Jesus Is Sufficient for Our Holy Christan Lives
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Expanding on the idea of dying to their old way of life, Paul urges believers to give practical evidence of their heavenly-mindedness by putting to death whatever belongs to their earthly nature. In their natural spiritual state, apart from Christ, all human beings since Adam are sinful and are the servants of sin. In that condition they devote themselves to the service of sin. When people come to faith, however, they die to that old sinful, earthly way of life and enter a new way of living in Christ. They become heavenly-minded.
Believers still have that old, sinful nature lurking within them, which tries to defeat the new, heavenly-minded nature they have from the Holy Spirit. Day after day that old nature tries to regain supremacy in their lives. Believers’ lives are a constant struggle between the two natures at war within
them, and all too often the old nature succeeds in scoring victories, as Paul so vividly describes in Romans chapter 7.
That is why, even though they died to sin when they were first brought to faith, it is still necessary for Christians daily to put to death the things that belong to their earthly natures. By virtue of their new lives with Christ, believers have the power to put sin to death in their lives. Paul’s encouragement here is that Christians daily and consciously strive to use the spiritual power they have in Christ to refuse to devote their bodies and minds to the service of sin.
As part of his encouragement to put sin to death in their lives, Paul provides, by way of example, a list of sins that spring from the sinful nature. He does not spend a great deal of time in sordid descriptions of these sins. He simply cites them as examples of the vices in which the sinful nature is inclined to live, and he urges believers to strive to get rid of them. Included in the apostle’s catalog of sins to be put to death daily are sexual immorality, all the sinful actions that transgress the Sixth Commandment; impurity, the addiction to impure things in both the body and the mind; lust, the evil cravings out of which all other sins proceed; evil desires; and greed, the passion for getting things to satisfy our own desires even if those things have to be gotten in an evil way. Covetousness, Paul reminds us, is really idolatry, because it gives first place in one’s life to that which is coveted, and faith cannot live in a heart devoted to the love of earthly things.
No doubt Paul selected these particular examples because they were sins especially prevalent in the society in which the Colossians lived. These were sins with which the devil constantly tempted those who were striving to live for Christ. Such sins are still prominent in our society, because man’s sinful nature does not change. So our spiritual lives are under constant attack. We are tempted daily, and with the Spirit’s help we must strive to put these sins to death in our lives each day.
Human beings often revel in sins such as those Paul lists here. In his day sexual sins were encouraged and practiced in connection with the worship of certain heathen gods and goddesses. Today the arousal of evil lust and the participation in sexual sins of every kind is often held up as the ideal. Sexual sins are justified in the name of freedom and selfexpression, and greed is simply taken for granted as a way of life. But in verse 6 Paul puts everything in perspective when he says, “Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” Human beings may make gods of sins and glorify them. Society may try to expunge the word sin from its vocabulary, but God still sees sin for what it really is, a violation of holiness.
God does not take sin lightly. In his holiness and perfect justice, he demands that sin be punished. All who continue in sin and refuse to seek God’s forgiveness in Christ Jesus will one day feel the awful wrath of God because of those sins, if not here in time, then surely hereafter in eternity.
Before they were won for Christ, the Colossians lived in the sinful, earthly vices that the apostle has just condemned. In that state they had been subject to the wrath of God, but now in Christ they had been set free from that wretched state. Their lives as heathens were behind them, and in their new lives they could put to death the sins and vices that had characterized them before. Once again, therefore, Paul urges them to strive to defeat sin in their lives.
He urges them to rid their lives not only of the sins that directly disrupt their relationship to God, such as those mentioned in verse 5, but also of all the acts of lovelessness that disrupt their relationship with their fellow men. Many of these sins are not even regarded as vices by human society, but Christians are to strive to put completely out of their lives things like anger, rage, malice and smoldering resentment, slander, and filthy language of every kind. Special mention is also made of lying, perhaps because it is so common to the sinful nature of mankind and the society in which Christians live, but at the same time completely contrary to everything a Christian ought to stand for and ought to be.
The Colossians ought to put off all the sins Paul has mentioned, as well as all the other sins that characterize the sinful nature, because that old nature itself has been put off. When Christians are brought to faith, they put off their old nature like an old filthy garment, and they put on the new man, a new nature renewed by the Holy Spirit in the image and knowledge of God. When Adam was created, he possessed the image of God. His soul was holy and sinless. He knew God perfectly and rejoiced to do God’s will. When Adam fell into sin, however, he lost the image of God, for both himself and his descendants. Now all human beings are born into the world not in God’s holy image but in Adam’s sinful image.
When the Holy Spirit brings sinners to faith in Jesus through the gospel, he re-creates that lost image of God in their hearts. As long as believers live here on earth, however, their sinful nature clings to them, constantly opposing and battling against the new nature, constantly seeking to reassert its authority in believers’ lives—and often succeeding. Daily, therefore, the new man must be renewed in believers.
Like a growing plant, the new nature must be tended and nourished. This happens as believers use the means by which God created the new nature: the means of grace, the gospel in Word and sacrament. Through diligent and faithful use of the gospel, believers grow in faith and in spiritual knowledge. The more their faith grows, the more it will produce the fruits of loving deeds in their lives. As they experience growth in their faith and their spiritual lives, believers can more effectively defeat the old Adam, with its temptations and evil desires. When they arrive in glory, the old nature will be cast off forever and the new nature will be made perfect. In the light of eternal glory, believers will finally know God perfectly, even as they are known.
Here on earth there are many distinctions among human beings, and on this basis some people despise and discriminate against others. In verse 11 Paul mentions some of the distinctions that existed in his day. The Greeks considered themselves to be a particularly cultured and enlightened race, advanced in learning and the wisdom of this world. All those who did not share in their learning and culture were looked down upon by the Greeks as barbarians. The Jews, God’s Old Testament covenant people, took pride in their descent from Abraham and despised the members of other races as “gentile dogs.” The Judaizers regarded those who were circumcised as somehow being spiritually superior to those who were not circumcised. Even the barbarians, those in that Greek-dominated culture who were not schooled in the Greek language, could still look down upon the Scythians, a savage, warlike people who were considered culturally the lowest of the low. And, of course, those who were free could look down upon those who were slaves.
Those distinctions, and many more, were maintained in first-century society. Similar distinctions—some subtle, some not so subtle—are still maintained in every society in the world. These outward distinctions in human society are not necessarily removed by the gospel. Even after the gospel enters human hearts, some people are cultured and educated in earthly wisdom while others are not. Human beings have different talents and abilities and achieve different levels of earthly success. Differences of race, sex, nationality, and color remain. But before God all people are sinners, no matter what their earthly differences may be. Jesus died for all, and all who believe in Jesus as their Savior are forgiven and justified, regardless of race, color, rank, or social standing.
All who are brought to Jesus have within them that marvelous new nature, which daily grows in knowledge through the gospel and which enables believers to put off the sins of their old nature and to bring forth the fruits of faith in lives of Christian love. The culture and the learning of the Greek cannot save him. The Jew’s descent from Abraham cannot save him. Circumcision cannot save the Judaizer, nor does lack of culture condemn the Scythian or lack of freedom condemn the slave.
Christ saves Jew and Greek, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave and free. The fullness of all spiritual blessings is found in Christ, and he transmits his fullness to all his believers. God’s grace in Christ Jesus knows no barriers. It bridges all chasms. It makes no distinctions. That grace belongs to us, and we should make no distinctions in sharing it.
Our lives as Christians, then, involve a living and a dying. We live to Christ, with our hearts set on things above, and we die to sin. We put off our old, inherited, sinful nature and put on the new nature that is daily renewed in spiritual knowledge and the image of God. May our lives be constantly nourished by the gospel and marked by a continual growing in faith. Then our conscious, concerned, and continuous living for Christ and dying to sin will show that we belong to Christ.