Colossians 3:8 - Meaning and Application

Just as we must put to death wrong desires, we must also put to death wrong passions (Colossians 3:8). Paul says, “But now you must also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice.” These sins oppose the purpose of the gospel just as much as more obvious impurities do. They are more hidden and inward, but they are no less evil. The gospel changes the higher parts of the soul as well as the lower ones. It strengthens the rule of right reason and conscience over appetite and passion.

Anger and wrath are bad, but malice is worse. It is more deeply rooted and more deliberate, anger that has grown strong and settled in the heart. Since the corrupt roots in the heart must be cut off, so must the fruit they produce in the tongue. That includes blasphemy here, which seems to mean not mainly speaking evil of God, but speaking evil of people, using harmful words about them, spreading bad reports, or damaging their good name by any wicked means. It also includes filthy communication, meaning all shameless and immoral speech. Such talk comes from a dirty mind in the speaker and spreads that same dirt to the hearers.

Paul also names lying: “Do not lie to one another” (Colossians 3:9). Lying goes against both truth and love. It is unfair and unkind, and it naturally destroys trust and friendship among people. Lies make us like the devil, who is the father of lies, and they are a major part of the devil’s image in our souls. So Paul gives this broad reason against the sin: since you have put off the old self with its deeds, and have put on the new self (Colossians 3:10), you must not return to lying. If we have openly turned from sin and joined ourselves to Christ, that should steady us against falsehood.

Those who have put off the old self have put off its works too. Those who have put on the new self must also put on its deeds, not just accept good beliefs, but live them out in a good life. The new self is said to be “renewed in knowledge” because an ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. “Without knowledge the mind cannot be good” (Proverbs 19:2). God’s grace works on the will and the feelings by first renewing the understanding. Light is the first thing in the new creation, just as it was in the first creation.

This new self is renewed “after the image of him who created him.” It was part of human honor in innocence that man was made in God’s image. But that image was damaged and lost by sin, and sanctifying grace, grace that makes us holy, restores it. So a renewed soul is, in some measure, like Adam was on the day he was created.

In the privilege and duty of being made holy, there is no difference between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free (Colossians 3:11). Different nations, social ranks, and life conditions do not change the call to holiness. It is just as much the duty of one person as another to be holy, and just as much the privilege of one person as another to receive God’s grace for it. Christ came to tear down every wall of division, so all may stand on the same level before God, both in duty and in privilege. And the reason is this, Christ is all in all. Christ is the Christian’s all, his only Lord and Savior, and all his hope and happiness. For all who are made holy, whatever else they may be, he is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.