Colossians 3:5-17

2. General Exhortations.

We find here, though in much briefer form, substantially the same exhortations contained in Ephesians 4:17 to Ephesians 5:21. The section may be thus divided:

(1.) Negative precepts, answering to the fact that they died with Christ (Colossians 3:5-11), concerning earthly pleasures and possessions (Colossians 3:5-7), and social relations (Colossians 3:8-11).

(2.) Positive precepts, answering to the fact that they were raised together with Christ (Colossians 3:12-17); the exhortations are: to exercise Christian affection and forbearance, for Christ's sake (Colossians 3:12-14), and to glorify Christ in grateful word and work (Colossians 3:15-17).

While the contrast between the old man and the new (Ephesians 4:17-32) and the motive from the love of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-21) appear here, the arrangement is more logical, and accords with the main theme of the Epistle. In Ephesians the thought of unity in Christ gives greater diversity to the exhortations; here the thought of Christ the one Head seems to arrange the precepts in accord with the fact of having died and rising again with Him.