Colossians 3.8-The Colossians Must Lay Aside Destructive, Uncontrolled Anger, Malice, Slander, Filthy Language From Their Mouths
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday June 19, 2016
Colossians: Colossians 3:8-The Colossians Must Lay Aside Destructive, Uncontrolled Anger, Malice, Slander and Filthy Language From Their Mouths
Lesson # 76
Colossians 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. (NASB95)
“But now” is composed of the following: (1) adverb of time nuni (νυνί), “now” (2) conjunction de (δέ), “but.”
The adverb of time nuni means “now” and refers to the state of these faithful Christians in Colossae as sinners who have been declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and identified with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
This word nuni is employed with the post-positive conjunction de which means “but, however” since it is functioning as a marker of contrast meaning it is introducing a command which stands in contrast with the statement in verse 7.
“You” is the second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), which means “all of you” referring to these faithful Colossian believers as a corporate unit and is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every one of you” emphasizing no exceptions.
“Also” is the conjunction kai (καί), which indicates that the command to follow and the sins listed in relation to this command are an addition to the command and list of sins in Colossians 3:5.
“Put aside” is the verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι), which is used in a figurative sense and means to “lay aside” or “take off” like a garment, destructive and uncontrolled anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from one’s mouth as one would a set of clothes.
The aorist imperative form of the verb apotithemai is a constative aorist imperative which is expressing the solemn nature of this command and emphasizing the urgency of the Colossians obeying this command.
The middle voice of this verb is an indirect middle which emphasizes not only the volitional responsibility of the Colossian believers to obey this command but also it emphasizes that they would benefit by doing so.
“Them all” is the adjective pas (πᾶς), which denotes totality referring to the sins of destructive and uncontrolled anger, malice, slander, and filthy language and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions indicating the Colossians must lay aside each and every one of these sins.
The articular construction of this word is kataphoric meaning that it is pointing to the list of sins which immediately follow it.
“Anger” is the noun orgē (ὀργή), which refers to the type of anger which is a destructive rage whereas “wrath” is the noun thumos (θυμός), which refers to the type of anger which is an uncontrolled rage.
“Malice” is the noun kakia (κακία), which speaks of taking pleasure in deliberately and premeditatedly being intent on doing harm to others as a result of possessing an intense long-lasting bitterness against a person.
“Slander” is the noun blasphēmia (βλασφημία), which pertains to the act of defaming someone’s character as a result of bitterness towards them.
“Abusive speech” is the noun aischrologia (αἰσχρολογία), which speaks of obscene, shameful speech involving culturally disapproved themes or in other words, it speaks of speech of a kind that is generally considered in poor taste.
“From your mouth” indicates that the sins listed here in Colossians 3:8 must not originate from the mouths of the Colossians.
Colossians 3:8 But now, I also solemnly charge each and every one of you, for your own benefit to lay aside each and every one of the following: destructive, uncontrolled anger, malice, slander, filthy language from the mouth of each and every one of you. (My translation)
The apostle Paul solemnly commands the faithful believers in Colossae to lay aside like a garment for their own benefit destructive, uncontrolled anger, malice, slander and filthy language from their mouths.
This command stands in contrast with his statement in Colossians 3:7 which asserts that each and every one of the Colossians also lived their lives at one time among the people characterized by disobedience 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.
It was obviously not a sin to live among the unregenerate people as Paul asserts.
However, 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.
Now, here in Colossians 3:8, Paul is speaking of the Colossians from the perspective of their present state or condition as those who have been declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Consequently, they have been identified with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father through the baptism of the Spirit.
Therefore, in Colossians 3:8, Paul is addressing the Colossians with regards to their present of being identified with Christ and under His headship in contrast to their unregenerate state when they were under the headship of Adam and identified with the first human being and his sin in the garden of Eden.
The contrast between Colossians 3:7 and 8 is between how the Colossians conducted themselves prior to their conversion as unregenerate people with the way they must conduct themselves as regenerate people identified with Christ.
In other words, the contrast is between living as an unregenerate person with that of living like a regenerate, justified sinner who is identified with Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, the command in Colossians 3:8 and the sins listed in relation to this command are an addition to the command and list of sins which appear in Colossians 3:5.
This indicates that in addition to obeying the command in Colossians 3:5, the Colossians were to obey this command in Colossians 3:8.
In other words, in addition to the Colossians putting to death the members of their earthly nature with regards to the practice of sexual immorality, sexual impurity, sexual lust, evil as well as greed, they were to put aside destructive and uncontrolled anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from their mouths.
Paul’s statements in Colossians 1:3-5 and 2:5 make clear that the Colossians were already obeying the commands in Colossians 3:5 and 8 along with the others in this epistle since the former affirm that the Colossians were obedient to Paul’s gospel.
This obedience manifested itself in their conduct with each other in that they were exercising God’s love toward one another and it protected them from the practice of the sins listed in Colossians 3:5 and 8.
When Paul issues this command in Colossians 3:8, he is doing so with a sense of urgency and as a result the Colossians must also have a sense of urgency with regards to this command.
They must obey this command without reservation or delay since their fellowship with God and experiencing their sanctification is contingent upon doing so and their spiritual growth is contingent upon obeying this command.
The Colossians must lay aside destructive, uncontrolled anger, malice, slander and filthy language from their mouths for the simple reason that they have died with Christ and have been raised with Him.
In other words, the command in verse 8 is based upon the fact that the Colossians are identified with Christ in His death and resurrection.
The imagery with this command in Colossians 3:8 is that of taking off filthy clothes or garments and is directly to dealing with the problem of the indwelling old Adamic sin nature which identified in Colossians 3:9 as “the old man.”
To fulfill this command would first require the confession of sin (1 John 1:9) to be restored to fellowship with God and secondly appropriating by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ in order to maintain that fellowship.
The concept of the Christian laying aside or taking off the practice of various types of sins like one would a filthy garment is not only found in Colossians 3:8 but many other passages in the Greek New Testament (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22, 25; Heb. 12:1; James 1:21; 1 Pet. 2:1).
Obedience to the command in Colossians 3:8 would constitute appropriating by faith their identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father and would result in living their lives in a manner consistent with this identification with Christ.
Therefore, Paul is spelling out for the Colossians and for all Christians in every generation of the church age what is involved in appropriating by faith one’s identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death and burial.
To appropriate by faith one’s identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death and burial would demand the believer laying aside the sins of uncontrolled, destructive anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from their mouths, which would manifest their sin nature.
To appropriate by faith one’s identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death and burial would demand the believer consider the members of their human body as dead to the sin nature and this would result in the believer not practicing the sins listed in Colossians 3:8.
The practice of the sins listed in Colossians 3:8 would prevent the Colossians from experiencing fellowship with not only the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but also with each other and would hinder their spiritual growth.
If, the Colossians fail to confess these sins when they commit them, then they would be disciplined by God (Heb. 12:4-13; Rev. 3:19) and furthermore, the practice of these sins would damage their credibility and testimony with the non-Christian community.