Colossians 3.7-The Unregenerate State of Colossians Prior to Their Conversion
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday June 12, 2016
Colossians: Colossians 3:7-The Unregenerate State of the Colossians Prior to Their Conversion
Lesson # 75
Colossians 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. (NASB95)
“In them” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (2) dative masculine plural form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς), “them.”
The dative masculine plural form of the relative pronoun hos means “them” and refers to the unregenerate who are described in Colossians 3:6 as being “people characterized by disobedience.”
This interpretation is indicated by the fact that hos in verse 7 agrees in gender (masculine) and number (plural) with the noun huios which appears in verse 6.
This relative pronoun is the object of the preposition en which means “among” since it is functioning as a marker of a position within an area determined by other objects and distributed among such objects.
Here the objects would be unregenerate humanity who are described in verse 6 as being “people characterized by disobedience” to God.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that prior to their conversion, the faithful Christians in Colossae lived their lives among these people characterized by disobedience.
Some expositors are of the conviction that the relative pronoun hos in Colossians 3:7 is a reference to the sins listed in Colossians 3:5.
However, it is better to interpret this pronoun as a reference to the people mentioned in Colossians 3:6 who are described as being characterized by disobedience which is indicated by several factors.
First of all, the relative pronoun hos which appears in Colossians 3:7 is in the masculine gender which would correspond to the masculine gender of the noun huios which appears in Colossians 3:6.
It could not refer to the vice list in verse 5 since if it did it would be in the neuter gender as was the case in verse 6 when it was used as the object of the preposition dia.
So in other words, if hos in verse 7 was referring to the vice list in verse 5 we would expect to see the word in the neuter gender as was the case when it was used for this vice list in verse 6.
The fact that hos is in the masculine gender is strong evidence that hos in verse 7 is not referring to the vice list in verse 5 but rather unregenerate humanity mentioned in verse 6.
Colossians 3:5 Therefore, I solemnly charge each and every one of you to put to death the members of that which belongs to your earthly nature with regards to the practice of sexual immorality, sexual impurity, sexual lust, evil desire as well as that which is greed which is, as an eternal spiritual truth characterized as idolatry 6 These things are the reason why the wrath exercised by God the Father, as an eternal spiritual truth is and will be directed against the people characterized by disobedience. 7 Each and every one of you also lived your lives among them at one time when each and every one of you were continually living among them. (My translation)
The apostle asserts that each and every one of the Colossians also lived their lives among the people described in Colossians 3:6 as characterized by disobedience, i.e. unregenerate people at one time when each and every one of the them was continually living among these people.
This verse is of course speaking of the unregenerate state of the Colossians or in other words, it refers to that period of their lives prior to their conversion to Christianity, or we could say prior to being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Since they are now regenerated through faith in Jesus Christ and identified with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father, they must abstain from the sins listed in Colossians 3:5 that characterized their unregenerate state.
To live by means of these sins would be to live inconsistently with whom God made them to be.
God saved them from this unregenerate lifestyle so that they would live lives which were characterized by holiness.
The purpose of their salvation, justification and sanctification was not so they could continue living as they did when they were enslaved to the sin nature and Satan and his cosmic system.
Rather, the purpose of these things was so that they would live in fellowship with the triune God and live a life characterized by holiness.
God saved them and declared them justified and sanctified them through faith in His Son so that they would produce good works which are pleasing to Him.
It was obviously not a sin to live among the unregenerate people as Paul asserts in Colossians 3:7 but that is not his point.
The implication of his assertion is that they committed the same sins as the unregenerate prior to their conversion to Christianity and this interpretation is indicated by several factors.
First, Paul asserts in Colossians 3:6 that the sins listed in Colossians 3:5 are the reason why the wrath of God is and will be directed against the unregenerate who are described in Colossians 3:6 as being characterized by disobedience to God.
Secondly, Paul in Colossians 3:7 connects the Colossians with the unregenerate by asserting that they lived at one time among them and then amplifies this by asserting that they were continually living among the unregenerate.
The adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, the indefinite temporal particle pote and the temporal conjunction hote in Colossians 3:7 all indicate that Paul’s assertion in this verse are speaking of the Colossians unregenerate state prior to being declared by justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.
Thus, when Paul asserts in this verse the Colossians were at one time also living among the unregenerate when they were continually living among these people he is clearly implying that the Colossians were committing the same sins listed in Colossians 3:5.
He is also clearly implying that they were characterized as disobedient to God like their unregenerate contemporaries mentioned in Colossians 3:6.
In other words, if Colossians 3:7 is speaking of the unregenerate pre-conversion state of the Colossians, then prior to their conversion they were committing the same sins listed in Colossians 3:5 that the unregenerate continued to commit.
Paul’s emphasis in Colossians 3:7 is not that the Colossians were committing the same sins prior to their conversion as their unregenerate contemporaries but rather his emphasis is upon their unregenerate state as those enslaved to the sin nature and Satan.
Now, Paul’s second assertion in Colossians 3:7 amplifies or intensifies the first since the latter asserts that prior to their conversion, the faithful Christians in Colossae lived their lives among unregenerate people whereas the former emphasizes that they were in a continual state of living among the unregenerate.
So the emphasis with these two assertions is that prior to justification, the Colossians were not only living their lives among unregenerate people and committing the same sins as they did but they were in fact in a continual state of doing so.
In other words, prior to conversion, the Colossians were continually committing the sins listed in verse 5 which characterized the unregenerate mentioned in verse 6.
So again, Paul’s emphasis in Colossians 3:7 is not that the Colossians were committing the same sins prior to their conversion as their unregenerate contemporaries but rather his emphasis is upon their unregenerate state as those enslaved to the sin nature and Satan.
The Colossians were delivered from this unregenerate state the moment the Father declared them justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ since at that moment the Holy Spirit identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father provided the Colossians deliverance from their unregenerate state and thus deliverance from the indwelling Adamic sin nature and Satan and his cosmic system.
So Colossians 3:7 is speaking of the unregenerate state of the Colossians prior to their conversion which left them totally depraved.
“Total depravity” means that human beings have absolutely no merit with God since they do not measure up to God’s perfect standards.
It also means that their conscience has been affected by the Fall of Adam so that it cannot be a safe and reliable guide.
Nor, does total depravity mean that people will indulge in every form of sin or any sin to the greatest extent possible.
What it does mean is that a human being can perform no action that could gain them merit with God.
The fact that the entire human race is totally depraved is manifested through the practice of sin among both Jew and Gentiles (Romans 1:18-3:20; Job 14:1-4; 15:14-16; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19-20).
Reminding the Colossians of their unregenerate state in Colossians 3:7 was designed to motivate them to continue experiencing the grace of God by continuing to appropriate by faith the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ.
The reminder would also inevitably cause them to reflect or meditate upon all that God had done for them through His grace policy so that they would continue to give thanks to God and more fervently.