Colossians 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul tells the Colossians that because they were raised with Christ, they should set their minds on what is above, put to death the practices of their old way of life, and put on a new set of habits: compassion, kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love. He says that in this new self the usual dividing lines between people do not hold. The chapter ends with instructions for members of a household: wives and husbands, children and fathers, and servants, with the reminder that the Lord repays wrongdoing without favoritism.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • If you have been raised with Christ, then seek the things above.
   • Christ is above.
   • Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2. 3:2
   • Set your mind on the things above.
   • Do not set your mind on the things on the earth.
3. 3:3
   • You have died.
   • Your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4. 3:4
   • Christ will be made manifest.
   • Christ is our life.
   • When Christ is made manifest, you also will be made manifest with him in glory.
5. 3:5
   • Put to death your members that are on the earth.
   • Sexual immorality is to be put to death.
   • Uncleanness is to be put to death.
   • Passion is to be put to death.
   • Evil desire is to be put to death.
   • Greed is to be put to death.
   • Greed is idolatry.
6. 3:6
   • Because of these things the wrath of God is coming.
   • The wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience.
7. 3:7
   • You also once walked in these things.
   • You once lived in these things.
8. 3:8
   • Now you also are to put away all these things.
   • Put away anger.
   • Put away wrath.
   • Put away malice.
   • Put away slander.
   • Put away shameful speech out of your mouth.
9. 3:9
   • Do not lie to one another.
   • You have stripped off the old man along with his practices.
10. 3:10
    • You have put on the new man.
    • The new man is being renewed into knowledge.
    • The renewal is according to the image of the one who created him.
11. 3:11
    • In the new man there is no Greek and Jew.
    • There is no circumcision and uncircumcision.
    • There is no barbarian.
    • There is no Scythian.
    • There is no slave.
    • There is no free person.
    • Christ is all.
    • Christ is in all.
12. 3:12
    • Put on, therefore, what follows.
    • You are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.
    • Put on a heart of compassion.
    • Put on kindness.
    • Put on humility of mind.
    • Put on meekness.
    • Put on patience.
13. 3:13
    • Bear with one another.
    • Forgive one another if anyone has a complaint against another.
    • Christ forgave you.
    • Forgive as Christ forgave you.
14. 3:14
    • Above all these things put on love.
    • Love is the bond of perfection.
15. 3:15
    • Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.
    • You were called to that peace in one body.
    • Be thankful.
16. 3:16
    • Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
    • Teach one another.
    • Admonish one another.
    • Do this with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
    • Sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17. 3:17
    • Whatever you do in word or deed, do all of it in the name of the Lord Jesus.
    • Give thanks to God the Father through him.
18. 3:18
    • Wives are to submit to their own husbands.
    • Such submission is fitting in the Lord.
19. 3:19
    • Husbands are to love their wives.
    • Husbands are not to be bitter against their wives.
20. 3:20
    • Children are to obey their parents in all things.
    • This obedience is well pleasing to the Lord.
21. 3:21
    • Fathers are not to provoke their children to anger.
    • Provoking them would make the children discouraged.
22. 3:22
    • Servants are to obey their masters according to the flesh in all things.
    • They are not to obey with eyeservice.
    • They are not to obey as men-pleasers.
    • They are to obey in singleness of heart.
    • They are to obey fearing God.
23. 3:23
    • Whatever you do, do it from the soul.
    • Do it as to the Lord.
    • Do it not to men.
24. 3:24
    • You know that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.
    • You serve the Lord Christ.
25. 3:25
    • The one who does wrong will receive back for the wrong he has done.
    • There is no partiality.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

"The right hand" of a king was the place of highest honor and authority next to him, the seat given to the person who acted with the king's own power. The phrase describes position and rank, not anatomy.

3:2

KJV "set your affection" translates a verb that covers the whole orientation of the mind: what you think about, value, and aim at. It is wider than feeling.

3:3

The verb is a simple past: something already happened to them. "Hid" here carries the sense of stored away safely and out of sight, like something kept in a strongbox, not of being lost.

3:4

Manuscripts divide here between "our life" and "your life." The KJV and this rendering follow the first; many modern translations follow the second. The two Greek words differ by a letter.

3:5

KJV "Mortify" simply means put to death. "Your members" means the parts of the body, so the phrase pictures amputating limbs. "Inordinate affection" is passion that has slipped its bounds, and "concupiscence" is strong craving; neither word carries its modern narrowness. Idolatry is the worship of images or of anything treated as a god, so calling greed idolatry says that what a person wants most is what that person actually serves.

3:6

"Children of disobedience" is a Semitic turn of phrase in which "children of" or "sons of" marks the quality that characterizes a person, as "sons of light" means those belonging to light. It means people whose lives are defined by disobedience, not literal offspring.

3:7

KJV "some time" is old English for "at one time, formerly." It does not mean occasionally.

3:8

In 1611 "blasphemy" covered abusive speech against anyone, human or divine, so here it means slander or insult rather than only irreverence toward God. "Communication" meant speech in general, and "filthy communication" is obscene talk.

3:9

"Put off" and "put on" in verses 9 to 14 are the ordinary words for taking off and putting on clothes. The whole passage runs on that one image: stripping off one set of garments and dressing in another.

3:10

KJV "the new man" and "the old man" use "man" in its older inclusive sense of a human being, the self or person, not a male. The word translated "renewed" is a present continuous form: the process is ongoing, not finished.

3:11

Each pair names a line that divided people in the ancient world. Greek and Jew is the basic cultural divide of the eastern Mediterranean; circumcision, the surgical mark carried by Jewish males as the sign of their covenant with God, was the visible token of that divide, so "circumcision nor uncircumcision" is shorthand for Jew and non-Jew. "Barbarian" was a Greek word for anyone who did not speak Greek, said to imitate the babbling "bar bar" such speech sounded like to Greek ears. Scythians were nomadic peoples from north of the Black Sea, proverbial among Greeks and Romans for savagery, so they stood at the far end of the scale even from ordinary barbarians. "Bond" means enslaved.

3:12

KJV "bowels of mercies" sounds odd now, but ancient writers located the emotions in the inner organs much as English locates them in the heart, so the phrase means deeply felt compassion. "The elect" simply means the chosen. "Longsuffering" is patience held out over a long stretch of provocation, and "meekness" in older English is strength under control, not weakness.

3:13

KJV "quarrel" here means a grievance or a legitimate complaint against someone, closer to a case you could bring than to an argument you are having.

3:14

KJV "charity" is the older English word for love, and has nothing to do with giving to the poor. The word rendered "bond" means a band or ligament, the thing that ties a bundle together, continuing the clothing picture: love is the belt that holds the rest of the outfit in place.

3:15

The verb behind "rule" is an athletic term for the umpire who makes the call and settles disputes at the games. The picture is of peace acting as the decider when a matter is contested. "One body" is Paul's standing image for a community whose members belong to each other as limbs belong to a single body.

3:16

The three musical terms overlap and were not sharply separated in the first century. "Psalms" would naturally suggest the Old Testament Psalms, sung with instrumental accompaniment; "hymns" were songs of praise; "spiritual songs" were songs prompted by the Spirit. "Admonishing" means warning or correcting, not scolding.

3:17

To act "in the name of" someone in ancient usage meant to act as that person's representative and on that person's authority, the way an envoy transacted business in a king's name.

3:18

Verses 18 to 25 follow a recognized ancient form, a household code, which Greek and Roman moral writers used to set out the duties owed within a household by wives, children and slaves. The form here is unusual in addressing each group directly as responsible persons and in laying obligations on husbands, fathers and masters in return. KJV "as it is fit" means as is proper or appropriate.

3:19

"Be not bitter against them" translates a word for being sharp, harsh or resentful. Roman law gave a husband wide authority over his household, so an instruction placing limits on how he treated his wife carried real weight.

3:21

The word behind "discouraged" means to lose heart or go slack, the state of a person who has stopped trying because nothing is ever good enough.

3:22

KJV "Servants" translates a word that means slaves. Slavery in the Roman world was a legal condition covering everything from field labor to physicians and household managers, and slaves were property, not employees. "According to the flesh" means human or earthly, distinguishing these owners from the heavenly Master named in the next verses. "Eyeservice" is work done only while the boss is looking, and "menpleasers" are people who perform for an audience. "Fearing God" here means reverence and awe rather than terror.

3:24

The point would have struck the original hearers sharply: under Roman law a slave could not inherit, since inheritance passed to sons. Slaves are being promised the one thing their legal status excluded them from.

3:25

"Respect of persons" is a literal rendering of an idiom meaning to receive someone's face, that is, to decide a case by who the person is, their rank, wealth or connections, rather than by the facts. It means favoritism.