Our relationship with Jesus Christ helps us put to death our old relationship with sin. Take a look with us at verses 3:5-6 and take the next step on this transformative journey through Colossians: The Connection That Counts.
Several years ago, I traveled with Pastor Darren, our worship director, and Kevin McCarthy, our other key worship leader, to South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to interview a man for our full-time tech position. We had to meet him at 6 p.m. for dinner, so I definitely made sure we saw the Little League World Series Complex.
We parked in the upper parking lot, and I walked down the steep hill to get a better look at the baseball diamond. The other guys walked in different directions to see what they wanted, then headed back to the Suburban. When it came time for me to join them, I decided to forgo the sidewalk at the far side of the massive hill and walk at an angle up the steep, grassy grade.
Did I say it was winter? It was, which meant the grass was wet and frosty. As I was almost at the summit, I saw Pastor Darren looking off into the distance at the field below. “Ah, I’m almost to the parking lot,” I thought. And that’s when it happened. I lost my footing on the slippery grass. This caused me to drop instantly to the ground on all fours. I used my grip to grab the grass to slow my descent, but that didn’t work. In a split second, my body weight, coupled with the weight of my backpack and good old gravity, caused me to shoot down that hillside like a missile. I think my hands left two dark, muddy soil tracks as I headed to the bottom. Right before I hit the flat part of the hill, I shot through the air, did a somersault, and then landed perfectly on my rear.
I sat there stunned for a few minutes, then I realized I had slimy mud all over me. So, I jumped up and walked up the walkway to the car this time. When Darren saw me, he started laughing and asked what had happened. After I explained, I think he laughed even harder. Believe me, with thirty minutes before a key interview, I wasted no time changing all of my clothes in the Suburban. I certainly didn’t want to show up for an interview with a new candidate for our staff covered in mud.
Take what happened to me on the hillside that afternoon as a picture of spiritual life. Muddy, destroyed clothing represents my old life as a non-Christian. Putting on new clothes in the car represents my daily challenge as a Christian. This speaks of changing from sin-stained clothes to donning pure, clean, and holy ones.
Paul speaks about this starting in Colossians chapter 3. In light of our new standing with God through our faith relationship with Jesus, the God-man Savior, we must now purposefully live holy lives. This occurs as we exchange old, sinful clothing or behaviors for new, holy ones. In verses 1-4, Paul challenges believers to maintain a heavenly mindset rather than an earthly one. Why? This lifestyle choice will positively impact your life by showing you what spiritual clothing you need to wear, and what needs to go. And speaking of what needs to go, Paul gets very explicit, for obvious reasons, starting in verse 5. From this verse until chapter 4, verse 6, the Apostle covers all the clothing we need to get rid of. I think the Spirit will speak to you as we move through these convicting verses. May you be moved to modify your spiritual dress.
The overarching theme of this entire section can be stated like this:
Your Christian Life Should Always Be Moving From The Old Life To the New Life (Colossians 3:5-4:6)
To motivate believers to head in this worthy direction, Paul presents two concepts. First, we have . . .
The Identification of the Wrong Clothing (Col. 3:5)
The opening word, Therefore, or oun (οὖν), links what Paul is going to say in light of what he just taught. Put differently, it introduces us to the logical outcropping of having a heavenly mindset. If you have this mindset, then you will, by definition, see the sinful clothing that has got to go.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3)
5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν πάθος ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία,
The first word in the Greek sentence is the aorist (past tense) imperative, nekrosate (Νεκρώσατε). If it sounds familiar, it should. It is the bedrock of our medical term: necrosis. What is this? It is the premature, irreversible death of cells and living tissue that can be caused by things like infections, toxins, and trauma, which causes a lack of adequate blood flow. If you are in the medical world, you are probably familiar with the term necrotizing pancreatitis. This is a severe, life-threatening complication of acute pancreatitis where the pancreatic tissue begins to die due to a lack of proper blood flow. If not treated, it leads to death.
Why did Paul pick this somewhat shocking term? Because he wants believers to know that now they are free from the dominion and domination of the sin nature (Rom. 6:19ff), they are called to do all they can, coupled with the Spirit’s resident power, to kill off certain sins that are nothing short of a spiritual disease. We aren’t supposed to toy with sinful disease or clothing; we are to annihilate it in our lives. We aren’t supposed to rationalize it, either, “Oh, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The Lord can. The dog needs an attitude adjustment, which starts with looking to heaven more often than not.
Why did he make it a command? Because he knows us. If he had made it a suggestion, most believers would have taken their time addressing the command’s content. “Yeah, I’m busy right now at the Pentagon on a project while we are on a war footing. I’ll get to this Pauline stuff later.” It’s a command because Paul knows how skilled we are at putting things off, procrastinating, and enjoying a manana attitude. The aorist, or past tense nature of the verb, can be grammatically classified as an ingressive aorist. This emphasizes the beginning of an action, or it clearly describes the need to get to work. If you need a little spiritual push to start obeying this command, then you need look no further than what Paul taught the Romans in chapter 6, verses 13 through 14:
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Rom. 6)
Hence, in our Christian lives, there needs to be a radical removal of everything that keeps us from living holy lives for Christ. And the process is clear: Put to death those things that are evil, and wrap your hearts and minds around those things which are holy and righteous. We took off the muddy clothes and put on the clean ones.
What clothing presents a problem to believers? What sins trip us up and compromise our spiritual walks? Paul lists, or identifies, five tough ones that need immediate . . . and, should I add, constant . . . attention. We won’t be content with simply reading through them quickly. On the contrary, we need to pause at each one, understand what it means in Greek, and relate these findings to our lives so we know what we are dealing with.
First up…
Sinful Clothing #1: Immorality
The Greek word is porneian (πορνείαν). It is the basis of our word porno, or pornography. Lexically, Gerhard Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (pp. 593-594), which is the leading etymological work in the world, demonstrates how porneia in the ancient world denoted all forms of illicit and unlawful sexual activity, from adultery to homosexuality. It covers sexual sins committed by unmarried men and women outside the bonds of holy matrimony, and it deals with sexual sins committed within marriage, like adultery. Simply put, any sexual activity that deviates from God’s design for wholesome sex between a husband and wife is perversion and sinful. Our sinful culture has turned perversion on its head by saying that “all love is love,” so they can rationalize their sexual activity that deviates from God’s prescribed norms. Paul, by way of divine inspiration, is not so accommodating. He says that believers must put to death this propensity to engage in any sexually immoral behavior, whether it is living with a girlfriend or going to bed with a boyfriend before you are married.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3)
5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν πάθος ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία,
We are to put to death sexual immorality when it rears its ugly head in our lives. We aren’t to play around with it, entertain it, make excuses for it, or purposefully befriend people who don’t think it is a big deal. We are to destroy it.
How do we go about this?
- If you are a slave to pornography, you confess it, ask other saints to hold you accountable, pray for yourself while asking others to pray for you, put filters on your computer and phone, and enroll in one of our purity classes for starters. And if you don’t think it is a pervasive problem, then think again. George Barna reveals in a recent study that 54% of practicing Christians consume pornography occasionally.
- If you are having an affair because the new person makes you feel so alive, realize you are only deceiving yourself. Break off the relationship. Confess to your mate what you’ve done. Seek forgiveness, and head to a good, sound Christian counselor to rebuild your life and marriage. One study reveals that 12.4% of those who attend church weekly and call themselves believers have affairs. For those saints who attend only monthly, the number jumps to 17.1%.[1]
- If you’re going too far with your Christian girlfriend or boyfriend, then stop being alone. Do things with couples. According to Align Life Ministries, 56% of Christian teens in the U.S. believe it is ok to have sex before marriage.[2] Paul would not agree because God would not agree. So, determine today to align yourself with God, not with your emotions or your friends’ thinking.
- If you are married and you live to flirt, confess it, and ask God to remove this drive from you. You might even like to read Jerry Bridges’ old standby book, Hedges: 7 Ways to Love Your Wife & Protect Your Marriage.
Are you struggling with sexual sin? Many do. That’s why it’s first up in Paul’s list of dirty clothing. If the Spirit is speaking to you right now, then you know you need to take definitive action before this sinful garment pollutes you further. Start with confession. Next, yield to the Spirit, asking Him to fill or control this tough area of your life (Eph. 5:18). Finally, bring the sin out from the darkness into the light. Sin has a hard time thriving when it’s exposed to the light, so bring it into the light by confiding in some saints you can trust with the disclosure.
Next up…
Sinful Clothing #2: Impurity
The Greek word is akatharsian (ἀκαθαρσίαν).
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3)
5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν πάθος ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία,
Literally, the word used to denote something dirty and filthy, like trash or the inside of a grave (Matt. 23:27). While the word can denote any uncleanness or impurity, from cheating on a test to an impure thought, like thinking about slamming on your brakes when someone is tailgating you to teach them a lesson, the word predominantly is associated with illicit sexual activity. Nine of the ten uses in the NT come from Paul, and he frequently weds this word to porniea (2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3). The point should be well-taken: Illicit sexual activity, be what it may inside or outside marriage, makes a person impure insofar as they have traversed a divinely designed barrier.
Based on this lexical meaning, we can readily identify impure behavior.
I think of a young man who came into my office thirty years ago. He told me he never came home early from work, so his wife always picked up the mail. One day, he came home early, picked up the mail, and then opened it. To his horror, he found that he owed $40,000 on several credit cards. When he confronted his Christian wife about this, she admitted she had done this all behind his back because she just had to shop, but they didn’t have the money. That financial impure move cost them their marriage, eventually.
I think of a Christian wife whose husband told her he had to have other women on the side to bring fulfillment to their marriage. When I spoke with her, he had enjoyed illicit relationships with seven women in addition to his dear wife. Obviously, his activity sexually polluted their relationship as he brought potential disease into their marriage, not to mention the spiritual uncleanness his actions caused.
So, take a hard, honest look at your life? Are you engaged in activities that are making you impure, and you know it because your conscience is telling you this much? Today is the day to trade clothing, wouldn’t you agree? Today is the day to trade the impure for the pure. Do it, and you won’t just feel so much better and freer, you will bring a smile of approval from the face of God.
Next, we consider another article of clothing some may need to deal with quickly:
Sinful Clothing #3: Passion
Once more, the Greek word is crucial to our understanding. It is pathos (πάθος).
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3)
5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν πάθος ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία,
Our English version and the meaning of this word are quite positive. Merriam-Webster defines it like this:
Pathos Entered English in the 1500s
The Greek word páthos means “experience, misfortune, emotion, condition,” and comes from Greek path-, meaning “experience, undergo, suffer.” In English, pathos usually refers to the element in an experience or in an artistic work that makes us feel compassion, pity, or sympathy. The word is a member of a big family: empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings. Pathetic (in its gentlest uses) describes things that move us to pity. Though pathology is not literally “the study of suffering,” it is “the study of diseases.”
In NT Greek, the word has a highly negative connotation. It only occurs three times, and it is always wedded to a lustful, erotic drive a person feels for illicit sexual contact(s). For instance, it is used in Romans 1:26 where Paul describes a woman who trades the normal sexual use of a man for that of a woman. He likens this to a vile passion for the wrong object. Over in 1 Thessalonians 4:5, it speaks of uncontrolled, unchecked sexual desire for a person that was forbidden. Hence, wanting another man’s wife would be a case in point. Although you are married, you think about her all the time, you flirt with her when you get a chance, you send her texts (suggestive), and so forth. You are passionate, but your passion is vile because it is for a forbidden object; thus, this would be classified as adultery based on Christ’s teaching (Matt. 5:28).
Is your passion getting the best of you? Is it dominating your thought-life? Has it driven you to do things you shouldn’t have? Are you on the verge of doing something you will regret? If so, Paul’s advice and counsel are clear: Take the garment off and place it at the feet of Christ, while asking for divine power on high over your twisted passion.
A fourth piece of spiritually soiled clothing is familiar to many.
Sinful Clothing #4: Evil Desire
The Greek word here is epithumia (ἐπιθυμίαν).
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3)
5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν πάθος ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία,
Liddell’s definitive Greek Lexicon indicates that this word denotes a strong desire or yearning for something. It is related to epithumntos, which is the word that describes the crazy desires of pregnant women for various types of food. Interesting. Those cravings aren’t always logical.
ἐπιθῡμητός, ή, όν, desired, to be desired, -τὸν τὸ φαινόμενον καλόν Arist.Metaph.1072a27, cf. Rh.1371a33, etc.; of the cravings of pregnant women, Sor.1.53. Adv. -τῶς EM148.7.
ἐπιθῡμία, Ion. -ίη, ἡ, desire, yearning, ἐ. ἐκτελέσαι Hdt.1.32; ἐπιθυμίᾳ by passion, opp. προνοίᾳ, Th.6.13: generally, appetite, Pl.Cra.419d, etc.; αἱ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἐ. Id.Phd.82c; esp. sexual desire, lust, Democr.234 (pl.), Pl.Phdr.232b, etc.; αἱ πρὸς τοὺς παῖδας ἐ. X.Lac.2.14.2. c. gen., longing after a thing, desire of or for it, ὕδατος, τοῦ πιεῖν, Th.2.52, 7.84, etc.; τοῦ πλέονος Democr.224; τῆς τιμωρίας Antipho 2.1.7; τῆς μεθʼ ὑμῶν πολιτείας And.2.10; τῆς παρθενίας Pl.Cra.406b; εἰς ἐ. τινὸς ἐλθεῖν Id.Criti.113d; ἐν ἐ. τινὸς εἶναι Id.Prt.318a, Tht.143e; γεγονέναι Id.Lg.841c; εἰς ἐ. τινὸς ἀφικέσθαι θεάσασθαι Id.Ti.19b; ἐ. τινὸς ἐμβαλεῖν τινί X.Cyr.1.1.5; ἐ. ἐμποιεῖν ἔς τινα an inclination towards .., Th.4.81.
Desire, in and of itself, is fine. It all depends on what the object of the desire is. If your pregnant wife craves pickles dipped in peanut butter, then let her go. If you desire to pass several modules at work to better yourself financially, then go for it.
However, if God forbids the object of my/your desire, say a prostitute, or overeating, or gambling (you want to get rich quickly so you can’t stop placing sports bets online, or you prefer to strike it rich on the horses, or pari-mutuel wagering. How do you know you’ve got a problem? Frequently borrowing money to make ends meet. Your wife keeps finding money missing from your collective bank accounts. You aren’t paying your bills. You have become quite secretive with your actions and hostile if anyone in your family does a little probing. You frequently chase your losses in the hope of getting your money back. You are irritable at the drop of the proverbial hat), or drunkenness (how do you know you have a problem? You can never have one drink, but three, four, or five. You need more alcohol to feel the buzz. You have to drink in the morning to deal with your hangover. You are angry when alcohol isn’t readily available. You continue to drink even when the doctor says it’s destroying your liver. You hide liquor bottles around the house or in the car.) then my/your desire is sinful. Jesus uses this word in Matthew 5:28 to talk about the wrongful lust for a woman who is not your wife. If your desire is to undermine someone at work because you don’t like them, that is sinful and the wrong kind of clothing for a saint to wear. If you desire to be mean to your brother because of how he handled your father’s will, then you had better check yourself, spiritually speaking. Evil desire is any desire that runs counter to a desire God would approve of.
Is evil desire consuming you? Is it controlling your actions and decisions? Has it driven you to say and do things you now regret? Ask God to forgive you and give you desires that are directed at the right objects for the right reasons.
Lastly,
Sinful Clothing #5: Greed
The Greek for this word is pleonexia (πλεονεξίαν).
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3)
5 Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν ἀκαθαρσίαν πάθος ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρία,
William Barclay defines it well when he writes:
There is the sin which the Revised Standard Version calls covetousness (pleonexia). Pleonexia is one of the ugliest of sins; but, while it is quite clear what it means, it is by no means so easy to find a single word to translate it. It comes from two Greek words; the first half of the word is from pleon, which means more, and the second half is from echein, which means to have. Pleonexia is basically the desire to have more. The Greeks themselves defined it as desire which cannot be satisfied, and said that you might as easily satisfy it as you might fill with water a bowl with a hole in it. They defined it as the sinful desire for what belongs to others. It has been described as ruthless self-seeking. Its basic idea is the desire for that which we have no right to have. It is, therefore, a sin with a very wide range. If it is the desire for money, it leads to theft. If it is the desire for prestige, it leads to evil ambition. If it is the desire for power, it leads to sadistic tyranny. If it is the desire for a person, it leads to sexual sin. C. F. D. Moule describes it as ‘the opposite of the desire to give’.
I couldn’t have said it better. That’s why I just quoted it. Greed drives you to get more than you possibly need for yourself and to greedily hold it without sharing with others.
I remember when COVID hit, I was at Walmart. Right inside the front door was a large bin full of 16-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer. One man stood there and loaded all of those bottles into his cart, leaving none for me. I’m sure he went on to sell them for profit once no one could find them on the open market. He obviously needed to go to church, right?
Years ago, a trucker in my church told me he had a truckload of commercial display cases that a particular company no longer wanted. He said they’d make great marketing tools for a church, so I told other pastors about them at a meeting. My friend said he’d give them away free to any pastor who showed up. One pastor came with a moving truck and took all of the displays for himself. Wow. He needed to trade garments, wouldn’t you say?
What was the problem with these people? The problem with many Christians: Greed. Where does it come from? Our sinful natures. Yes, it is an ugly garment, but once you are saved, you don’t have to wear it anymore. Make this day the day you lay this garment aside, and resolve to be a saint who knows more about giving than getting.
If you have any of these garments on your spiritual body right now, permit me to explain why you should remove them quickly.
The Motivation for Clothing Change (Col. 3:6)
Paul gave the saints in Colossae a sobering wake-up call:
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. (Col. 3)
Of course, God’s wrath will ultimately be revealed against those who reject Him while wearing this soiled spiritual clothing. But what about believers who continue to wear the garments of their pre-Christian lives? The same holy God who will judge unbelievers is the same one who will discipline His children. Concerning this, Douglas Moo concludes:
But the scriptural notion of God’s wrath runs in quite a different direction. It is directly tied to the holiness of God and depicts the necessary response of a personal God to any violation of his character or will. Particularly noteworthy in our context is the fact that the warning about wrath is directed to “God’s holy people in Colossae.” God’s true people are guaranteed deliverance from wrath (1 Thess. 5:9; Rom. 5:9), but, at the same time, they are repeatedly warned that persistent sinful behavior will bring God’s judgment.
What Moo says merely reflects what the author of Hebrews says to saints in chapter 12:
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Heb. 12)
Just like you, as a parent, will do things to get the attention of a sinful child, God will do no less. Out of love for you, He will act to wake you up to the need to change certain layers of spiritual clothes in your life. How He will act, I will leave to Him. I know He will.
Before God acts, it would be wise for you to act. What should you do? You should take off the garments that are soiled and stained today, and replace them with garments that sparkle with God’s holiness and purity—got any garments that need to go?
