Colossians 3:9

Colossians 3:9. Lie not one to another. Comp. Ephesians 4:25. The practice of lying is referred to.

Seeing that ye have put off, etc. This participle (‘having put off') and that in Colossians 3:10 give the motive for the preceding precepts, pointing to a single act (once for all) which occurred in the past. Luther explains the clauses as imperative (so Lightfoot), a view favored by the command in Colossians 3:12; but the former agrees better with the Apostle's habit of thought. Comp. Ephesians 4:22. The figure is that of putting off and putting away a useless garment. Comp. chap. Colossians 2:15.

The old man with his deeds, or, ‘ practices;' the word usually having a bad sense in the New Testament (comp. Romans 8:13). The ‘flesh,' in its ethical sense, is here personified; see on Ephesians 4:22; comp. also Galatians 5:24: ‘the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.'