[5.Practical Exhortation, General.

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

(a)Uncleanness and lust (Colossians 3:5-7);

(b)Wrath and malice (Colossians 3:8);

(c)Falsehood (Colossians 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 (Colossians 3:10-15);

(b)In thanksgiving (Colossians 3:16);

(c)In living to the glory of God (Colossians 3:17);

(The whole of this section stands in close parallelism, frequently in verbal coincidence, with Ephesians 4:20 to Ephesians 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.)]

Colossians 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) 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 Galatians 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 (Matthew 5:29-30). But, as a rule, Scripture more clearly marks the distinction between the members and "the law of sin in the members" (Romans 7:5; Romans 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" (Romans 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 Ephesians 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 1Thessalonians 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. Galatians 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.

Verse 5. - Make dead, therefore, the (or, your) members that are upon the earth (Colossians 2:11; Colossians 3:9; Ephesians 4:21, 22; Philippians 3:19; Romans 6:6; Romans 8:13; Romans 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 (Romans 6:13, 19; Romans 7:5, 23; Romans 8:13); but these in so far as ruled hitherto by sinful impulse and habit, constituting the body of "the old man" (ver. 9; Ephesians 4:22; Romans 6:6), "of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11), "of sin," and "of death" (Romans 6:6; Romans 7:24), with "sinful passions working in its members, bearing fruit unto death" (Romans 7:5): setup, note, Colossians 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 (2 Corinthians 5:17). Νεκρόω occurs besides in the New Testament only in Romans 4:19 and Hebrews 11:12 (in Romans 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 Colossians 2:23, note and quotations); hence the abrupt explanatory apposition that follows: fornication, uncleanness, (sensual) passion, evil desire, and covetousness, the which is idolatry (Ephesians 5:3-5; Philippians 3:19; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Corinthians 5:11; Romans 1:29; 1 Timothy 6:17; Matthew 6:24, 31, 32; Luke 12:21; Psalm 49:6; Psalm 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, πάθος and ἐπιθυμία, are combined in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 in contrast to "(bodily) sanctification and honour" (comp. Colossians 2:23, and "passions of dishonour," Romans 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. Πλεονεξία 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 (1 Thessalonians 4:6; Ephesians 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 Ephesians 5:3, 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" (ἥτις: setup. α{τινα, Colossians 2:23) gives a reason while it states a fact ("inasmuch as it is idolatry"). For the thought, setup. Ephesians 5:5 and 1 Timothy 6:17, also Matthew 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.

3:5-11 It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carnal indulgences. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, because Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness.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 Romans 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", Exodus 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.