Thomas Aquinas Commentary Colossians 3:1-7

"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, [who is] our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things` sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things;" — Colossians 3:1-7 (ASV)

Previously, the Apostle warned the faithful about those who wished to deceive them; here he teaches them to avoid evil habits. First, he gives his teaching in a general way, and secondly, he presents it in more detail (Colossians 3:18).

Regarding the first point, he does two things. First, he teaches them to have a right intention concerning their ultimate end; second, he instructs them about the rightness of their human actions (Colossians 3:5).

The first of these is divided into two parts. First, he gives the main idea of his teaching, seek the things that are above; and secondly, he gives the reason they should do so: for you have died. In developing this first point, he again does two things: first, he mentions the benefit they have received, and second, he draws his conclusion, set your minds on things that are above.

The benefit we have received is that, with the resurrection of Christ, we also have risen. We have risen in two ways. First, through a hope for our bodily resurrection: Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (1 Corinthians 15:12). Second, with the resurrection of Christ we are restored to the life of righteousness: He was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). Paul is saying, in effect: When Christ arose, you also arose. As we read in 2 Corinthians 4:14, He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.

Then, when he says, set your minds on things that are above, he draws his conclusion about our ultimate end: first, that a person should aim at a primary goal, and second, that he should judge all other things in light of that goal.

Paul says, therefore, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. This echoes Matthew 6:33: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. For this is our ultimate end: One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Psalms 27:4). Therefore, seek this, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. This is affirmed in Scripture: So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19); Sit at my right hand (Psalms 110:1).

By “the right hand of God,” he does not mean a physical body part but is speaking figuratively, for a person’s right hand is the stronger one. Christ sits at the right hand of the Father because, as man, he shares in the stronger and better goods of the Father, while as God, Christ is equal to the Father. Consequently, your intention should be this: that just as Christ died, rose, and was taken up to sit at the right hand of God, so you should die to sin in order to live a life of righteousness and so be taken up into glory.

Alternatively, we could say that we rose through Christ; but he is seated at the right hand of God, and so our desire should be to be with him. As it is written, Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together (Matthew 24:28), and, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21).

Furthermore, we should judge other things in the light of Christ. And so Paul says, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Here he is affirming one way of life and rejecting another. A person sets his mind on things that are above when he governs his life according to heavenly ideas and judges all things by them, possessing the wisdom from above (James 3:17). A person sets his mind on things that are on earth when he orders and judges all things according to earthly goods, considering them the highest goods: They glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things (Philippians 3:19).

When Paul continues, for you have died, he gives the reason for his advice. First, he mentions their death; secondly, their hidden life (Colossians 3:3b); and thirdly, he teaches when this life will be revealed (Colossians 3:4).

Just before, Paul had rejected one way of life and affirmed another. Now he returns to these two ways. Regarding the first, he says: Do not set your minds on earthly things, because you have died to an earthly way of life. A person who has died to this kind of life does not set his mind on the things of this world. This is how you should act if you have died with Christ to the elements of this world: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11); They are dead, they will not live (Isaiah 26:14). When he said in Romans, “consider yourselves dead,” he followed this with, “and alive.”

And so there is another life which is hidden. Thus Paul also says here, and your life is hid with Christ in God. We acquire this life through Christ: For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). But because this life is obtained through Christ, and Christ is hidden from us because he is in the glory of the Father, this life which is given to us through him is also hidden where Christ is, in the glory of the Father. As it is written, Long life is in his right hand; in his left hand are riches and honor (Proverbs 3:16); O how abundant is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you (Psalms 31:19); To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna (Revelation 2:17).

When he says, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory, he shows that this life will be manifested just as Christ’s was. For we read, Our God comes (Psalms 50:3). And so Paul says, when Christ who is our life appears, because he is the Author of our life, and because our life consists in knowing and loving him: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20). When Christ appears, then you also will appear, for when he appears we shall be like him (1 John 3:2), that is, in glory: God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran (Habakkuk 3:3).

Next (Colossians 3:5), Paul brings order to their actions: first, by restraining them from sin, and second, by teaching them about good habits (Colossians 3:12).

Regarding the first point, he does two things: first, he starts with a warning, and second, he explains it (Colossians 3:9b). This warning is divided into two parts: first, he forbids carnal vices, and second, he gives his reason (Colossians 3:6). Concerning the prohibition of carnal vices, he again does two things: first, he lays down a general prohibition, and second, he goes into detail about it (Colossians 3:5).

He says, put to death therefore [your members that are on earth]. You ought not to set your minds on things that are on earth, but put to death whatever is earthly, and in particular, your members that are on earth. We can explain this with a comparison: our life involves many actions, just as our body contains many members. In a good life, prudence is like the eye, which directs a person, and courage is like the feet, which support and carry him. But in an evil life, craftiness becomes the eye, and obstinacy becomes the feet. Therefore, these members must be put to death.

Alternatively, we could say that in reference to the members of the body, he had said, you have died (Colossians 3:3), that is, to an earthly way of life. But how is this death accomplished? He answers: put to death your members. Thus, to the extent we have died to sin, to that extent we are alive with grace. For the life of grace heals us with respect to our mind, but not entirely as to our body, because it retains a tendency to sin. As Paul says, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin (Romans 7:25). A little before this, he said, I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members (Romans 7:23).

Therefore, because you have died as far as your mind is concerned, put to death the sinful desires in your members that are on earth, insofar as they are earthly bodies. As Paul says, I pommel my body and subdue it (1 Corinthians 9:27), by not allowing it to be drawn to carnal things.

Now he mentions particular sins: first, those that are purely carnal, and second, those that are partly carnal. Among the carnal sins, we are inclined to lust especially by concupiscence. Lustful actions are shameful, and although they may accord with human nature as animal, they are not fitting to it as rational, because every sin is opposed to reason. And so Paul says, immorality: Beware, my son, of all immorality . Or, a sin can be against nature, and so he says, impurity. Again, pleasure might be impure, and so he says, passion; and desire can be depraved, and so he says, evil desire.

Secondly, he lists the intermediate sins. The first of these is covetousness, whose object is something physical—that is, money—but it is completed in a spiritual delight, namely, in its ownership. Thus it has some part among the carnal sins. Paul adds, which is idolatry, just as Ephesians 5:5 says, one who is covetous (that is, an idolater).

But is covetousness by its nature really a kind of idolatry, and does a covetous person sin as an idolater sins? I say, not specifically, but by resemblance, because a covetous person puts his very life in money. We have idolatry when someone gives to an image the honor owed to God; a covetous person gives to money the honor owed to God, because he builds his whole life around it. But because the covetous person's action toward money only resembles an idolater's action toward an idol, it is a lesser sin.

Then when Paul says, on account of these the wrath of God is coming, he gives the reason why these sins should be avoided. There are two reasons: the first applies to all, and the second applies especially to them.

The first reason is God’s punishment. On account of carnal sins, the wrath of God—that is, God’s punishment—is coming [upon the children of despair], that is, sinners. Such sinners despair of God because lust is the offspring of despair, since many people abandon themselves entirely to things of the flesh because they have despaired of spiritual things. Or, he says “children of despair” because, left to themselves, there is no hope for their correction. And so the wrath of God is coming, as it did in the flood (Genesis 6-7) and on the people of Sodom.

The other reason they have for avoiding these sins is that they once lived that way. And so Paul says, in these you once walked, going from bad to worse. He gives them this reason, first, because of what Peter says: Let the time that is past suffice for doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry (1 Peter 4:3). Secondly, he mentions this reason because they knew from their own experience that such conduct is not beneficial but only brings disorder, as we read in Romans 6:21: But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed?