Colossians 3:5-17

Leader Guide

Participant Guide

Lesson Focus

Paul encourages us to take off everything that keeps us from becoming like Christ. He encourages us to clothe ourselves with love.

Lesson Outcomes

Through this lesson, students should:

• Understand that Christ has already begun to strip away our selfish desires.

• Be called to clothe ourselves in love.

• Be encouraged to seek the mind of Christ with the help of our community of faith.

Catching up on the Story

Paul is continuing his transition from doctrinal statements to practical implications of those doctrinal statements. He insists that the Colossians, who are in/with Christ, take on a very different mindset than others who would have them seeking their gain through initiation rites aimed had higher spiritual experiences. Contrary to what the Colossians have been led to believe, they have already gained all the knowledge and closeness to God that can be achieved because they are in and with Christ through his cross and resurrection. Therefore, they are to seek after (attain, not discover) the mind of Christ so they can live as if they have been crucified and resurrected with Christ.

Paul is bringing things home. The doctrinal statements of the previous chapters are now brought to bear regarding ethical implications. “Because of this…not this” seems to be Paul’s movement. Picking up themes from the previous passages, Paul is encouraging the Colossians to “put to death” and “strip off” the things and practices that are incompatible with being in/with Christ. He then encourages them to “clothe yourself” with a list of items, the most important of which is love.

Therefore…

Paul begins this section with another “therefore” preceded by the injunction to “put to death” whatever is earthly in nature. Paul is making the connection that because the Colossians are now in and with Christ, they must cooperate with Christ in allowing certain things to be put to death and stripping off any nature which does not belong to Christ.

“Throughout this section, Paul uses the language of putting off and putting on, perhaps drawing from the early Christian baptismal ceremony, where one would put off one’s clothes, be baptized, and then put on a new robe as a symbol of new life in Christ” (Witherington, 176).⁠

After Paul enjoins the Colossians to “put to death whatever in you is earthly,” he outlines exactly what that means in the form of a vice list: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). This list deals with things that are primarily sexual in nature, but the force of the list is not limited to the sexual realm.

Instead, the list denotes a catalog of self-indulgent things marked by a lack of self-control. Witherington says, “The last vice listed in this verse is ‘selfish greed,’ covetousness, acquisitiveness which is idolatry (see Eph. 5:5). The root of all sin is ultimately selfish orientation in life. Self-centeredness is called idolatry in early Jewish and Christian contexts because it amounts to a form of self-worship, as opposed to giving God his due” (Witherington, 177).⁠ The selfish, self-indulgent lifestyle, Paul states, will bring about the wrath of God because it is directly contrary to the way of Christ (cf. Luke 4:1-12).

Now, says Paul, you have been crucified and raised to new life in Christ, you have been circumcised with a circumcision not done with human hands, you have had the elemental force of the world stripped off you and thrown away. Living according to selfish desires and the “elemental spirits of the world” is not who and what you are now. It is what you used to be.

To the first list of vices, Paul adds a second. While the first list had to do with selfishness and self-indulgence, this second list has more to do with how one treats others, particularly in speech. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth, must be stripped off. Once again, we have reoccurring imagery of things being cut away or removed and thrown away.

One has died with Christ and has been and is in the process of being made new. Therefore, behaviors that wound others have no place. “The danger is not so much that a member of the listening audience might become the old self again, but that one might sometimes act or have attitudes like the old self. Paul thinks the hearer has a choice about this matter precisely because he is no longer that old person captive in the bondage of sin. He or she is a new person who, paradoxically, is being renewed according to the image of the one who created him or her….The Christian is not viewed as both the old and the new person simultaneously but as solely the new person, though he or she may sometimes act and feel like the old person he or she once was” (Witherington, 178).⁠

The renewal that has happened due to being in and with Christ (verse 11) creates a new order where previous boundaries between race and gender are wiped out because Christ is all and in all. Any weight the false teachers in the Colossian church might have put on extreme ethics or even higher levels of spiritual enlightenment have no value. Since we are all now bound with Christ, we are all on equal footing. “These distinctions no longer have any soteriological weight. And since such distinctions have been radically relativized in Christ, they should not be the basis of any sort of hierarchy or pecking order in the church” (Witherington, 179.⁠

Verse 12 begins a new subsection within verses 5-17. The section is the opposite of the previous verses. Instead of a list of vices, we find a list of virtues to be donned like a new set of clothes. Whereas the first list of vises in verse 5 has to do with the self-indulgent, selfish lifestyle and attitude, verse 12 is the direct opposite. Paul encourages the Colossians to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. These are the ways and practices of Christ, not the world.

These virtues are not just virtues those who are in and with Christ should exhibit but are also the acts of God in Christ. In short, they are the ways and character of Christ, and they must replace what has been stripped off the believer in Baptism.

After Paul offers this initial list of qualities with which Christians must be clothed, he provides a few more. He insists that the Colossians must “endure, bear with and tolerate” and forgive anyone in their fellowship with whom they might quarrel or disagree. Paul makes this imperative even more forceful when he insists that for one to be forgiven, one must forgive. God has forgiven you. Your response is to forgive as Christ has forgiven.

Working with the imagery that Paul has been using, we understand what is sinful, that which is selfish and self-indulgent, must be stripped off. This is, of course, so that new clothes might be worn. These new clothes are the virtues found in verses 12 and following. Toleration and forgiveness of sinners are part of that clothing.

Finally, Paul declares that love must be worn like a coat over all these clothes the Colossians must put on Love is the item that ties the whole outfit together in harmony.

It is important to note here that the harmony of which Paul speaks is communal in nature. It isn’t harmony within oneself but between members of the body of which Christ is the head. This harmony cannot be achieved without the peace of Christ, which Paul says must rule in our hearts. “Rule” hear means to judge and exercise complete control. Set in the context of the sentence, the peace of Christ must exercise control over all the Colossian church’s interactions.

Paul rounds out this section with a call to worship in a distinctly and utterly Christian way. Here the call to worship includes an admonishment to allow the Word of Christ to dwell deep inside each person. Christ’s dwelling is not limited to the individual. Paul insists that if the church is to move forward, Christ must dwell among them as a community of faith. The call to worship also includes the admonition to teach each other, rebuke and correct each other, and sing praises and psalms to God.

It is possible that these psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs were not only a way of differentiating between true worship of God (God is the only one to be worshiped, not angels) and a form of instruction. Hymns and songs have a tremendous ability to convey theology.

Finally, Paul enjoins the Colossians in everything they do in the name of Christ. That is, every action, word, and thought must carry with it the mind of Christ. When you do something in someone else's name, you insinuate that the person approves of your actions. The Colossians must do what it is that Christ approves of. They start by putting on a new set of clothes. As the Colossians do everything in the name of Christ, they are to constantly give thanks for all that they have.

So What…?

The question is then, what set of clothing are you wearing? Are you wearing what should have been, indeed, has already been stripped off in the death and resurrection of Christ? Or have you put on the new set with its care and compassion for others?

This raises another question; how do we put this new set of clothes on? Paul gives us a partial answer here in his Letter to the Colossians. First, we can be changed through the power of Christ, through his death, resurrection, and ascension.

Second, we can be changed by allowing Christ to be the head of our body –our body and the body of believers.

Third, by seeking after the mind of Christ, not because we don’t know where it is, but because we need to be like Christ. We need to seek after being like Christ.

Fourth, we must ingest and digest God’s word, the words of life and transformation individually and as a body of believers.

Fifth, we must actively be engaged in the lives of our brothers and sisters, teaching them, being taught by them, and allowing them to speak prophetically into our lives and vice versa.

Finally, we must gather for worship together, ensuring that all the things we do, we do in the name of Christ –as if he would approve of the things we do.

Discussion Questions

Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.

1. In verse 5, Paul tells us to “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry.” What does Paul mean when he tells us to put those things to death?

2. Is Paul’s life comprehensive? What common trait does each of these characteristics share? What other items could we add to the list?

3. In verse 7, Paul identifies the list of items from verse 5 as the things the Colossians did when they lived “that life.” What does Paul mean?

4. Paul shares a second list of vices in verse 8. How is this list different than the one in verse 5?

5. What is the dominant image Paul is using in verses nine and following?

6. In verse 11, Paul states that because of what Christ is doing in us, there is no longer Greek or Jew. What does Paul mean by that? What might this say about the differences we see between different ethnic/racial groups? How might this statement change our thinking and our behavior?

7. In verse 12, Paul tells us to clothe ourselves in compassion, kindness, and humility. What do those virtues have in common? What does Paul mean when he says we must put on love over all those things?

8. What does it mean to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts?

9. Is Paul mainly talking to individuals, or is Paul speaking to the gathered body of believers? Justify your answer.

Works Cited

Witherington III, Ben. The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Captivity Epistles (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007).