Erasing The Marks Of The Old Life
ERASING THE MARKS OF THE OLD LIFE
COLOSSIANS 3:5-11
We are to discard our old ways of behaving. Why?
Baptism marked a critical moment in the life of a Christian in which they affirmed they had died with respect to their former way of life. Since they had received a Lord, all excuses for disobedience were removed. Paul now builds on this understanding. The action of Christ in removing us from the sphere of death into life (1:13f.; 2:9-14) demands a response in believers. We are to consign to the sphere of death the marks of the old life (3:5,8f.). Paul’s statement “You have died” to the old way of life (2:11f.; Romans 6:3-11), finds its counterpart in the instruction, “Put to death” those signs of the old life which attempt to reassert themselves. The listing of two series of five vices, climaxed by one more 3:5,8,9, [to which correspond five virtues crowned by love, 3:12-14]), may reflect an early catechism which converts were expected to learn.
Immorality and crude self-centeredness indicate that the governing motive of life is pleasure and a pampering of the flesh. Equating this disposition with idolatry (3:5) stems from the enthronement of self in the place of authority which belongs to God alone. Self-deification inevitably dulls ethical sensitivity and always invites the wrath of God (3:6; Romans 1:18ff.). The rescue of people from this degraded condition was the remarkable accomplishment of the Christian mission.
The second list of vices (3:8f.) are those which find expression through speech. Because they display an attitude of bitterness toward others, they are expressions of that self-centeredness which Paul has just denounced.
The basis for Paul’s appeal is the radical transformation of character experienced by every believer. The apostle compares it to the changing of clothes. When a Christian enthrones Jesus Christ as Lord of their life, they exchange the rags of unrighteousness for the robes of Christ’s righteousness (3:9f.; see also Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27). The knowledge which Christians now need is not some secret insight like that offered by the false teachers, but a knowledge which depends only on the inward renewal of their nature by God. This drastic renewal Paul sees as a new creation in which arbitrary distinctions of a racial, religious, cultural or social nature, which set one person over against another, are done away (3:11). When Christ is given preeminence (1:18) people must recognize that no basis exists for anyone to exalt themselves above another or to exploit another for their own advantage.