Colossians 3:7-11

Changing Clothes

Since the Colossian brethren were dead to the world in Christ, Paul said they should put sin out of their lives. Anger and wrath both describe passions aroused when one is insulted or otherwise hurt by someone else's actions or statements. Apparently, one refers to short term and the other sustained anger. Malice is ill will which may result from anger and leads to the desire to injure. Blasphemy means "to speak against". Christians should not slander anyone and especially not God. Filthy language especially describes suggestive stories and cursing which should also be eliminated from the lives of Christians. One can lie by telling something that is not true or failing to tell the truth. That latter deceives people by allowing them to draw false conclusions from what has been left unsaid. Since members of Christ's body have stripped off the old clothing of sin, all these things should be cast out of their newly cleansed lives.

In place of the old clothing of sin, Christ's followers put on the new man in baptism. Their renewing is an ongoing process through growth in knowledge of Christ. The goal is to grow more and more like the Lord and the Father (1 Peter 2:21; John 14:9). The new creature is in Christ where there is no distinction between people. The Jews divided the world into Jew and Gentile, or circumcision and uncircumcision. The Greeks divided it into Greeks and Barbarians, who Weed says, were despised by Jew and Greek. Of course, there was also a social distinction between slaves and free men. All of these distinctions are meaningless in Christ, where the redeemed are many members but one body. Christ loves all categories of people and is in all those people who come to Him for salvation (Colossians 3:7-11).