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Colossians
Chapter 3 Verses 5-9
Col. 4:5
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For
which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children
of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time,
when ye lived in them. 8 But now ye also put off all these;
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of
your mouth. 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have
put off the old man with his deeds;”
In this
passage, Paul has prefaced before the fact that we are dead
with Christ and that we are risen with Christ and we shall
appear with Christ in glory. Based on this, he exhorted us
to seek and set our affections on things above. Now Paul
gives us instructions on how to seek and set our affections
on things above. He instructs us to mortify (put to death)
some things and to put off some other things. Moreover, in
this passage and in the next verse he uses the terms “old
man” and “new man.” Plainly this has reference to the
two-fold nature of a child of God. We have the “old man”
nature of the flesh and we have the “new man” nature of the
spiritual inner man.
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”
Paul speaks of our “members which are upon the earth.”
He is not speaking of our body parts such as hands, arms,
legs, etc. He is, however, speaking of our carnal sinful
actions which are a part of the flesh and its desires. He
tells us several things to mortify:
1.
fornication – this is ungodly sexual relations contrary
to God’s design which was set forth for us in the 2nd
chapter of Genesis. Included under this category would
be premarital sexual relations, homosexual relations,
adultery against a spouse and spiritual adultery with
false gods and false religious systems.
2.
uncleanness – included in this category would be unclean
thoughts, filthy language, dirty jokes, filthy
communication, and unclean spirits.
3.
inordinate affection and evil concupiscence – these
speak to the lust or desires of the flesh. Thus it
would refer to inordinate and evil desires of the
flesh.
4.
covetousness which is idolatry – Idolatry is the worship
of something other than the true God of heaven.
Covetousness speaks of greed. Often times idolatry
takes the form of greed for money, greed for control,
greed for things, greed for power, etc.
“For
which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children
of disobedience:” Paul plainly states there is a coming
manifestation of God’s wrath that will be poured out upon
the children of disobedience for the things listed above.
“In
the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.”
The nature of a child of God before he is born of the
Spirit, is the same as the nature of those who are never
born of the Spirit. Before we are born of the Spirit and
before we came to the knowledge of the truth, we went about
living out our evil fleshly nature. Now, however, we are
taught to mortify those actions in our bodies.
“But
now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.” In
a similar fashion in which we would put off dirty garments
and put on clean garments, we are to put off the actions
listed above in our Christian walk:
1. anger – violent passion of the mind.
2. wrath – fierce anger often manifest against
others.
3. malice – wicked action taken against others.
4. blasphemy – evil speaking or railing
especially against God.
5. filthy communication out of your mouth – vile
conversation.
“Lie
not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man
with his deeds;” To lie is to utter an untruth or
attempt to deceive by falsehood. This is probably one of
the hardest things that we are to eliminate from our lives.
Even though it may be difficult, yet we should make every
effort to eliminate lying to others. |
