bengel (on Rom. i. 29), ‘quærit pabulum in creatura materiali vel per voluptatem vel per avaritiam.’ Comp. Test. xii Patr. Jud. 18 φυλάξασθε οὖν, τέκνα μου, ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας καὶ τῆς φιλαργυρίας ... ὅτι ταῦτα ἀφιστᾷ νόμου Θεοῦ. Similarly Lysis Pythag. 4 (Epistol. Græc. p. 602, ed. Hercher) ὀνομάξαιμι δ’ ἂν αὐτῶν [i.e. the vices] πρᾶτον ἐπελθὼν τὰς ματέρας, ἀκρασίαν τε καὶ πλεονεξίαν· ἄμφω δὲ πολύγονοι πεφύκαντι. It must be remembered that πλεονεξία is much wider than φιλαργυρία (see Trench N. T. Syn. § xxiv, p. 77 sq.), which itself is called ῥίζα πάντων τῶν κακῶν (1 Tim. vi. 10).

The attempt to give πλεονεξία here and in other passages the sense of ‘impurity’ (see e.g. Hammond on Rom. i. 29) is founded on a misconception. The words πλεονεκτεῖν, πλεονεξία, will sometimes be used in relation to sins of uncleanness, because such may be acts of injustice also. Thus adultery is not only impurity, but it is robbery also: hence 1 Thess. iv. 6 τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν καὶ πλεονεκτεῖν ἐν τῷ πράγματι τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ (see the note there). In other passages again there will be an accidental connexion; e.g. Ephes. iv. 19 εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ, i.e. ‘with greediness’, ‘with entire disregard for the rights of others’. But no where do the words in themselves suggest this meaning. Here the particles καὶ τὴν show that a new type of sin is introduced with πλεονεξίαν: and in the parallel passage Ephes. v. 3 (quoted above) the same distinction is indicated by the change from the conjunctive particle καί to the disjunctive ἤ. It is an error to suppose that this sense of πλεονεξία is supported by Clem. Alex. Strom. iii. 12 (p. 551 sq.) ὡς γὰρ ἡ πλεονεξία πορνεία λέγεται, τῇ αὐταρκείᾳ ἐναντιουμένη. On the converse error of explaining ἀκαθαρσία to mean ‘greediness’, ‘covetousness’, see the note on 1 Thess. ii. 3.

J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations (London: Macmillan, 1875) — public domain. Electronic text from Project Gutenberg (ebook #50857). Covers Colossians and Philemon only (the verse-by-verse notes; introductions and dissertations are omitted); Lightfoot's companion Galatians and Philippians volumes are not included, as the available public-domain scans carry garbled Greek that cannot be faithfully reproduced.