Colossians 3:1-9 [NLT]
January 23, 2013
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Colossians Bible Study
Paul’s clarifies his teaching on attitude and actions within the body of Christ:
I hope and pray I can get ALL this in tonight, but if NOT we will pick up next week right where we left off tonight… tonight we are going to look at Col 3:1-8 [ESV]
Now over the past few weeks we have seen how Paul was constantly preaching that Christ was sufficient for salvation and that these believers needed nothing else to be saved!
They did not need to practice these aesthetic these teachers were pushing…
They need not be slaves to a ritualistic diet or needless ceremony or ritual…
They did not need any new or special spiritual knowledge…
All they needed was Christ!
And that is the truth…Christ is sufficient for our salvation! We cannot know salvation w/o Christ, and we need ONLY Christ to experience salvation!
BUT…Paul then begins to speak about works in ch3… well on the surface it may seem as if Paul is speaking about works. It may SEEM that Paul is saying, don’t listen to THEIR list of things to do, but instead listen to MY list of things to do.
However, on closer study we see that Paul is NOT doing that at all. What Paul IS doing is laying out what a believer’s life should reflect…or how that life should look to those who may see them in this world!
Let’s look at Col 3:1-8, but we will begin with v1-4. READ v1-4 VERSES HERE…
[ESV]
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Now what Paul is dealing with here is NOT formality or any particular ritual, but what Paul is addressing is the basic focus of the believer!
First of all, we have to constantly remind ourselves that this letter was a letter to those who had made a profession of faith IN Christ!
So we can know that Paul believed that their salvation was a settled matter! In Christ they were SAVED, BUT, Paul was also adamant about another aspect of the Christian life as he teaches that SINCE you have professed Christ here is what your life should look like… here is where your focus MUST be…
[ESV]
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
In v1 Paul is confirming their salvation in Christ. This is also a confirmation of his teaching that Christ alone SAVES.
The ESV reads, “…IF then you have been raised with Christ…” but this is not a statement of doubt as it concerns the saving power of Christ. The IF listed here is really better translated like the NLT that says, “…Since you have been raised to new life with Christ…” The HCSB states it like this, “…So, if you have been raised with the Messiah…”
Basically what Paul is saying here is that salvation comes through Christ and IF you have been saved… IF you have confessed Him as Lord… THEN there is a mindset you MUST have!
It is one thing to PROFESS Christ; it is a totally different thing to live out that profession of Christ as Savior.
What Paul is saying here is that BECAUSE you profess Christ… the believer’s focus is to be on the things above (things of Christ)…the believer’s focus CANNOT focused on earthly things and traditions!
Paul is alluding here to the things that Christ called all believers to… and the things Christ called us to were NOT steeped in human tradition, like these teachers were teaching!
Here Paul also confirms that Christ came, died for our sin, rose from the grave and ascended BACK into heaven… Paul says, “[Christ] seated at the right hand of God…”
The ‘right hand’ in this verse was symbolic for POWER or AUTHORITY! This is a direct reference toward Jesus and Matt 28:18 where He revealed that God has granted Him (as Messiah) all authority in heaven and on earth!
In other words what Paul is saying here is that NO ONE else would have authority believers, only Christ! This was yet another shot at these false teachers who were seeking to establish their earthly and human AUTHORITY over how these believers acted and lived!
So I believe that here Paul re-asserts the authority of Christ and Christ alone over the believer. Salvation comes from the direct authority of Christ, and NOT thru actions we take or rituals we follow! The believer’s life would always be under the authority of Christ and Christ alone!
In v2 Paul clarifies what ‘things above’ refers to… what we know is that it was NOT the things of this world. But it is the things of Christ! We cannot be consumed by the things of this world, but our focus MUST be on the things of Christ!
WHY? Why should we focus on the things of Christ rather than the things we desire? Well the answer is simple for Paul and it should be just as simple for us as well. Paul answers this question in v3-4:
[ESV]
3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Well Paul gives us the ONE main reason we should focus on the things of Christ… BECAUSE Christ died for us, and the implication by Paul here is that if Christ has died for us then we must be willing to LIVE for Him!
You have DIED to your old self…meaning that your old desires, dreams and wants are a thing of the past and your focus is to be on the desires, dreams and wants of your Savior, Jesus Christ!
Your focus is to be on things ABOVE and not your own desires OR the desires of others such as the human traditions of this world…
Paul is setting up his teaching to reveals some specifics about what the believer is to focus upon when living for Christ, but FIRST Paul wanted to establish this very important foundation that the believer’s focus has to be in the right place.
BUT preacher, what are these things Paul is speaking about in v1-2? What are the ‘things above’ Paul mentions?
When we look at Paul’s next few verses we can see that Paul is listing things that are NOT above, but they are things we are called to lay aside… things we are called to leave behind in our life of following Jesus.
Let’s look at v5-9 where Paul speaks DIRECTLY to the old self… our old nature… and what the believer is to do with that old focus… that focus that was on things NOT above! Paul gets pretty specific here in some areas.
5Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices…
In v.5, 8-9 we find Paul actually providing a list of things directly connected with our sinful nature.
5Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Paul says here that certain things must be “put to death” and these ‘things’ are what Paul describes as what is EARTHLY… so these are NOT the things above but the things of this world… the things of our selfish, sinful desires, things like:
Now I don’t want you to get confused if your Bible does not take these in the order I am addressing them in… I am taking my order out of the original Greek manuscript that is used by the United Bible Society…
In the original Greek here is how v5 is ordered…
Colossians 3:5 - NAS – Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
If we were to read this verse EXACTLY as it is in the Greek here is how it would sound:
Consider dead therefore the members of your earthly body immorality, impurity, passion, desire evil, and greed which is idolatry
This does not translate well to our English syntax (how we phrase things) so we must do the ‘translation’ and reordering of the words to make it to make sense for us in our language today…
This is the JOB of a translator, more than just translating the meaning of the Greek word, the translator must take that translation and put into a syntax that is understandable for our contemporary language.
So back to the ORDER in the Greek:
1st is a command to put to death the things of our earthly body
2nd Paul begins to describe what he means by that command:
2a - πορνειαν por-nane is the Greek word from which we derive our English word ‘pornography’ When we think of pornography we think of sexual sin. However, the word here in the Greek goes FAR beyond mere sexual sin, but anything that would profane God.
This word actually addresses any immoral acts, be it sexual or any other form of immorality. Can you think of an immoral act that is NOT sexual? How about abortion? How about murder? How about beating your wife/child? How about leaving your family?
These things are all IMMORAL acts that this Greek word would cover. But most of our translations focus in on sexual immorality.
However, Paul does follow up with the use of 2 words that point more specifically toward the area of sexual immorality. First addressing immorality as a whole and then focusing in on where MOST humans fail…the sexual component of our morality!
He uses ακαθαρσιαν ah-kah-thar-sain which is translated as unclean or uncleanness. If coupled with por-nain here this could refer to UNCLEAN MORALITY… which again does not have to point to the sexual, but more than likely leads us down that path.
The 3rd word we see here is the Greek word παθος path-oss which I am sure we have all heard. This word basically means passion or passions. The actual Greek here is a plural version of this word so the correct translation would be the plural form of passion… which is passions.
More than likely the term ‘uncleanness’ or unclean was meant to be tied with the word passions to give us a word phrase of unclean passions… or passions that are not godly in nature.
Then we have Paul mentioning επιθυμιαν epi-thoo-main which is translated as desire or desires or TO desire but Paul follows this noun with an adjective descriptor in the word κακην Kah-Kane which is a form of the noun Kah-Koss which mean evil or bad.
This would lead us to tie these together for the word phrase ‘evil desires’… desires that go against God and the standard that God has set.
Finally Paul speaks of the Greek word πλεονεξιαν
play-oh-nex-ee-ahn which is translated as covetousness OR in some translations greed and Paul describe this particular ‘thing’ as an idol type of sinful behavior.
In other words this attitude or action on our part leads to worship OF that thing…This is actually part of the 10 commanments here… Thou shall not covet your neighbors (fill in the blank here)
So what we find here in v5 is a list of things that are ingrained within us… they are PART of our earthly nature! This means they are part of our sin nature, the sin nature that Adam passed down through the bloodlines!
These are things that we cannot overcome ourselves, but remember Paul is saying that SINCE you have Christ… SINCE you have died with Christ, these things must go…
Here is the OPERATIVE view for this command from Paul. Paul is laying the responsibility for making the right choice at the feet of the believer. Christ has set you free from these things, you must make the choice to set them aside and walk away from them…
This reveals that even though our actions do NOT save us or keep us saved, we are called by God TO ACT… TO choose to live according to His standard.
The choice is ours to be obedient OR to be rebellious! A rebellious heart is not a heart that is seeking the things above, but it is a heart that seeking its own selfish desires!
In v8-9 Paul again lists other areas of sinful nature that must be set aside by the believer… in other words the believer must MAKE an active and willing choice to set these things aside in their lives!
But we must understand that this is not a friendly suggestion for us, but a command. We are not called to put these things on a shelf or away in a closet, but we are called to put these things to DEATH in our lives! To RID ourselves of these things.
The term Paul uses in v5 “…Put to death…” which is the Greek term neck-row-sah-tay which is an imperative command of Paul instructing believers to DO THIS THING…
Now the form of word that Paul is using leaves its meaning open to some form of interpretation. It is a command, but it is NOT a command that is given that is ongoing, Paul sort of leaves this ‘unsaid’ which leads us to the conclusion that what Paul is saying is that WE MUST DO THIS…
However, for some of us we may only have to do it this once, but others of us may have to do it on a more frequent basis… The key here is that it is an action we are called to do, it is IMPERATIVE for our spiritual walk!
So Paul’s command in v5 applies to the items listed in v5 but also in v8-9 which are:
Anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language and DO NOT LIE to one another…
The 1st set of things Paul is calling the believer to put to death are things within each of us… they can relate to others but the focus in on the believer.
The 2nd set of things Paul calls the believer to put to death are things that relate to each other… things that are fleshed out toward others. These are things that destroy fellowship and unity within the body of Christ!
The 1st set can destroy fellowship as well, but again it is more focused on the individual and these are more about the corporate identity of the body of Christ!
What Paul is saying here is that we don’t want the world to see the ‘body of Christ’ displaying these traits. Anger is not a sin in and of itself, but anger in the wrong context leads to sinful behavior which will tear down the witness of the church.
Malice is premeditated and directed hatred toward another…
Slander is premeditated and directed vicious speech directed toward another person for the express purpose of hurting and damaging that person’s witness or character.
Abusive language is a very broad term… abusive language can be jokingly ribbing at someone to out and out cursing out of another.
Our speech has to be tempered by the Holy Spirit so as to project an image of a loving Savior and Holy God. Abusive speech will only serve to tear down any fellowship that has been built!
James speaks of the tongue and how the tongue can do such damage for and to the believer. We must always ensure that we speak with grace and mercy. Paul tells us to PUT TO DEATH these areas?
Are YOU listening to the calling of God on YOUR life tonight? Are you focusing your mind on the things of this world OR are you looking for the things above!
We see Paul setting up his teaching by first addressing what the people needed to avoid, first the false teaching and then equipping them with what their lives should reflect in actions and attitude!
Basically in these verses to begin ch3 Paul is saying that YOU have Christ and because YOU have Christ certain things should be DEAD to you… you have to make the choice to live FOR Christ and not yourself!
How many times do we get angry because we don’t get what we want OR things don’t go the way WE desire? I can bet it happens almost DAILY for most of us, maybe even MANY times a day?
Well when we come to know Christ as Savior, we surrender what was OUR focus and we have to be willing to take up HIS focus and His desires AS our own!
Taking up the desires and focus of Christ means that we must lay aside those things that have corrupted our thinking and living in the past… those things are things of this earth!
Paul speaks to us and basically is saying, “Don’t dwell on earthly things and the things of your earthly desires, but instead place your focus on the heavenly things and the things of God’s desire!”
So when things don’t go our ‘way’ and we get upset and it twists us all out of shape, then we know that we have fallen from where God desires us to be… You see we are called to LAY aside those things for the things of God!
Next week we will begin to look at THOSE THINGS ABOVE that Paul teases us with in v1… PRAY
