Colossians 3:1-17 - Exposition

SECTION VII . THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LIFE . The apostle, having delivered his attack on the system of error inculcated at Colossae, now passes from the controversial to the more practical purport of his letter. There is no break, however, in the current of his thought; for throughout this chapter he urges the pursuit of a practical Christian life in a sense and in a manner silently opposed to the tendencies of Gnosticizing error. How much more congenial was the task to which he now addresses himself we may judge, perhaps, from the ease and simplicity which mark the language of this chapter, as compared with the abrupt and seemingly embarrassed style of the last section. We may analyze the hortatory section of the Epistle (Col 3:1-4:6) as follows:

(a) , Colossians 3:1-4 , urging the Colossians to maintain a lofty spiritual life;

(b) verses 5-8, to put off their old vices, impurity, malice, falsehood;

(c) verses 9-14, to put on the new Christian virtues, especially gentleness, forgivingness, love;

(d) verses 15-17, to let the sovereign influence of Christ sway their whole life—inward, social, secular;

(e) verse 18— Colossians 4:1 , enjoining the Christian discharge of their relative duties, as wives and husbands, children and fathers, servants and masters, under the sense of their allegiance to the Lord Christ;

(f) , Colossians 4:2-4 , exhorting to constant prayer, and especially for the apostle himself at the present juncture; and

(g) , Colossians 4:5 , Colossians 4:6 , to wise conduct and edifying speech toward them that are without. It will be seen how much more comprehensive and systematic is the view thus presented of Christian duty than that furnished by earlier Epistles; and how the ideas of the supremacy of Christ, the unity of the Christian brotherhood, and the sacredness of the natural constitution of human life, which were threatened by the rise of Gnosticism in Colossae, underlie the apostle's exposition of Christian ethics. Paragraphs (a) to (d) in the above analysis we have grouped together under the title given to this section; (e) demands a separate treatment; and (f) and (g) will finally be bracketed together.