Col. 3:5-11 - Dead to Immorality

Become Dead to Immorality

Vs. 5 - Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

- The 'therefore' is based on the following facts:

1. We are raised up with Christ;
2. Our life is hidden in Christ;
3. We will be revealed and be like Him;
4. We are to keep focused on the things above where Christ is.

'consider' - This is the concept of mapping your life based on these things. Acting as though you are indeed perfect in Christ, not struggling between the old and new natures. When you take a trip, especially if you are going a place you've never been, you usually buy a map.
We recently went on a long road trip across the United States. We called AAA, who gladly supplied maps and information booklets on the states we were visiting ("gladly" means we pay a lot for the AAA services.) We also use our GPS, which is a map and directions in one amazing electronic App. These tools tell us which road to take, where to turn. Let your life be completely 'mapped out' by Christ. Let the Holy Spirit be your spiritual 'GPS'.
Don't let yourself fall prey to, or take part in any of the following activities. Think of yourself as Christ's so much that thoughts of taking part in any such thing is impossible. In essence, in actuality, you are dead to these activities because you are Christ's. His claim on you is that big! Literally: This part of the the verse means, “Put them to death...” This is not passive. You act in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here is a quick look at the list of sins listed in verse 5:

1. 'immorality' - fornication, adultery, incest, etc., especially sexual sins.
2. 'impurity' - uncleanness, physically and morally.
3. 'passion' - uncontrolled affections, lusts, anger, wrath.
4. 'evil desire' - longing desire, concupiscence, to lust after.
5. 'greed' - this is covetousness,
6. "'idolatry' - that means focusing the total mind, in effect to worship of, on a non-living, nor life-giving object. Not focusing on God.

Vs. 6 - For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

- See verse 5 for for the "because of these things.

- "the "wrath of God" - See Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; John 3:36. Judgement of the world, because of sin, is to come. When the time is right all of these will be done away with. These are all part of man's nature. Actually, they are symptoms of the sin nature. These sins exist. The possibility of these actions always exist because we are sinners. They are a result of the sinful nature; these sins occur because of the nature, not the other way around. An old saying, "We sin because we are sinners; we are not sinners because we sin." God does not grade on a curve. Saying, "I'm not as bad as ..." Gains you absolutely nothing. Despite the popular view of God that He is so good and loving He would not condemn anyone is wrong. If we reject Christ, we condemn ourselves - God's wrath remains on us (John 3:36). That is the penalty, the judgement against sin, and only Christ's death and resurrection can save.

Vs. 7 - and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

- See Eph. 2:2. Before Christ came into our lives, these things were a part of our lives. You may say, “No! I never...” Unfortunately these are all part of the nature with which you were born. And, it should be acknowledged that if you have committed one, you are guilty of breaking them all. See: James 2:10, 11.

Vs. 8 - But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

- More things to avoid in our Christian Life. Those listed in verse 5 were more personal - internal abuses, battles of the mind and flesh. The list in verses 8 and 9 have to do with person-to-person relationships.

1. "anger" - From Ungers Bible Dictionary the word anger means 'displeasure or indignation from the feeling of injury done or intended...anger is not sinful per se, anger is sinful when it rises without reflection; when the injury is only apparent; when disproportional to the offense; when it attacks the innocent; when it becomes revengeful'. This word is the “revenge end” of the wrath that may arise if not controlled by Jesus in your life.
2. "wrath" - 'turmoil, boiling emotion - which may subside or turn into revenge'
3. "malice" - 'a vicious disposition that attributes evil motive to the actions of others, and picks the worst motive for any action.' From the Greek word for 'badness'.
4. "slander" - to defame, or accuse falsely
5. "abusive speech" - filthy communication, morally impure. This is not being mean to people by calling them names, or saying bad things about them. Literally this is blasphemy (in the Greek) - speaking evil of God, or deny the good God does, or assigning God's attributes to a creature. There is more here on this than I am capable of expounding on.
6. "do not lie" - opposite of telling the truth (from verse 9)

Vs. 9 - Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,

- "Do not lie" - see the discussion in verse 8 above.

- "Laid aside the old self" - the second half of verse 9, along with verses 10 and 11 are a repetition of the reasons that new action is necessary. We cannot live like we used to before we accepted Christ.

Similar to verse 3:1-4, there are four reasons - two solutions and two promises:

1. put off the old self, verse 9;
2. put on a new self, verse 10;
3. the new self is renewed to be like the one who did it all, verse 10;
4. we are renewed to the point that there are no differences because we are in Christ, verse 11.

This is to be an active choice. There is nothing passive about our life in Christ. Faith does not just happen to us, we must be involved. God will bless us with faith, but we still must act upon it. Also, when we accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, there is more to do. Not more to do with respect to salvation, but more to do to with living out our Christian lives.

Vs. 10 - and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

- Because the old nature is not dead and gone until we are resurrected in Christ, we must always make the decision to put it aside and choose the new nature given to us by Christ and powered by the Holy Spirit. Christ said we must be born again (John 3:3-7). We are saved by mercy, through renewing and regeneration (Titus 3:5,6).

Vs. 11 - a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

- An interesting list of believers -
'Greek and Jew' - most probably means Gentiles and descendants of Jacob.
- 'Greek' does not necessarily mean Grecian descent, and was used interchangeably with Gentiles.
'Circumcised and uncircumcised' - A repeat of the Gentile and Jew delineation.
- 'Barbarian' - This is a Roman subject who does not speak Greek. (It does not have the connotation we now use for 'barbarian'.)
- 'Scythian' - A person who resides probably in the areas northeast of Rome, probably in modern-day Russia, and may or may not be under Roman rule (there were believers there, too!) Very little was known about that region at that time. But “Scythian” had the connotation of truly uncouth. We tend to do the same with “redneck”, or people from the Appalachian area.
'Slave and freeman' - Obvious... Just like there are two types of people, Jews or Gentiles, there are only slaves or free.
Paul has included the whole gamut of Christians - either here or there, everywhere, known or unknown. We have no reason to feel superior to others, even to feel superior to non-believers. We are Christ's, therefore there is no race, creed, nor color - just heirs of God, brothers of Christ.