Colossians 3:5

νεκρώσατε οὖν. St Paul here begins the directly “practical” part of his Epistle, but characteristically (cf. Romans 12:1; Ephesians 4:1) joins it to the more doctrinal part by a “therefore.” Life is indeed “hidden,” but it is hereafter to be manifested in its true nature, and must logically be taking effect in the present.

οὖν gathers up the logical result of Colossians 2:20 to Colossians 3:4, with probably special reference to Colossians 3:4 b, the glorious future. It is inconsistent with this future to let sins now live in us.

νεκρώσατε, “put to death.” Cf. Galatians 5:24, and νέκρωσις in 2 Corinthians 4:10.

τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς (Colossians 3:2). Observe, first, “Our bodies and all that pertains to them belong to the earth” (Beet); secondly, our several members which are the instruments of sins are spoken of as independent agents committing sin. Thus the thought is similar to our Lord’s words, Matthew 5:29-30. Compare also Romans 7:5; Romans 7:23.

Of course the death is ethical not physical, but it is the physical limbs that are intended, to which St Paul attributes as it were separate individualities. τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς does not differentiate the kind of members but is a term that excellently suits our members.

There appears to be no reason for thinking that St Paul already refers to the “old man” Colossians 3:9, contrasting the use of the physical limbs for his earthly purposes with their possible use for Christ.

πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. In apposition to τὰ μέλη and giving examples of the way in which the members work if left to themselves. As included under the members, as their effects, these sins are of course to be put to death with them.

Lightfoot puts a colon after γῆς and makes πορνείαν κ.τ.λ. “prospective accusatives which should be governed directly by some such word as ἀπόθεσθε” (Colossians 3:8). It is true that the contrast between ποτέ and νυνί has dislocated the sentence in Colossians 1:21, cf. Colossians 1:26; cf. Ephesians 2:1-5, but in those examples there is no doubt as to the beginning of the sentence, whereas here πορνείαν would be strangely abrupt. In any case surely a much stronger term than ἀπόθεσθε was to be expected with πορνείαν.

πορνείαν, ἀκαθαρσίαν, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν. Transition from the more specific to the more general, in two pairs, the first pair mentioning actions, the second states of mind, πορνεία, fornication, the common sin, not understood to be a sin, of all heathen peoples. ἀκαθαρσία, a general term, including all forms of sexual vice, cf. Ephesians 5:3. πάθος, ungovernable desire, see Trench, Synon. § lxxxvii. ἐποθυμία desire generally, sometimes in a good sense (Philippians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:17), and therefore (because St Paul in this of all Epistles would be the least likely to teach the mortification of all human desires) defined here as κακή. Compare ἐπιθυμίαι σαρκικαί, 1 Peter 2:11; αἱ ἐπιθ. (τοῦ σώματος), Romans 6:12, ἡ ἐπιθ. τῆς σαρκός, 1 John 2:16, and other phrases quoted in Trench, loc. cit.

καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν ἥτις κ.τ.λ. The article is remarkable and its force is uncertain. (1) Blass, Gram. § 46. 8, says that “the additional clause ἥτις κ.τ.λ. entails its use,” and translates “and that principal vice covetousness.” Compare Colossians 3:14, τὴν�. (2) “The particles καὶ τὴν show that a new type of sin is introduced with πλεονεξίαν” (Lightfoot), as in Ephesians 5:3 the same distinction is indicated by the change from καί to ἤ. (3) Perhaps πορνείαν, which as a concrete action does not so easily take the article, determined the anarthrous state of ἀκαθαρσία, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, but with πλεονεξία a new and abstract idea is presented and the article comes readily. (4) Possibly it is nearly parallel to τὰ μέλη the figure of which corresponds well to πορνεία, etc., but not to πλεονεξία (apparently P. Ewald).

In any case it is most improbable that πλεονεξία is regarded as a species of the general term ἐπιθυμία, as Meyer-Haupt proposes.

πλεονεξία. Connected with fleshly lusts in Mark 7:22; Romans 1:29; Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:6; 2 Peter 2:3 (perhaps), 14, and similarly πλεονέκτης in 1 Corinthians 5:10-11; 1 Corinthians 6:10 (perhaps), Ephesians 5:5.

Yet nowhere, as it seems, does it directly bear the sense of impurity, its connexion with this both here and in those passages being probably due to its representing the second of the two most striking aspects of a materialistic aim, viz., sexual sin and the undue desire to possess. Observe that the latter is not necessarily miserliness. πλεονεξία includes all excessive desire to have, whether the object of this be money, or land, or other means of self-gratification.

Lightfoot has many interesting quotations from Jewish and Christian writers on “the cult of wealth.”

ἥτις ἐστὶν, “seeing that it is”; cf. Philippians 1:28. More than a relative, for, by classifying, it adds a reason for the preceding prohibition; cf. Colossians 2:23; Colossians 4:11.

εἰδωλολατρία. By putting the visible before the invisible. For the connexion of idolatry with πλεονεξία cf. 1 Corinthians 5:11, and esp. Ephesians 5:5. The clause reproduces the thought of our Lord’s saying, Matthew 6:24.