Colossians 3:1–11 tells us something simple and bracing: if you’re in Christ, you already have everything you need. So fix your mind where He is, kill what’s killing you, and put on the new self. Paul starts with identity. “Since you’ve been raised with Christ,” set your mind on things above (vv. 1–4). Your old self died; your real life is hidden with Christ and will be revealed in glory. The Colossians were being sold Jesus plus, special knowledge, angel talk, borrowed ceremonies, anything that felt advanced. Paul shuts that down. Christ is preeminent. In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You don’t rummage through the trash heap of false religion when the treasure chest is already open. You don’t move on from Jesus; you learn to walk in Him. That reality changes your mentality. Heads up, eyes on the finish, not face-down drift.
From there Paul gets blunt: “Put to death what is earthly in you” (vv. 5–9a). This is not behavior management; it’s execution. Be killing sin or it will be killing you. He names the usual culprits: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (idolatry). Sex is a fire that warms the house in the fireplace of marriage (one man, one woman, covenant for life) and burns the house down everywhere else. Impurity is wasteful indulgence. “Passion” here is the kind of ungoverned desire that drags you around. “Evil desire” is wanting what God forbids. Coveting can even target a good thing that simply isn’t yours. Don’t baptize disordered desires; mortify them.
He then turns to the sins we excuse as “just my personality”: anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy talk, and lies. Anger simmers; wrath erupts; malice wants others to hurt. Slander and foul talk corrode everyone near you. Low language leads to low living. And lying? Half-truths are whole lies. God hates lying. If people have to tiptoe around your temper or your tongue, that’s not a quirk; it’s sin to repent of.
None of this is legalism. Sanctification is a work of God’s free grace (WSC 35). Justification changes your status; sanctification changes your nature. In Christ you can make real progress. “Such were some of you,” past tense, “but you were washed” (1 Cor. 6:11). If you’re fighting, that’s a sign of life. Sometimes remaining corruption surges; keep swinging. The Spirit supplies strength, and the regenerate heart does overcome.
Paul’s positive vision is equally clear: you’ve “put off the old self” and “put on the new,” and that new self is “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator” (vv. 9–10). This isn’t self-help. It’s the Spirit conforming you to Christ, teaching you to recognize and do God’s will. In this new humanity the old status games die: Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; none of that gives anyone an inside track with God. “Christ is all, and in all” (v. 11).
So what now? Start where your feet are. Name one sin that’s trying to own you and make a concrete plan to starve it—remove the fuel, set real guardrails, and tell a brother who will actually ask you how it’s going. Set your mind above before you stare at a screen: open the Word and pray Colossians 3:1–4 back to God. Clean up your speech; refuse slander, dirty talk, and lies, and if you slip, repent fast and make it right. Then practice the new self on purpose: choose one Christlike habit—gratitude at meals, patience under pressure, truth-telling when it costs—and do it daily.
Christ is your life. Your destiny is glory. Live like where you’re headed.
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