Verse 6. - Because of which (things) the anger of God cometh [upon the sons of disobedience] (Ephesians 2:2, 3; Ephesians 5:6; Galatians 5:21; Romans 1:18; Romans 2:5-9; Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; John 3:36; Revelation 6:17; Malachi 3:2). The latter phrase is cancelled by Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort; but retained by Ellicott and, preferentially, by the Revisers. The witnesses against it, though numerically few, are varied and select, and the parallel (Ephesians 5:6) would suggest insertion of the words if originally absent. "The anger of God is coming" is a sentence complete in itself (setup. Romans 1:18). God's "anger" (ὀργή) is his settled punitive indignation against sin, of which his "wrath" (θυμός) is the terrible outflaming (Revelation 16:1; Revelation 14:10); see Trench's 'Synonyms.' "Cometh" implies a continuing fact or fixed principle (see Winer, p. 332); or rather, perhaps, signifies that this "anger" is in course of manifestation, is "on the way:" comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10, "the anger that is coming," not "to come," also the use of ἔρχομαι in John 14:3, 18; Hebrews 10:37. The objects of this anger ("children of wrath," Ephesians 2:2, 3) are "the sons of disobedience." The expressive Hebraism by which a man is said to be s child or son of the dominant quality or influence of his life is frequent in the New Testament.

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.For which things' sake,.... Those sins above mentioned, Colossians 3:5,

the wrath of God; the effects of it in temporal judgments, and eternal ruin and destruction, the wrath to come, which all are deserving of, and there is only deliverance from by Christ:

cometh upon the children of disobedience: who are disobedient both to the law of God, and Gospel of Christ: who are unbelievers in him, are rebellious and gainsaying, reject his calls, the persuasions of his ministers, set at nought his counsel, and will have none of his reproof. There have been already instances of God's displeasure at sin, his indignation against it, and his judgments on account of it: his wrath is revealed from heaven, and it will come down from thence on disobedient and rebellious sinners, and that suddenly, and with great power, like a mighty torrent, that there will be no standing before it. This is a reason why such who have life in Christ should mortify, repress, and abstain from the above sins; for though this regards sinners, and ungodly persons, yet the effects of God's wrath on such show how much such sins are displeasing to him, and detested by him, and therefore to be avoided by the saints.