Colossians 3King James Version
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.
Because believers have died with Christ and their lives are now hidden with him in God, Paul calls them to reorient everything around that reality. Set affections on things above, not on earth. Put to death the old behaviors rooted in self: sexual immorality, greed, anger, malice, and lying. Put on the new self, shaped in the image of the creator, where Christ is all and in all. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and above all, love. Let the peace of Christ rule, and do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Household instructions follow for wives, husbands, children, fathers, and servants.
The resurrection is not a future event you are waiting for. You already died and your life is hidden with Christ. That changes what you wear, how you talk, and how you treat your household.
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (3:2) This is not escapism but a reorientation of desire: when you know where your life actually is, the things that used to dominate your attention lose their grip.
A family in Colossae hears this chapter read aloud and feels the air shift. The husband who has been cold to his wife hears: be not bitter. The father who drives his children hard hears: do not discourage them. The enslaved worker who has been performing compliance without sincerity hears: do it as to the Lord, not to men, and the Lord will reward you directly. None of this restructures the social order overnight, but it puts every relationship under a different ceiling.
Paul, applying the theology of chapters 1-2 to daily life without losing any altitude. The Colossian community in all its social complexity: married couples, parents, children, enslaved workers, and those who own them. Christ, named explicitly as the shared Lord of every role in the household.
Chapter 3 demonstrates Paul's method: doctrine drives practice, not the reverse. The list of vices to shed and virtues to put on reads like two wardrobes, and the image of dressing is deliberate. The household code that follows is striking for its mutuality, each category in the household is addressed, and each relationship is framed as ultimately lived before Christ, not just social convention.
For when old patterns of anger, bitterness, or self-serving behavior keep surfacing even though you know better. Paul does not say try harder. He says you have already put off the old man. The chapter calls you to act in accordance with a change that has already happened, which is a very different kind of invitation.
1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
18Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
19Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
20Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
21Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
22Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
25But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.