Chapter Three
Col. 3:1. Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God;
Col. 3:2. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Having said "having been buried with Him," namely through baptism, and having made clear what is left unsaid, that is, that they also rose with Him (for baptism depicts death through immersion in water, and resurrection through rising from the water), he now also persuades them that if you have risen with Christ, then after this you must be on high, there where He also is, where there are no observances, you must think about heavenly things. For these observances concerning food and days are earthly and bodily and have nothing lofty and spiritual about them, since they are commandments of earthly people. And he was not satisfied with having said "the things above" and "where Christ is," but added "sits at the right hand of God," in order to turn our mind even further away from earthly things.
Col. 3:3. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
From both sides he urges them not to seek the things here below — both from death and from life. You have died, he says, to what is below; therefore you ought not to seek these things. Again, your life, he says, is above; and so mind the things above. The Apostle strives to show that they abide above and live another life, which is in God and invisible to bodily eyes. Christ does not appear; therefore your life has not yet begun in heaven either. So why seek the visible? By this he prepares them to pass immediately to moral teaching. Such is his custom — having taught one thing, he passes to another. So he does, for example, in the Epistle to the Corinthians: speaking of those who were eating ahead at the meal, he suddenly passed to the tradition of the mysteries.
Col. 3:4. When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory.
At the second coming, Christ will appear to all as God, coming in glory, with angels. Now He is so hidden that even His name is condemned. Then you too will appear, and not simply, but "in glory." Therefore seek that day, not this one: strive for that life. For then true life will come for you. The present life is death, since it consists of corruption, of flowing forward and backward. Therefore do not seek honors and glory here; for your glory is there. A pearl is hidden while it is in its shell, but when the shell is broken, it shines in glory. So we too, while we remain in this corruptible body, must live hidenly, shunning glory. But when this corruptible body is destroyed, then our glory will come as well, if we prove worthy of it by our deeds.
Col. 3:5. Therefore, put to death your earthly members:
He did not say "cast off," but "put to death," so that they might no longer rise again. By "earthly members" he probably means our bodily members: if they do not contribute to the acquisition of heavenly things, then they are earthly, but if heavenly things are accomplished through them, then they are no longer earthly, just as we ourselves become, as it were, not of the earth if we neither see nor hear anything evil. Perhaps by "earthly members" are meant the sins committed by our bodily members, which remain on the earth and perish right there, whereas the members of the body, though they are from the earth, will not remain on the earth forever nor decay, but at the resurrection will receive incorruption. But why, having said above that you were buried with Christ and put off the body of the sins of the flesh, does he now say again "put to death"? Because the first putting to death was a gift of baptism, which took away the original sin existing in us; but the putting to death now proposed is a matter also of our own will, consisting in effacing the sins that occur after baptism, and even more in not allowing them to come alive in us at all, cutting off their inception through the putting to death of carnal-mindedness. This is like someone who, having cleaned a tarnished bronze statue and restored its luster, would ask the owner of the statue to more carefully cleanse it of rust — not from the rust he had already removed, but from that which would appear afterward.
Col. 3:5. fornication,
Here he explains what these members are. And first of all he mentions "fornication," because this passion has the greatest power.
Col. 3:5. uncleanness, passion,
He leaves aside speaking in detail about that which it is indecent to say; and by the words "uncleanness" and "passion" he gives a view of all kinds of shameful unions. For indeed passion is a frenzy of the body, like a fever, or a wound, or another disease.
Col. 3:5. evil desire
Here again he spoke generally about everything; for all is evil desire. But there is also a good desire, which expresses the striving toward God and toward divine things, according to which Daniel too was a man of desires (Dan. 9:23).
Col. 3:5. and covetousness, which is idolatry,
The firstborn of evil desire is "covetousness." He called it idolatry, since it is the service of silver and gold. "The idols of the nations are silver and gold" (Ps. 113:12).
Col. 3:6. Because of which the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
The wrath to come often punishes such people even in the present age. He calls them "sons of disobedience," depriving them of all leniency and showing that they remain in their passions not out of ignorance but out of obstinacy (εξ απείθειας), to which they have so given themselves over that they have, as it were, adopted themselves to it, receiving from it their distinctive and characteristic features.
Col. 3:7. In which you also once walked, when you lived among them.
This word is not without praise, because now they no longer live in lusts; but there was a time when they did live so, for they were pagans.
Col. 3:8. But now you also put off all these things:
How is this? He just said: "you once walked," showing by this that they no longer live that way, and suddenly he says again: put off all these things! How can they put off what they no longer have? To this one can answer that the phrase "you once walked" serves for the understanding of what is now being said. For by this it is suggested that "once," that is, before baptism, sin ruled in you, possessed your entire life, and tyrannized over you, and freedom from the passions was impossible for you; but now, when through baptism sin has been put to death in you, it has become easy for you to put off the passions like a garment. And you cannot put forward as an excuse that you live under the power of sin and the passions, for you have died to them.
Col. 3:8. wrath, fury, malice,