Colossians 3:9

Lie not Cp. Ephesians 4:25. Entire truthfulness is an essential Christian characteristic, for Christ is "the Truth." In the light of His words and deeds it is certain that nothing untruthful, not even the most "pious" of "frauds," can possibly be holy. The uniform emphasis on truthfulness in the precepts of Scripture is the more significant of the origin of Scripture when we remember the proverbial Oriental laxity about truth. See our note on Ephesians 4:25.

one to another As Christian to Christian (cp. Ephesians 4:25). Not that truth was to be spoken less to heathen or misbeliever; as if fides non servanda esset cum ethnicis, cum hœreticis. But Christian intercourse was to be, so to speak, the nursery-plotfor the right temper in all intercourse.

seeing that ye have put off So R. V. Lightfoot recommends the translation "putting off," taking this as part of the exhortation; as if to say, "put off the old man and lie no more." This is fully allowed by the grammar; but we think that the parallel in Ephesians 4:21-24 (see our notes there) is much in favour of the A. V. and R. V. See further below on Colossians 3:10. In position, possession, idea, they had "taken off" "the old man." In experience, they were to "take off" the related sins.

the old man Elsewhere only Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22 (where see our notes). In Romans it is a thing which "was crucified with Christ." It may be explained as "the old state," the state of the unregenerate son of Adam, guilty under the sentence of the eternal law, and morally the slave of sin. To "take off" the old Man is to quit that position, stepping, in Christ, into the position of acceptance and of spiritual power and liberty. "The old Man" is thus not identical with "the flesh," which is an abiding element (Galatians 5:16-17) in the regenerate, though it need never be the ruling element. The phrases "old Man" and "new Man" have a probable inner reference to the First and Second Adam respectively (Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). The "taking off" and "putting on" here may be explained as meaning, practically, "you broke connexion (of guilt and helplessness) with the First Adam, and formed connexion (of acceptance and of life) with the Second."

with his deeds See Romans 8:13, for the same Greek word; "the practices, machinationsof the body." And cp. Acts 19:18. "The old Man" is, so to speak, the parent of "the deceitfulness of sin" in all its phases; connexion with "the new Man" is the death-blow to it, as the anxious conscience is set at rest, the relation of the believer to God wholly altered, and a spiritual force not his own given to him.