PUT OFF THE OLD MAN

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Colossians 3: 5-11
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

5 Don’t be controlled by your body. Kill every desire for the wrong kind of sex. Don’t be immoral or indecent or have evil thoughts. Don’t be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols.

6 God is angry with people who disobey him by doing[a] these things.

7 And that is exactly what you did, when you lived among people who behaved in this way.

8 But now you must stop doing such things. You must quit being angry, hateful, and evil. You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others.

9 And stop lying to each other. You have given up your old way of life with its habits.

10 Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better.

11 It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not. You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian,[b] and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Kingdom Dynamics

Under the old covenant the Law’s system only allowed limited access to God.  The new covenant no longer poses rules for cleansing, but calls to faith and acceptance of the completed work of Jesus.  We are not to allow anything other than the Word of God to control or judge us.  We are neither judged holy nor unholy by external regulations, but by the condition of our heart.

Set your thinking and affection on Jesus Christ, and build your relationship with Him.  Do not allow worldly pursuits to waste your mental or emotional energy.

3:5 the apostle Paul encourages the Colossians to the shame of sin, the great hindrance to seeking the things which are above. Since it is our duty to set our love upon heavenly things, it is our duty to humble our members which are upon the earth, and which naturally incline us to the things of the world:

“Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them, suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you.”

v  The lusts of the flesh, for which they were before so very outstanding: Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence—the various workings of the carnal appetites and fleshly impurities, which they indulged in their former course of life, and which were so contrary to the Christian state and the heavenly hope.

v  The love of the world: And covetousness, which is idolatry; that is, an inordinate love of present good and outward enjoyments, which proceeds from too high a value in the mind, puts upon too eager a pursuit, hinders the proper use and enjoyment of them, and creates anxious fear and immoderate sorrow for the loss of them. Note, Covetousness is spiritual idolatry: it is the giving of that love and regard to worldly wealth which are due to God only, and carries a greater degree of malignity in it, and is more highly provoking to God, than is commonly thought. Col. 3:6, 7. 1. Because, if we do not kill them, they will kill us: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,

3:6 we are children of disobedience: not only disobedient children, but under the power of sin and naturally prone to disobey. The wicked are estranged from the womb; we go astray as soon as we are born, speaking lies, Ps. 58:3. And, being children of disobedience, we are children of wrath, Eph. 2:3. The wrath of God comes upon all the children of disobedience. Those who do not obey the precepts [guidelines] of the law incur the penalties of it.

3:7 we have walked in by-paths, therefore let us walk in them no more. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more, Job 34:32. The time past our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, 1 Pet. 4:3.—When you lived among those who did such things (so some understand it), then you walked in those evil practices. It is a hard thing to live among those who do the works of darkness and not have fellowship with them, as it is to walk in the mire and contract no soil. Let us keep out of the way of evil-doers.

3:8 as we are to mortify inordinate appetites, so we are to mortify inordinate passions: But now you also put off all these, anger wrath, malice; for these are contrary to the design of the gospel, as well as uncivilized impurities; and, though they are more spiritual wickedness, have not less malignity in them. Anger and wrath are bad, but malice is worse, because it is more rooted and deliberate; it is anger heightened and settled.

3:9 for it is contrary both to the law of truth and the law of love, it is both unjust and unkind, and naturally tends to destroy all faith and friendship among mankind. Lying makes us like the devil (who is the father of lies), and is a prime part of the devil’s image upon our souls; and therefore we are cautioned against this sin by this general reason:

3:10 Seeing that we have now put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, the consideration that we have by profession put away sin and embraced the cause and interest of Christ, that we have renounced all sin and stand engaged to Christ, should fortify us against this sin of lying. Those who have put off the old man have put it off with its deeds; and those of us who have put on the new man must put on all its deeds—not only embrace good principles but act them in a good conversation.

v  The new man is said to be renewed in knowledge, because an ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. Without knowledge the heart cannot be good, Prov. 19:2. The grace of God works upon the WILL and affections by renewing the understanding.  Light is the first thing in the new creation, as it was in the first: after the image of him who created him.

3:11 there is now no difference arising from different country or different condition and circumstance of life: it is as much the duty of the one as of the other to be holy, and as much the privilege of the one as of the other to receive from God the grace to be so. Christ came to take down all partition-walls, that all might stand on the same level before God, both in duty and privilege. And for this reason, because Christ is all in all. Christ is a Christian’s all, his only Lord and Savior, and all his hope and happiness. And to those who are sanctified, one as well as another and whatever they are in other respects, HE is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

In Christ,

Janet Irene Thomas

Playwright/Screen Writer/Director

Published Author/Gospel Lyricist &Producer

FOUNDER/CEO

Bible Stories Theatre of

Fine & Performing Arts

www.biblestoriestheatre.org.