Colossians 3:7

In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. WALKED SOMETIME - `once.' WHEN YE LIVED IN THEM - as in your very element (before ye became once for all dead with Christ to them): no wonder, then, that ye "walked" in them. Contrast 'living in the Spirit,' and its consequence, 'walking in the Spirit' (). The living comes first; the walking follows....

7._In which ye walked. _Erasmus mistakingly refers this to men, rendering it, “_inter quos _,” (“among _whom_, ”) for there can be no doubt that Paul had in view the vices, in which he, says that the Colossians had walked, during the time that they lived in them. For _living _and _walking _differ from each other, as power does from action. _Living _holds the first place: _walking _comes afterwards, as in Galatians 5:25, If ye live in the SPIRIT, WALK also in the Spirit. By these words he intimates, that it were an unseemly thing that they should addict themselves any more to the vices, to which they had died through Christ. See the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. It is an argument from a withdrawment of the cause to a withdrawment of the effect....

5-11 It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carnal indulgences. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, because Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope...

Verse 7. _IN THE WHICH YE ALSO WALKED SOMETIME_] When ye were in your unconverted state, ye served divers lusts and pleasures. Romans 7:5, Romans 7:5, and _"_Ephesians 2:2_"_....

IN THE WHICH - In all which evil passions. YE ALSO WALKED SOMETIME - You formerly lived. These were the common vices of the pagan; Ephesians 5:8, note; 1 Corinthians 6:10, notes; compare Romans 1:24, notes....

EXPOSITION COLOSSIANS 3:1 SECTION VII. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LIFE. The apostle, having delivered his attack on the system of error inculcated at Colossae, now passes from the controversial to the more practical purport of his letter. There is no break, however, in the current of his thought; for throughout this chapter he urges the pursuit of a practical Christian life in a sense and in a manner silently opposed to the tendencies of Gnosticizing error. How much more congenial was the task to which he now addresses himself we may judge, perhaps, from the ease and simplicity which mark the language of this chapter, as compared with the abrupt and seemingly embarrassed style of the last section. We may analyze the hortatory section of the Epistle ...

IN THE WHICH YE ALSO WALKED SOME TIME,.... Either in or among the children of disobedience, 1 Thessalonians 3:6, or rather in the afore mentioned sins, 1 Thessalonians 3:5. Sin is a road or path, in which sinners walk a way of their own, or of their own choosing and approving, though a dark and crooked one, and which leads to destruction: walking herein denotes a continued series of sinning, a persisting in it, a progress therein, a proceeding from evil to evil, taking pleasure, and going on securely in it; and which is the case and state of God's elect before conversion, which is a turning of them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and out of the ways of sin, into the paths of righteousness, when the course of their walk, of their lives and conversations, is alt

Colossians 3:1. _If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God._ Your Lord and Master has gone up to heaven. You profess that he represents you, and that you have gone up there in him and with him. Then do not seek the things that are down here below, the things of earth; but live where your life has gone. Where your treasure is, there let your heart be also. «Seek those things which are above.» Colossians 3:2. _Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead,_ You profess to be dead to the world; is that profession false? You have observed that Scriptural ordinance in which you profess to be buried with Christ; was that observance only an empty form?...

III. THE PRACTICAL RESULTS: LIVING AS RISEN WITH CHRIST (3-4) CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The life hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1)_ 2. The contrast: The old man and the new man (Colossians 3:5) 3. Manifesting Christ (Colossians 3:12) 4. Relationships (Colossians 3:18; Colossians 4:1) Colossians 3:1 Risen with Christ; such is the believer's position. “Ye are dead and your life is hid with Chri

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE RISEN WITH CHRIST. Those who are risen with Christ must aspire to the things above, in the region of Christ's heavenly session at God's right hand. Their minds must be set, not on terrestrial things, but on things high and heavenly. So far as their old life was concerned they died (_i.e._ in baptism); their life now is a hidden life in God. That is what it means to be united with Christ (Colossians 3:3). It is Christ who is our life. Hidden though He be, He shall be manifested at His coming: and His manifestation will involve our manifestation also with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4). Put to death then the members on the earth fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, covetousness. These things incur God's wrath. The Colossians had formerly practised them; but they must now,