Charles Ellicott Commentary Colossians 3

If you then are risen (or rather, you rose) with Christ.—These words mark the beginning of the spiritual life, evidently referring to baptism . It is a “resurrection with Christ” and in Christ; as such, it is dwelt upon in detail in Romans 6:1-14.

We may note that this phrase, implying a sudden passing from death to life, accords more exactly with the idea of adult baptism, accepted in conscious faith, and leading immediately to a new life. While the later phrase, “regeneration” (Titus 3:5), which speaks of the soul as indeed passing immediately into a new condition but as having only the undeveloped germ of the new life, corresponds more closely with the idea of infant baptism, which gradually superseded the other.

Here, this spiritual resurrection is taken for granted, and the Apostle goes on immediately to the next stage of the spiritual life.

Christ.—The name, repeated four times, has the article prefixed to it in all cases. Evidently, it is used emphatically to refer to our Lord as our Mediator—our Prophet, Priest, and King.

Seek those things which are above . . . set your affection on things above.—Here we have the spiritual life in its continuance. It is described:

1. As seeking the things above—that is, looking, and so growing, to perfection. This characteristic is dwelt upon with great fullness and beauty in Philippians 3:12-16.

2. In a still higher strain, as setting our affection on the things above, or, more properly, catching the spirit of the things above, being “heavenly-minded” already—anticipating heaven, not only in hope, but in tone and temper, seeing things as God sees them, and seeing all in relation to Him. On this we may again compare the great passage in Philippians 3:20-21, on our “citizenship of heaven.” Of such heavenly-mindedness, we have, perhaps, the most perfect specimen in the calm and loving certainty of St. John’s Epistles.

3. These two graces must be united. In the one is the secret of growth, in the other the present earnest of perfection. Moreover, the higher grace must follow from the former; for, where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

Where Christ sits on the right hand of God.—The allusion is emphatic. Heaven is to us, in itself, a vague expression of unknown bliss. It is made definite to the Christian by the thought of Christ in His glorified humanity, there enthroned in majesty, preparing a place for us, and drawing us to be with Him. (Note a similar emphatic reference in Philippians 3:21; and compare Ephesians 2:6, He raised us up, and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.)

This glorious idea of Christ in heaven, and heaven in Christ, runs through the whole book of the Revelation of St. John, from the opening Epistles to the last vision of glory.

On verses 1-4:

As the partaking of the death of Christ taught the negative lesson of death to the Law, so the partaking of His resurrection teaches the positive lesson of the spiritual life. We observe that this celebrated passage occupies a place at the close of the doctrinal portion of the Epistle, exactly corresponding to the even greater passage on the unity of the Church in God in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:1–16).

It is unlike that passage because, summing up the main teaching of this Epistle, it dwells simply on the close personal relation of all souls to God in Jesus Christ, who is at once the image of God, and the one Mediator between God and man.

It is like it (and like other passages of the Epistles of the Captivity) because it passes on from Christ risen to Christ in heaven: it takes for granted our being risen with Christ and bids us in heart to ascend to heaven now and look forward to the bliss of heaven in the hereafter.

You are dead.—Properly, you died. See Colossians 2:20, and Note there. The phrase here is to be taken in its whole sense, both of “death to sin” and “death to the visible world.”

Your life is hid with Christ in God . . . Christ who is our life.—In these two phrases, again, we pass from a lower to a higher expression of the same truth.

1. First, “our life is hid with Christ in God.” The spiritual life in man is a “hidden life,” having its source in God. The full conviction of this life—as distinct from the mere instinctive consciousness of it in the mind itself—comes only from the belief that it is the image of God in us and is sustained by constant communion with Him. If God is our God at all, we must live, for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32). This life is also “hid with Christ.” Our Lord’s ascent to His glory in heaven is at once the pledge and the means of this our spiritual communion with God. It is “with Him” that we can “in heart and mind ascend;” it is “with Him” that we can “continually dwell.”

2. But this is not all. “Christ is our life” now as well as hereafter. This is simply a summary of the two truths: Christ lives in me , as the source of life; and To me to live is Christ (Philippians 1:21), where “to live” denotes the actual condition of life. It is but a brief expression of faith in the truth which our Lord Himself declared, I am the Life; whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die (John 11:25). (Compare to John 14:6.) Hence our spiritual life is not only a being “with Christ;” it is also unity with Christ in the bosom of the Father.

When Christ . . . shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.—This describes the last stage of the spiritual life—the glorification with Christ in heaven, manifesting what now is hidden, and perfecting what exists only in embryonic form. (Compare to 1 John 3:1–2, Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.) This same conclusion ends the corresponding passage in Philippians 3:21.

In all these Epistles we note how constant a reference there is to the “glory of God,” and to the share in it reserved for us. So we also note the particular reference to the “appearance of Christ” in the Pastoral Epistles (see 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13), and the constant revelation of it in the Apocalypse.

The whole passage forms a complete and magnificent picture of the spiritual life in Christ—the means of its beginning, the signs of its presence, and the hope of its close. It may be compared with the fuller yet hardly more complete picture of Romans 8.

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.—The expression is doubly unique. It is the only passage where “mortification”—the killing of anything in us—is commanded; and it is also notable because it does not explicitly distinguish between the members themselves and the evil for which they are used as instruments. The sense is, of course, clear enough. It corresponds to the “crucifying the flesh” of Galatians 5:24; and the idea of evil, mostly expressed plainly in the word “flesh,” is here hinted at in the phrase “which are on the earth,” that is, which are concerned with earthly things and bind us down to the earthly life.

The particular word “members” is perhaps suggested by our Lord’s command to “cut off the right hand” and “pluck out the right eye” if they cause us to offend (Matthew 5:29–30). But, as a rule, Scripture more clearly marks the distinction between the members and “the law of sin in the members” (Romans 7:5; Romans 7:23); and we are usually instructed not to “kill our members,” but to turn them from “instruments of unrighteousness” to be “instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13).

The fact is that this passage contains only half the truth, corresponding to the death with Christ, and not the whole truth, including also the resurrection to the new life. Accordingly, as the next verse shows, the members to be mortified are actually identified with the vices of the old man residing in them.

Fornication, uncleanness . . . covetousness, which is idolatry.—See Ephesians 5:3, and Note there.

Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence.—These words are not found in the parallel passage. The word rendered “inordinate affection” is the general word for “passion” (pathos). It is found united to “concupiscence” in 1 Thessalonians 4:5, “the lust of concupiscence.”

Both words here are general words, denoting the condition of soul, of which “fornication” and “covetousness” are both exemplifications. This is the condition of unrestrained passion and desire, the former word implying a passive receptiveness of impression from without, the other the positive energy of desire to seek gratification. Compare Galatians 5:24, “the affections” (passions) and “lusts.” Concerning such a disposition Article IX. of the Church of England declares with singular accuracy, not that it is sin, but that it has in itself rationem peccati, that is, the initial principle of sin.

On Colossians 3:5-9:

Colossians 3:5–9 contain the negative section of St. Paul’s practical appeal, drawing out the consequences of the “death with Christ,” in the mortification of all tendencies to impurity, malice, and falsehood. For these are the opposites to purity, love, and truth—the three great attributes of God, and therefore the three chief graces of man.

In which you also walked some time, when you lived (were living) in them.—The former condition of heathenism was that in which “they were living,” with contagion of evil on every side. But St. Paul is not content without noting their own active participation—“you walked in them.” (Compare to Ephesians 4:17-20.)