THEREFORE:
oun:Therefore
points back to Colossians 3:1-4 where Paul reiterates the believer's
identification with the risen and enthroned Christ. Knowing this is
true about us, we understand that we can and should put to death the
things in our life that are contrary to our identity with Jesus.
Eadie adds that
since such are the peculiarities and prospects of your spiritual
state, act in harmony with them; and since you have died, diffuse the
process of death through all your members. If the heart is dead, let
all the organs which it once vivified and moved die too— nay, put them
to death. Let them be killed from want of nutriment and exercise.
Similar language is found in Ro 8:13 (note), where thanatoute (thanatoo = to kill, put to
death, mortify) is employed; and in Gal. 5:24, where occurs
the modal verb stauroosate (stauroo = crucify)." (Eadie,
John: Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Colossians - Download 377
page Pdf - 1884)
To live this new life in Christ,
Paul begins with 11 sins that in the power of the Spirit and under
grace (not law) need to be "put off" (Col 3:5-11) and follows with ten
positive virtues to be put on (Col 3:12-15). Paul had just emphasized
(see notes
Colossians 2:16-17,
2:18-19,
2:20-23)
what the Colossians were not to do (legalism, mysticism, asceticism).
In Col 3:1-4 Paul then explains summarizes their their new life in
Christ discussed in the first two chapters.
Vine writes that
"This part (Col 3:5-11) is, so to speak, negative in that it teaches
what is to be put to death, what is to be put away, and from what we
are to abstain. The next section (Col 3:12-17 ) gives instruction as
to how to act. Having shown that the present hidden life is yet to be
manifested, the apostle lays it down that these facts, present and
future, are to have an effect in the daily life." (Vine,
W. Collected Writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
When someone restores an old car, it is not enough to simply paint
over the rust. Even if the paint is of highest quality, the rust will
soon reappear and if not quickly treated will destroy the car’s body.
The rust must be removed and rusted parts replaced before the car is
painted.
CONSIDER...AS DEAD: nekrôsate [2PAAM]:
(see
note
Romans 6:6-7;
notes
Romans 6:11,
6:12-14,
Romans 8:12-13;
Gal 5:24;
Ep 5:3-4,5,6
see note
1 Peter 2:11-12,
note
1 Peter 4:2
Lu 21:34,
Acts 15:20,
see note
Romans 13:12;
13:13-14;
2Cor 7:1,
see note
2 Timothy 2:22,
see note
Titus 2:12,
see note
2 Peter 1:3-4,1Jn 2:15,17)
(see
Spurgeon's devotional)
See the in
depth related discussion on
1Thessalonians 4:3
Consider...as
dead (3499) (nekroo)
means literally to put to death, to slay utterly,
to kill, to mortify. In the Latin Vulgate the verb is
mortifico which is related to our English "mortify". Paul's use of
nekroo in this verse is figurative and means to deprive the thing
killed of its power and to destroy its strength.
In
Colossians 2:12
Paul taught the saints that they had
been buried with Him in baptism (speaking of identification with
Christ in His death, burial and resurrection - Paul is not teaching
that water baptism saves), in which you were also raised up with Him
through faith (faith in Christ saved them, not water baptism) in the
working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. (see note
Colossians 2:12)
Now as believers
Paul is saying that we should live in a manner consistent with our
co-crucifixion with Christ and the resulting death we have experienced
to sin (sin's power to rule over us and tell us what to do,
specifically in context to gratify our physical bodies). Our members
(eyes, hands, feet, etc) which in our former fallen state were ruled
by the power of sin which brought forth unrighteousness acts, are now
to be turned into instruments of righteousness to God.
The verb nekroo is
aorist tense which means do it, do it effectively producing a
definite result,
active voice meaning you are to make a choice
of your will to do it and
imperative mood meaning you are to do it without hesitation
because this is not a suggestion but an urgent order from a commanding
general regarding the destruction of a sinister enemy within the camp
that will destroy the power of the forces if given opportunity. The
verb nekroo is placed first in the Greek construction
for emphasis. You can almost hear Paul shouting out "KILL SIN!"
(see discussion of personification of
"the Sin")
Paul
is emphasizing that "slaying" is so important that it calls for immediate
attention and urgent action! Every time you sense these old "former
life" inclinations, as the Nike commercial says "Just do it!"
Slay the evil desires in your body.
Paul is commanding the
Colossians to live a brand new (resurrection) lifestyle
(see note
Romans 6:4). Cut the umbilical cord, the
lifeline of those habits and practices that characterized your life
before Christ. You no longer have to give in to these. You are
liberated and true freedom is not the right to do as you please but
the power to do as you should. You are not only identified with the
death of Christ (see notes
Colossians 2:11;
2:20;
3:3;
3:9)
but with His resurrected life (see note
Colossians 3:1)
The old saints would aptly pray
Resurrection power
Fill me this hour!
Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators
(see
Born to Reproduce), used to
say,
“You are going to be what you are now becoming.”
The choices we
make each day determine the person we will be in the future. And
remember that all biblical exhortations and commands to believers are
based on the blessings and promises they already have from the Lord
and thus mortification is possible because of Colossians 1:1-3:4.
Without the sufficiency that is ours in Christ, we would be unable to
fulfill the commands we receive from Him. What God's law requires,
God's grace provides.
The word mortify
comes from the same Latin word as mortuary—a place where
you put dead people. It means to die. Either we mortify the flesh, or
the flesh will harm us to a point where we have no power, no joy, no
fruit, no usefulness, no victory.
Maclaren likens the action
called for with the verb "mortify" to the picture of a
man who while working at a machine gets his fingers drawn between
rollers or caught in the belting.
"Another minute and he will be
flattened to a shapeless bloody mass. He catches up an axe lying by
and with his own arm hacks off his own hand at the wrist.... It is not
easy nor pleasant, but it is the only alternative to a horrible death”
Paul is painting a very strong picture here, one suggesting that we
are not simply to suppress or control evil acts and attitudes. We are
to wipe them out, completely exterminate the old way of life.
Slay
utterly may express its force. As discussed earlier the form
of the verb (aorist imperative) makes it clear that the action is to
be undertaken decisively and with a sense of urgency. Both the meaning
of the verb and the force of the tense suggest a vigorous, painful act
of personal determination.
Spurgeon
comments...
Since you are dead, let all the
lusts of the flesh be put to death. Kill those. They were once a part
of you. Your nature lusted this way. Mortify them. Do not merely
restrain them and try to keep them under. These things you are to have
nothing to do with.
Kill all these evil things; do not
let them live in you for a single moment. The command applies, not
only to the grosser actions which are summed up under the head of
fornication and uncleanness, but to all that leads to those foul sins;
not only to the fire, but also to the sparks, such as “inordinate
affection,” a sort of softness which is seen in some persons, men and
women, too, and which often leads to something far worse; — and “evil
concupiscence,” the first desires towards that which is unchaste. God
give us grace to kill these loathsome things at once, for if thoughts
of evil are indulged, they soon become acts of evil, and then who
knows how far we may go in the way of unholiness? Sin, if allowed to
grow in the heart, will soon take gigantic strides, and come out in
the life. Depend upon it, whenever a professing Christian goes into
overt sin of the kind mentioned here, he does not do it on a sudden.
The evil has long been festering and fomenting within his heart, or it
would not have manifested itself thus. Oh! if he had only watched, and
destroyed the thief ere he broke open the house, what a mercy it would
have been! You notice that covetousness is put down with the most
filthy sins, and it is described as idolatry. The desire to possess
the goods that belong to others, the lust to get gain at any price,
this is idolatry.
The KJV word mortify implies that sin will not die out of
itself but that we must kill it and death can be a painful process.
Put them to death. Kill them. Take no prisoners. Show no mercy. That's
what Paul is commanding. This is not the self-denial of asceticism but
because we now have a new heart, a new desire, a new power...Christ in
us and we by His Spirit now kill those passions one by one. We are to
show no more mercy to the “old man” than to the “right eye” or the
“right hand” that offends us, for as our Lord Jesus warned...
You have heard that it was said,
'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY'; but I say to you, that everyone who
looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her
already in his heart. (see note
Matthew 5:27-28)
Barnes writes that
Since you are dead to sin and the
world, and are to appear with Christ in the glories of his kingdom,
subdue every carnal and evil propensity of your nature. The word
mortify means to put to death, and the meaning here is that they were
entirely to subdue their evil propensities, so that they would have no
remains of life; that is, they were not at all to indulge them.
Henry
writes
The apostle
exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin, the great
hindrance to seeking the things which are above. Since it is our duty
to set our affections upon heavenly things, it is our duty to mortify
our members which are upon the earth, and which naturally incline us
to the things of the world: “Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious
habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them,
suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all
about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds
you.” - Your members which are upon the earth; either the members of
the body, which are the earthly part of us, and were curiously wrought
in the lower parts of the earth (Ps 139:15), or the corrupt affections of the mind, which lead us to earthly
things, the members of the body of death,
Romans 7:24 note.
Puritan
Richard Baxter wrote,
Use sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you;
it is your murderer, and the murderer of the world: use it, therefore,
as a murderer should be used. Kill it before it kills you; and though
it bring you to the grave, as it did your Head, it shall not be able
to keep you there
No amount of positive talk about health will cure a ruptured appendix.
The doctor will have to “get negative” and take out the appendix. No
amount of lecturing on beauty will produce a garden. The gardener has
to pull weeds!
Centuries ago in England, if a pickpocket was
convicted, his right hand was cut off. If he was convicted a second
time, his left hand was amputated. One pickpocket lost both hands and
yet so strong was the power of sin in him that he continued his
“trade” by using his teeth!
The choice to carry out this slaying is yours (active voice) and thus
it is also your responsibility. Thank God though that Paul teaches in
Philippians that although believers are now given the charge to work
out their "salvation with fear and trembling", they now have
the want to and the power to do so because
"it is God who is at
work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
(see note
Philippians 2:12-13)
Our death to sin is decisive and once for all
(see notes
Romans 6:1ff).
But the living out of this reality involves a daily work of faith,
manifest in the choices we make. We are to live out the reality that
God has worked into us. We have died with Christ to sin.
"Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its
lusts and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as
instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God." (see note
Romans 6:12-13)
Be in practice what you are in
position (in Christ) and by divine act (dead to sin, alive to God in Christ
Jesus). Beloved, don't become discouraged when you fail. You are God's
masterpiece (in Christ), a work in process (sanctification, making you
holy, taking you from glory to glory) and God is able to complete the
work He began in you. And in that future glorious day, you will then
be free of not only the presence of sin but the pleasure of sin.
In
the meantime, Paul is saying we need to be practicing for eternity,
killing all that would corrupt and contaminate the holiness of God.
Paul is not saying make yourself dead, but to make a determined
refusal to submit to the power of sin. Sin is now a choice and a
believer has God's power to refuse to obey it. Paul is saying deprive
your members (physical members so far as they are employed in the
service of sin) of power and strength. "
The ISBE
has an excellent explanation of "mortify" writing that
"The
context (of Col 3:5) goes to the heart of Paul's doctrine of
the
union of the believer with Christ. This union has given
the soul a new (Ed comment: qualitatively new, brand new)
life, flowing (through the Spirit, cf
Ro 8:1-13) from Christ in the
heavenly world, so that the remnants of the old corrupt life-principle
are now dangerous excrescences. Hence, they are to be
destroyed, just as a surgeon removes the remnants of a diseased
condition after the reestablishment of healthy circulation. The
interpreter must guard against weakening Paul's language into some
such phrase as “subdue all that is inconsistent with the highest
ideals,” for Paul views the union with Christ as an intensely real,
quasi-physical relation." (Orr,
J, et al: The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: 1915)
On the opposite side of
"killing" our fleshly desires is to gratify the sensual appetite by
giving it the very food and nourishment by which it lives, thrives,
and is active. The first brings life, the second approach death, for
Paul warns us that
"if (we) are living according to the
flesh, (we) must die; but if by the Spirit (we) are
putting to death the deeds of the body, (we) will live."
(Ro
8:13 see note).
John Piper comments
"Do you hear
what Paul is saying? He is saying: If you justify ongoing sin on the
basis of abounding grace (see note
Romans 6:1-2), if you minimize the
seriousness of sin in the life of a Christian, you don't know what
conversion to Christ means. (2Cor 13:5)
It means death. Death to sin. (see note
Romans 6:11;
6:12-14) Conversion means death -not just decision for Jesus, but
death with Jesus. One great problem in the church today - not the
only one - is that we do not grasp the magnitude and depth and wonder
and miracle of what happens in genuine conversion to Christ. And
therefore we do not know how to live and work and fight for
righteousness as Christians." (Bolding and References added)
The Old Testament account of
Agag
and the
Amalekites
(see exposition of Exodus 17:8-16)
(1Samuel 15)
is a good illustration of how Christians should deal with SIN (by
"sin" I am referring to the evil propensity every human being
inherited from Adam and which leads us all to commit "sins").
Believers should not try to co-exist with SIN for that root problems
that led to the spiritual dark and depressing days of the the Judges.
Again and again in
Judges 1 (see notes) we see the phrase (or a
variant thereof) "they did not drive out the" enemy
(Jebusites, Canaanites, Astherites, etc). Our old sin nature
inherited from Adam is the mortal enemy of believers just as the
Canaanites, et al, were to Israel.
James explains
that SIN (see discussion of personification of
"the Sin")
will "kill" us writing that
"each
one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust
(lust takes it's orders from "SIN", our fallen flesh). Then when
lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin (referring here to sins we commit because we have a "SIN" nature)
and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." (Js 1:14-15)
Saul partially obeyed God’s directive, but Samuel obeyed it to the
letter by killing King Agag. Christians obey God’s command to
mortify sin by living a life in the Spirit ("by the Spirit
you are putting to death the deeds of the body"
Ro 8:13 see note).
SIN
IS LIKE
A BOA CONSTRICTOR!
Are you tolerating
"pet"
sins? If you are, then you need to remember the fate of the man with the "pet boa constrictor".
After 15
years of living with his owner, one day the "pet boa" would not let its "owner" out of its grip
resulting in the owner's tragic death. Wild animals remain wild and so does
Sin.
The
Amalekites are a
perfect illustration of the sin nature (see related discussion on
flesh) that remains in the believer’s life.
That sin nature—already utterly defeated at the cross—must be dealt with
ruthlessly and "hacked to pieces" so to speak or it will revive and
continue to plunder and pillage our heart and sap our spiritual
strength.
One cannot be merciful with his "Agag" or indwelling sin
will turn and try to devour him. In fact, the sin remaining in
Christians often becomes more fiercely determined after the gospel
initially overthrows it. We dare not obey partially or halfheartedly
as we seek to eliminate sin from our lives. We cannot stop while the
task remains incomplete.
Sin, like the Amalekites, has a way of
escaping the slaughter, breeding, reviving, regrouping, and launching
new and unexpected assaults on their victims’ most vulnerable areas.
Saul's disobedience proved very costly, Samuel declaring
"Has the
LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying
the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And
to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of
divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from
being king." (1Sa 15:22-23).
John MacArthur
writes that
Mortification is the believer's responsibility and includes such
responsibilities as abstaining from fleshly lusts, making no provision
for the flesh, fixing one's heart on Christ, meditating on God's Word,
praying incessantly, exercising self-control, and being filled with
the Spirit (Ed note: I would add confessing our sins 1John 1:9). Covering up sin,
internalizing it, exchanging it for another sin, or merely repressing
it do not equate to sin's mortification. Continuously and
uncompromisingly removing sin resulting in a conscience free from
guilt is what the process entails.
Puritan John Owen gives us a
wise warning writing that
"Mortification abates [sin's]
force, but doth not change its nature. Grace changes the nature of
man, but nothing can change the nature of sin... Destroyed it may be,
it shall be, but cured it cannot be...If it be not overcome and
destroyed, it will overcome and destroy the soul. And herein lies no
small part of its power...It is never quiet, [whether it is]
conquering [or] conquered. Do you mortify; do you make it your
daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this
work; be killing sin or it will be killing you."
In John Owen's
classic work
Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers)
he adds these pithy thoughts...
Every unmortified sin will
certainly do two things:-- [1.] It will weaken the soul, and deprive
it of its vigour. [2.] It will darken the
soul, and deprive it of its comfort and peace.
[1.] It weakens the soul, and deprives it of its strength. When
David had for a while harboured an unmortified lust in his heart, it
broke all his bones, and left him no spiritual strength; hence he
complained that he was sick, weak, wounded, faint. "There is," saith
he, "no soundness in me," Ps 38:3; "I am feeble and sore broken,"
verse 8; "yea, I cannot so much as look up," Ps. 40:12. An unmortified
lust will drink up the spirit, and all the vigour of the soul, and
weaken it for all duties. For, --
1st. It untunes and unframes the heart itself, by entangling its
affections. It diverts the heart from the spiritual frame that is
required for vigorous communion with God; it lays hold on the
affections, rendering its object beloved and desirable, so expelling
the love of the Father, 1 John 2:15, 3:17; so that the soul cannot say
uprightly and truly to God, "Thou art my portion," (Ps 119:57) having
something else that it loves. Fear, desire, hope, which are the choice
affections of the soul, that should be full of God, will be one way or
other entangled with it.
2dly. It fills the thoughts with contrivances about it.
Thoughts are the great purveyors of the soul to bring in provision to
satisfy its affections; and if sin remain unmortified in the heart,
they must ever and anon be making provision for the flesh, to fulfil
the lusts thereof. They must glaze, adorn, and dress the objects of
the flesh, and bring them home to give satisfaction; and this they are
able to do, in the service of a defiled imagination, beyond all
expression.
3dly. It breaks out and actually hinders duty. The ambitious
man must be studying, and the worldling must be working or contriving,
and the sensual, vain person providing himself for vanity, when they
should be engaged in the worship of God.
Were this my present business, to set forth the breaches, ruin,
weakness, desolations, that one unmortified lust will bring upon a
soul, this discourse must be extended much beyond my intendment.
[2.] As sin weakens, so it darkens the soul. It is a cloud, a
thick cloud, that spreads itself over the face of the soul, and
intercepts all the beams of God's love and favour. It takes away all
sense of the privilege of our adoption; and if the soul begins to
gather up thoughts of consolation, sin quickly scatters them: of which
afterward.
Now, in this regard doth the vigour and power of our spiritual life
depend on our mortification: It is the only means of the removal of
that which will allow us neither the one nor the other. Men that are
sick and wounded under the power of lust make many applications for
help; they cry to God when the perplexity of their thoughts overwhelms
them, even to God do they cry, but are not delivered; in vain do they
use many remedies, -- " they shall not be healed." So, Hos 5:13,
"Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound," and attempted sundry
remedies: nothing will do until they come (Hos 5:15) to "acknowledge
their offence." Men may see their sickness and wounds, but yet, if
they make not due applications, their cure will not be effected.
(2.) Mortification prunes all the graces of God, and makes room for
them in our hearts to grow. The life and vigour of our spiritual
lives consists in the vigour and flourishing of the plants of grace in
our hearts. Now, as you may see in a garden, let there be a precious
herb planted, and let the ground be untilled, and weeds grow about it,
perhaps it will live still, but be a poor, withering, unuseful thing.
You must look and search for it, and sometimes can scarce find it; and
when you do, you can scarce know it, whether it be the plant you look
for or no; and suppose it be, you can make no use of it at all. When,
let another of the same kind be set in the ground, naturally as barren
and bad as the other, but let it be well weeded, and every thing that
is noxious and hurtful removed from it, -- it flourishes and thrives;
you may see it at first look into the garden, and have it for your use
when you please. So it is with the graces of the Spirit that are
planted in our hearts. That is true; they are still, they abide in a
heart where there is some neglect of mortification; but they are ready
to die, Rev 3:2, they are withering and decaying. The heart is like
the sluggard's field, -- so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce
see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith, love, and zeal,
and scarce be able to find any; and if he do discover that these
graces are there yet alive and sincere, yet they are so weak, so
clogged with lusts, that they are of very little use; they remain,
indeed, but are ready to die. But now let the heart be cleansed by
mortification, the weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up (as
they spring daily, nature being their proper soil), let room be made
for grace to thrive and flourish, -- how will every grace act its
part, and be ready for every use and purpose!
(3.) As to our peace; as there is nothing that hath any evidence of
sincerity without it, so I know nothing that hath such an evidence of
sincerity in it; -- which is no small foundation of our peace.
Mortification is the soul's vigorous opposition to self, wherein
sincerity is most evident. (Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers)
KILL THE
SPIDER
Have you heard about the man
whose bad habit was hindering his fellowship with God and hurting his
Christian testimony? He said he prayed that God would forgive him for
his addiction—but he didn't stop! He is like the man who often went
forward at the end of church services to kneel and pray,
"Lord, take the cobwebs out of my life."
One Sunday
morning his pastor, tired of hearing the same old prayer, knelt beside
him and cried out,
"Lord, kill the spider!"
Yes, sometimes
it takes radical action to break a sinful habit. We need to do more
than ask God for cleansing each time we succumb to temptation. We must
take whatever steps are needed to get the cobwebs out of our life. We
must confess our sin and determine to be done with it. Then we must
feed our mind with God's Word and do all we can to stay away from the
people and places that tempt us to sin. That's what Christ meant when
He said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out" (see
note
Matthew 5:29).
Kill the spider and you'll get rid of the cobwebs. Remember that
admitting sin is no substitute for quitting sin.
|
It's not
enough to say to God,
"I'm sorry, I repent,"
And then go on from day to day
The way I always went. —Anon. |
THE MEMBERS
OF YOUR EARTHLY BODY AS DEAD: ta mele ta epi tes ges:
(Ro 6:13;
7:5;23,
Js 4:1,
Mt 5:29,30,
18:8,v9,
1Co 9:27)
"the evil desire lurking
in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you
that is employed in sin]" (Amp)
Members
(3196) (melos
