Mortify the Members; Put Off the Old Self (Colossians 3:5–8)

“Shun evil and do good” (Ps. 33:15) are two subjects on which all the attention and all the efforts of those who desired to have their life in Christ the Lord are directed. Just as the one who is going somewhere moves forward by shifting the center of gravity from one foot to the other; so the one going to Christ and running with Christ accomplishes his course by these two—shunning evil and doing good. Otherwise this is called resisting oneself in evil and compelling oneself to good: self-resistance and self-compelling are two legs. Where do they lead? They lead to the point where evil and passions are completely driven out, and all good appears in strength and fullness of perfection. All this the Apostle now describes, teaching: aa) how to shun evil (Col. 3:5–11), and: bb) to grow rich in good (Col. 3:12, 13), and: cc) pointing out the final limit of perfection in love and peace (Col. 3:14, 15).

aa) The Apostle teaches shunning evil (Col. 3:5–11)

The shunning of evil is required to be so strong and so decisive that the Apostle calls it the mortifying of the members that produce sin and the putting away of all that is not good. There are two sinful things in us—lust and anger, in their various forms. Against them the Apostle arms Christians, persuading them: α) to mortify all that is lustful (Col. 3:5–7), and: β) to put away all that is angry and hostile (Col. 3:8–11), and to each of these struggles he adds his own persuasions: there the wrath of God and a testing of the destructiveness of a life of lust (Col. 3:6, 7); here the putting off of the old self and the putting on of the new self, according to the image of the Creator (Col. 3:9, 10).

Col. 3:5. Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

“Put to death.” But he already said: “You have died”; what more is there to mortify in the dead? “What are you saying? Did you not yourself say: You are buried, buried together, circumcised, stripped off the body of sinful flesh? How then do you again say: ‘Put to death’? There is no contradiction here. If someone, after cleaning a defaced statue or even recasting it and making it completely bright, said that rust still eats and destroys it, and began to advise him to make an effort again to clean it from rust, he would not contradict himself; because he would advise to clean it not from the rust that he had already scraped off, but from the rust that appeared afterward. So Paul speaks not of the former mortification, not of the former transgressions, but of the subsequent ones” (holy Chrysostom). “The first mortification was the gift of baptism, which took away the original sin existing in us; but now the proposed mortification is the work and intention of ourselves, consisting in wiping away the sins that occur after baptism, and even more in not allowing them to come alive in us, cutting off their germination by mortifying fleshly reasoning” (blessed Theophylact). “The Lord gave us life from the first death, in baptism washing away our sins; but for us there is need also of another mortification—not that we mortify ourselves, but that we mortify the passions, not allowing them to act in us” (Oecumenius). To die to sin in baptism is only in intention and resolve, strengthened by God’s grace, but after baptism there must follow a keeping of oneself in this death, or a constant mortifying of oneself by the strength of that first mortification, directed against passions and sinful movements and impulses that arise again. That is in intention and resolve, but this is in actuality and in life. For even after the spirit is given life by God’s grace, has come to hate sin and to love a life holy according to God in righteousness and holiness, the soul and body are still full of disorders from long habit of sinful deeds, which have twisted their natural needs. From this the soul and body do not cease even after that to pull toward sin or to offer sinful things, recalling in the passions the former self-will. One who has accepted the resolve to live not according to passions must strictly watch what the soul and body propose, and, meeting something passionate in their proposals, must reject it. This rejection of passionate and sinful proposals is the mortifying of the members which the Apostle commands here. The rejected passionate proposal will come again; and again it must be rejected. Thus always. By this frequent and constant rejection, which is each time a strike against the passion, the passion will finally die away. Thus one, then another, then a third; thus finally all. And here is the goal which the holy Paul desires for us to attain—that all passions finally show themselves dead, and all human nature appears passionless, pure, and bright. Only under such a condition can one hope to appear in glory when Christ the Lord is revealed. Wherefore the holy Paul said: “Put to death therefore.” Therefore, mortify all passions in yourselves and cleanse yourselves from them, if you wish to appear then in glory.

“Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth.” By “members on the earth” the Apostle means the passions which he then enumerates. He called the passions our members because they present themselves as though they were inseparable parts of our nature. And they captivate us precisely because they seem to be parts of nature, and because, in rising up against them, we seem to be rising against nature itself. In cutting off the passions, as though we were cutting off our own limbs. But in reality the passions are not our natural members, but foreign ones, grafted onto certain natural parts and having twisted them. And this can be counted as the second reason why the holy Paul called them our members. Because of this entanglement of certain passions with our members, in acting against the passions, one cannot at the same time avoid acting against the members to which they have clung. And then self-pity is brought in or is brought by the enemy, which cuts short the ascetical effort and then allows the passion to arise again. To prevent this from happening, the Apostle writes: Cut off your own members without pity; otherwise you cannot appear in glory with Christ the Lord. So as not to fall into this temptation of self-pity, the one striving must keep in mind and conviction that, in mortifying certain members of his, he is not killing them, but the passion grafted onto them. The passion, having grafted itself, kills the members; but you, by mortifying the passion through some mortification of the members, will free them from the killing power of the passion and give them life.

“Members which are on the earth” are the passions so called because all passions rest on the earth and are nourished only by earthly things. They act according to earthly thinking and find satisfaction on the earth. Earthliness is the distinguishing mark of those living by passions (holy Chrysostom). And so long as these passions are strong, they will not allow one to set one’s mind on things above or to seek what is on high.

This applies generally to all passions and therefore also to those produced by anger. But the holy Paul first enumerates the lustful passions, and then the angry ones. From the lustful he sets forth various forms of bodily uncleanness and avarice. He passed over sensual living, conducted in sensual pleasures: eating, drinking, making merry, living in general in worldly pomp, because this is not a general possession, and perhaps also because such a life is understood under avarice. For those who have much usually also live “rejoicing all their days brilliantly” (Lk. 16:19).

Bodily lust gives rise to “fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire.” The word “fornication” points to specific sinful deeds; but what the others mean is left to the judgment of each one reflecting. Our commentators suppose that the first word means the deeds of the lustful passion, while the others mean the properties of that passion—that it makes a person unclean more than other passions, or more disturbs him, and is truly παθος—a sickness, like burning fever (blessed Theophylact), wherefore it deserves to be called evil desire. But perhaps it can also be understood this way: “fornication” means certain criminal liaisons with women; “impurity” means unnatural deeds in satisfaction of lust; “passion” means lustful mania; “evil desire” means infatuations with a jealousy that dries up and seeks death both in others and in oneself. But whatever one understands by them, it is clear that the holy Paul commands us to mortify bodily lust in all its manifestations, so that it and its deeds might not even be named among Christians. It opposes the spirit of Christianity more than anything else; wherefore everywhere in the Apostle’s writings, it stands first among the things to be rejected.

“Greed” is the desire that never ceases to have more and more, an insatiable passion for wealth. The Apostle does not arm us against possessions, but against avarice. We have need for food, clothing, and shelter, and we cannot avoid having the means to satisfy them. But the measure of possessions should be set at the satisfaction of need, which should indicate the boundaries of acquisition and efforts toward it. But whoever, exceeding necessity, loves the acquisition itself or possession, is sick with the passion of avarice, which, taking possession of his heart, becomes the mistress of all his deeds, thoughts, plans, and undertakings. Then all is forgotten, both in oneself and in others, both earth and heaven; one thing alone is in view—to have and to have. In such a frame of mind, possession becomes a god precisely because it takes possession of the whole man. But it is especially a god for the avaricious man because he places all his hope in it. His life, his status, the course of his affairs—all stands firm for him because he has much. He rests in hope on mammon, and what should be expected from God alone he expects from wealth. It is for him an idol, whom he serves and works for and on whom he hopes. Wherefore avarice the holy Paul called idolatry. The blessed Theodoret writes: “He called ‘greed’ ‘idolatry’ because the Saviour named mammon as master (Mt. 6:24), teaching that one enslaved to the passion of avarice honors wealth as a god.‘The captive of this passion’serves and worships silver and gold. ‘And the idols of the nations are silver and gold’” (Ps. 113:12) (blessed Theophylact).

One must keep in mind that the Apostle is concerned not with the quantity of possessions but with the passion of having and acquiring. Job, Abraham, David, and many others were very rich, but did not suffer from avarice. What the Apostle commands us to mortify in ourselves in this respect is attachment to possessions and the placing of hope in them—to which one can be subject even with little acquisition, as one can be free from this even with much.

Col. 3:6. For which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

“On account of these” means on account of what? On account of the passions and deeds mentioned—on account of lustful and avaricious living. The wrath of God has already more than once fallen on those guilty of these passions and deeds. The Flood was brought because all men then became “flesh” (Gen. 6:3). For the same reason fire consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. Hezekiah suffered somewhat—because he gave himself too much importance on account of his great treasures. And in the parable, the one whose fields “produced abundantly,” hears: “Your life will be demanded of you tonight,” because he thought that “his life consisted of his possessions” (Lk. 12:15, 16, 20). But all such manifestations of God’s wrath are only foretellers of the coming wrath of which the holy Paul reminds us here, namely the wrath that is to be revealed at the dread judgment. The Apostle holds our thought on that decisive moment, as above with the words: “you also will be revealed in glory,” so here with the words: “the wrath of God is coming”—impressing upon us that whoever does not mortify his passions will not only not appear in glory, but on the contrary, will meet the wrath of God. Then the final reckoning. Even now God’s wrath is at work; but that is temporary, corrective, while this will be decisive, irreversible. The same thought is here with the Apostle as in the Epistle to the Romans in the words: “God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).

The Apostle calls “sons of disobedience” the unbelieving, both from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles, who, seeing, do not see and hearing, do not hear. Whatever one tells them or persuades them with, nothing touches them. A thorough preaching is offered: they do not heed. Signs are added to the word—and this does not persuade them. They are like stone that no tool can work. Wherefore they are called sons of disobedience, απειθειας,—of stubbornness, as though their nature is to be persuaded by nothing, not to wish to be persuaded. The blessed Theophylact writes: “He calls them sons of disobedience, depriving them of all leniency and showing that they remain in passions not out of ignorance, but out of stubbornness, εξ απειθειας,—to which they have so given themselves that they have as it were made it their own nature, having received from it their distinguishing and characteristic marks.‘And something fearful is brought to bear from the words of the Saviour—namely: they do not listen because they are not of the truth; for’everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice” (Jn. 18:37), says the Lord. They are not of the truth, and there is no truth in them, as in him who “was a murderer from the beginning” (Jn. 8:44). There is no truth in them, and truth is not received by them, is not contained in them, finding nothing akin to itself in them. The truth of God walks upon the earth and has faithful witnesses to itself. Whoever sincerely desires will always find it. If there are those who do not find it, it is because they do not seek; and they do not seek because they do not want the truth; they do not want it because they are not of the truth. But there is nothing fateful in this: all is a matter of free will.

In reminding the Colossians of the coming wrath, the Apostle offers them a motive for mortifying the passions. And reminder of God’s benefits is sufficient to keep one from passions and sins, but the presentation of God’s wrath is the mightiest motive of all (holy Chrysostom). “The Apostle deemed it necessary to add the threat of punishment to his persuasions” (blessed Theodoret). Why so? Perhaps by the nature of the passions from which he ordered withdrawal and which he commanded to mortify. Lustful passion and avarice are poorly responsive to the action of remembering God’s benefits. While these passions are not in motion, this remembrance works; but when they are stirred, nothing works so powerfully to bring one to one’s senses as a vivid presentation of the coming wrath of God. And in general, to keep one’s attention fixed on the judgment is the best place for one striving; but it is a uniquely suited place when lustful passion is in motion.

Col. 3:7. In which you also once walked, when you were living in them.

“In these” means in the passions and sins mentioned—you too once walked and acted according to the impulses of passions and habits in sins and vices, when you lived “among them,” among the Gentiles, according to their spirit, rules, and customs. He reminds them of the time preceding their conversion to faith in Christ the Lord, at the same time bringing to mind a comparison—to see how they now feel and how their former state appears to them—how before all was dark in them, unclean, restless, and how now all is bright, clean, peaceful. “Thus also in the Epistle to the Corinthians he said: ‘And some of you used to be like that. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified’” (1 Cor. 6:11) (blessed Theodoret). And these words also made them feel what extreme danger they had escaped by renouncing the works of passion and separating themselves from the Gentiles—namely, the wrath that is coming upon the sons of disobedience. This wrath is about to fall; but it will not touch them, because they have come out of that environment at which this wrath will be directed. Both one and the other—both the reminder of the former dark and present bright state, and the feeling of deliverance from a threatening disaster—represent a powerful motive for withdrawal from the passions which even now disturb those given to them and threaten irreversible disaster in the future. Ambrosiaster writes: The Apostle does not pass over how great a benefit the grace of God in Christ Jesus has brought them, so that, gratefully remembering the avoidance of the wrath about to suddenly come upon the unbelieving of all the earth, they might always show themselves as zealous fulfillers of the commandments of Him through Whom they are so certainly delivered from the second death.

Col. 3:8. But now put off all these things: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

“Now” means after accepting faith in Christ the Saviour and abandoning paganism. “Put away.” You have already put away; for, coming to the baptismal font—the bath of regeneration and rebirth—you said: I renounce Satan and all his works and all his service; by which you accomplished what the holy Paul now commands by the word “put away.” Wherefore this “put away” should be understood in the sense of “keep putting away,” just as the earlier “put to death” is in the sense of “keep mortifying.” In intention, indeed, everything that is required to be put away has already been decisively put away, and the power of grace has been received to keep this putting away in force; but circumstances for actual putting away are not thereby removed, nor is it so that when such a circumstance occurs, it will not require all our attention and the corresponding exercise of strength. The blessed Theophylact writes: “How is this? He just said: ‘When you were living in them,’ showing that now you no longer live so, and suddenly he again says: ‘put away all these things.’ How can they put away what they no longer have? To this one can answer that what was said ‘When you were living in them’ serves to clarify what is now said. For this conveys that once, that is before baptism, sin ruled in you, possessed your whole life, and tyrannized over you, and freedom from passions was impossible for you; but now, when through baptism sin is mortified in you, it has become easy for you to put away passions as one puts off clothes. And you cannot excuse yourselves on the grounds that you live under the tyranny of sin and passions: for you have died to them.”

Why, in arming us against lust, did he say “mortify,” but in preparing us for struggle against irritability, does he say “put away”? The force of the commandment is the same both there and here—to make our nature completely clean from passions, so that not even a trace of them remains within, and they become external to us, like a severed limb or a cast-off garment. But the struggle against them is not the same: struggle against lust is harder, for it seems to have roots in our nature; while struggle against anger is easier to manage, for it is entirely foreign to our nature, in the depths of which lies brotherly and social love. Struggling against the former is as though one were violating and torturing and mortifying oneself; but struggling against the latter, one is only rejecting what is foreign. It suffices only to call forth the consciousness and feeling of common brotherhood, and it will fall away.

“And you.” As all Christians, so you. A Christian is not truly a Christian if he does not keep himself undefiled by passions. Having entered the midst of Christians, keep yourselves too far removed from passions, as formerly, living in the midst of Gentiles, you lived by passions alone. But this is self-evident. Or was there perhaps something else the holy Paul wished to impress by saying “and you”? Is it not conveyed by this that in conversion, when the new man was being built and when the holy resolutions of the will were being formed, grace was acting chiefly, and the will followed it, not by force, but willingly, though with tangible being drawn? But after conversion, when the new man with new principles of life is completely formed, life begins to flow so that the will now leads the way, and grace, though inseparably present and not without a part in the very germination of the will’s movements, follows it, assisting and strengthening? At least one cannot deny that in this sense one can say: “and you.” It is not all grace; you yourselves must labor, must strain your own powers, to put away all passions.

“All these things” seems to point to the already-rejected passions of lust; but following this, in explanation of what “all these things” means, the passions of anger are enumerated. How is this? Perhaps the holy Apostle’s thought is: put away all things—both what has already been mentioned and what follows—all, as you lived and what you occupied yourselves with when you were among the Gentiles, according to the custom of all Gentiles. The Greek word τα παντα, “all,” gives the thought of a specific thing to be put away, which is the passions, all in general, both lusts and angers. Since the former have already been indicated, it remained only to point to the latter.

“Anger, wrath, malice” indicate the degrees of the growth of irritability: “anger” is the first stirring of annoyance—displeasure, indignation, vexation, the stirring of anger—which all stays within the bounds of seeming good sense and is hidden, though not always successfully. “Wrath” is an outburst of anger, not restrained within bounds and manifested in word and deed. But both of these—anger and wrath—are passing. Yet it happens that vexation settles deeply in the heart and, remaining there, plots and devises ways of vengeance, plans to do harm—it becomes malice.

Oecumenius distinguishes “anger” and “wrath” thus: “‘Anger’ is an outburst or vexing kindling of the irritable passion; and ‘wrath’ is, as a result of deep vexation, an irresistible desire to repay those who have wronged one immediately—the soul thirsts for vengeance. One should know that by both these movements men sin repeatedly, either irresistibly rushing at those who have offended them, or waiting with patience for an opportunity for revenge and plotting for that purpose (the latter is malice). All of this, we who have been taught humility must avoid.” And the blessed Theophylact distinguishes malice thus: “By ‘malice’ the Apostle means grudge-bearing, when someone holds malice toward another, so to speak, in order to avenge him.”

“Slander” and “abusive language” manifest in speech the heart’s irritation. Slander, βλασφημια, in relation to God means blasphemy, and in relation to men means evil-speaking, any reproachful speech, abuse, shaming someone by word, and sometimes revealing what has happened with embellishment and misrepresentation, and sometimes making up things based on seeming coincidences. Here the latter is meant. “It is about abusive speech that the Apostle speaks” (blessed Theophylact). “Abusive language” means foul words, abuse with unseemly words, which one overcome by anger cannot hold back.

“From your mouth” put away slander and abusive language. Both of these “defile the mouth, created for the purpose of praising God” (Oecumenius). Your mouths “are sanctified by the reception of the Lord’s body. Therefore it is extremely inappropriate for you to defile these mouths that receive Christ the Lord with evil-speaking and foul language.”