Colossians 3
The chapter in full, then the passages inside it that are worth stopping on — what each one claims, what the Greek or Hebrew shows, and how the reading is arrived at.
Colossians 3 WEB
- 1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
- 2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- 4 When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.
- 5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
- 6 For these things' sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
- 7 You also once walked in those, when you lived in them,
- 8 but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
- 9 Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
- 10 and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
- 11 where there can't be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.
- 12 Put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
- 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
- 14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
- 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.
- 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- 17 Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
- 18 Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- 19 Husbands, love your wives, and don't be bitter against them.
- 20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.
- 21 Fathers, don't provoke your children, so that they won't be discouraged.
- 22 Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
- 23 And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
- 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
- 25 But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done, and there is no partiality.
Colossians 3 opens the second half of Paul's argument against the Colossian teachers who wanted believers bound by ascetic rules and angel-worship (2:18-23) — rules Paul had just dismissed as useless "against the indulgence of the flesh" (2:23). Having established that the Colossians died and rose with Christ, Paul now draws the ethical consequence: not new regulations, but a new orientation, a new wardrobe, and a new household. The chapter moves from theology (3:1-4) to vice and virtue (3:5-17) to the concrete relationships of a first-century home (3:18-25).
3:1-4 Seek the things that are above
The imperative rests entirely on an accomplished fact: "if then you were raised together with Christ" — συνηγέρθητε, aorist passive, a completed event, not an aspiration. The command that follows, ζητεῖτε ("seek"), is present imperative — a continuous, habitual orientation, not a single decision. Verse 2 sharpens it: φρονεῖτε, "set your mind" — not merely desire but the settled disposition Paul uses elsewhere for the "mind of the flesh" versus "the mind of the Spirit" (Romans 8:6). The claim is not that earthly life is unreal or unimportant — Paul spends the rest of the chapter on marriage, parenting, and work — but that it is to be read from above, not from itself.
Verse 3 makes the logic explicit: "you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Hidden — κέκρυπται is not in this excerpt's Greek but the WEB's "hidden" carries a real claim: the Christian's true identity is not currently visible, even to the Christian. That is answered in verse 4: when Christ is revealed (φανερωθῇ), so will believers be (φανερωθήσεσθε) — the same verb, twice, binding their unveiling to his. Irenaeus's axiom is relevant to what this life-hidden-with-Christ is aimed at: "The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God" (Against Heresies IV.20.7) — the "seeking above" is not escape from bodily existence but its truest fulfillment in seeing God.
3:5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth
Νεκρώσατε — "put to death," aorist imperative, a decisive act rather than a process to be managed gently. The command is startling because it follows immediately on "you died" (3:3): the Colossians are told to become in practice what they already are in fact. The list — sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness — is not a random catalogue; it moves from acts to the desire beneath them, ending with covetousness, which Paul calls idolatry (εἰδωλολατρεία) because it makes a substitute god of what is wanted. John Owen's summary of this same imperative logic is blunt: "Be killing sin, or it will be killing you" (Mortification of Sin, ch. 2) — mortification is not suppression that leaves the root alive underground, but a killing meant to finish something.
3:6 The wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience
A hard clause, often skipped past. Paul does not say these behaviors are merely unwise or self-destructive; he names them as what draws God's wrath (ὀργή), the same term used in Romans 1:18 for God's settled opposition to unrighteousness. The phrase "children of disobedience" describes people characterized by disobedience as identity, not a single lapse. Some manuscripts of this verse add "on the children of disobedience" as here; whether or not that phrase was original doesn't change Paul's point, made plainly in Ephesians 5:6 in near-identical language — this is not a private aside but a settled apostolic warning. The verse gives no comfort to the reading of Paul as only ever gentle; it also gives no license to weaponize the line against another person's specific sins, since Paul's next move is to turn the mirror on his readers themselves ("you also once walked in those," 3:7).
3:9-11 Put off the old man… put on the new… where there can't be Greek and Jew
The image is of clothing: ἀπεκδυσάμενοι ("having stripped off," like removing a garment) the old man, ἐνδυσάμενοι ("having put on") the new. This is again grounded in what has already happened, not a task still to complete from scratch. The "new man" is being renewed (ἀνακαινούμενον, present passive — ongoing) toward knowledge, "after the image of his Creator" — deliberately echoing Genesis, casting redemption as restoration of what humanity was made to be.
Verse 11's list — Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian (proverbially the most despised outsider in the Greco-Roman imagination), slave, free — states that in this new humanity none of these categories function as the basis of standing before God. This is not a claim that the categories vanish or that social distinctions cease to exist practically; the household code that follows (3:18-4:1) still addresses wives, husbands, slaves, and masters as distinct roles. The claim is narrower and larger at once: "Christ is all, and in all" — he, not ethnicity or status, is what defines who a person now is.
3:18 4:1 — Wives, be in subjection… Husbands, love your wives
This household code is the passage most argued over today. Some points are not seriously disputed: the Greek verb for wives, ὑποτάσσεσθε, is a call to voluntary ordering, the same root used elsewhere for submission to civil authority and to God; it is paired immediately with a command to husbands that has no parallel in the pagan household codes of the era — ἀγαπᾶτε, "love," and μὴ πικραίνεσθε, "don't be bitter" against them. Roman and Greek household codes regulated wives, children, and slaves; none instructed husbands to love their wives or masters to treat slaves justly (a command Paul does give — "Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven," 4:1). That asymmetry is Paul's own innovation within a form he inherited, not an oversight.
Where readers genuinely disagree: some hold that the differentiated roles (wife/husband, child/parent, slave/master) reflect a created and abiding order that the gospel sanctifies rather than abolishes; others read Paul as working within existing Greco-Roman structures — most sharply visible in the address to slaves — using the gospel to soften and humanize institutions he does not endorse as permanently normative, pointing to the leveling logic of 3:11 as already straining against the code's categories. The text itself gives the strongest textual footing to the first reading (the household code's grammar assumes stable roles, and "as is fitting in the Lord" grounds it theologically rather than merely pragmatically), while the second reading rests more on trajectory and on how differently Paul treats masters compared to contemporary law. Both readings agree the passage cannot be flattened into either a simple modern endorsement of patriarchal hierarchy detached from mutual love and honor, or a simple abolition of all differentiated roles — Paul does neither.
What the chapter asks
The chapter presses a single claim from two directions: that a person united to Christ has already died and already been raised, and that this fact is not decoration but demand — it must be put on like clothing in the actual furniture of ordinary life: anger put away, lying stopped, forgiveness extended "even as Christ forgave you" (3:13), and the specific, unglamorous roles of household and workplace done "heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (3:23). The text does not let "you died with Christ" become an abstraction that excuses the concrete self from change, nor does it let ethical effort become detached from the fact that grounds it. What it asks is whether the hidden life is being lived as though it were true.
The verses this turns on
If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
Εἰ οὖν συνηγέρθητε τῷ Χριστῷ, τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε, οὗ ὁ Χριστός ἐστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Θεοῦ καθήμενος·
- Εἰ εἰ conditional G1487
- οὖν οὖν conjunction G3767
- συνηγέρθητε συνεγείρω verb · aorist passive indicative, 2nd person plural G4891
- τῷ ὁ article · dative singular masculine G3588
- Χριστῷ, Χριστός noun · dative singular masculine G5547
- τὰ ὁ article · accusative plural neuter G3588
- ἄνω ἄνω adverb G507
- ζητεῖτε, ζητέω verb · present active imperative, 2nd person plural G2212
- οὗ οὗ adverb G3757
- ὁ ὁ article · nominative singular masculine G3588
- Χριστός Χριστός noun · nominative singular masculine G5547
- ἐστιν εἰμί verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G1510
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Romans 8:6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;
- Matthew 6:33 But seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
- 2 Corinthians 4:18 while we don't look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
- Colossians 3:2-3 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don't break through and steal;
Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
Νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν, ἀκαθαρσίαν, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰδωλολατρεία,
- Νεκρώσατε νεκρόω verb · aorist active imperative, 2nd person plural G3499
- οὖν οὖν conjunction G3767
- τὰ ὁ article · accusative plural neuter G3588
- μέλη μέλος noun · accusative plural neuter G3196
- τὰ ὁ article · accusative plural neuter G3588
- ἐπὶ ἐπί preposition G1909
- τῆς ὁ article · genitive singular feminine G3588
- γῆς, γῆ noun · genitive singular feminine G1093
- πορνείαν, πορνεία noun · accusative singular feminine G4202
- ἀκαθαρσίαν, ἀκαθαρσία noun · accusative singular feminine G167
- πάθος, πάθος noun · accusative singular neuter G3806
- ἐπιθυμίαν ἐπιθυμία noun · accusative singular feminine G1939
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Romans 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- Galatians 5:19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
- Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
- 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
- Romans 6:12-14 Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
For these things' sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
δι’ ἃ ἔρχεται ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ·
- δι’ διά preposition G1223
- ἃ ὅς relative pronoun · accusative plural neuter G3739
- ἔρχεται ἔρχομαι verb · present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular G2064
- ἡ ὁ article · nominative singular feminine G3588
- ὀργὴ ὀργή noun · nominative singular feminine G3709
- τοῦ ὁ article · genitive singular masculine G3588
- Θεοῦ· θεός noun · genitive singular masculine G2316
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
- Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
- 1 Peter 1:14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
- Ezekiel 16:45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
- Isaiah 57:4 Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood,
You also once walked in those, when you lived in them,discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
ἐν οἷς καὶ ὑμεῖς περιεπατήσατέ ποτε, ὅτε ἐζῆτε ἐν τούτοις·
- ἐν ἐν preposition G1722
- οἷς ὅς relative pronoun · dative plural neuter G3739
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- ὑμεῖς σύ personal pronoun G4771
- περιεπατήσατέ περιπατέω verb · aorist active indicative, 2nd person plural G4043
- ποτε, ποτέ particle G4218
- ὅτε ὅτε adverb G3753
- ἐζῆτε ζάω verb · imperfect active indicative, 2nd person plural G2198
- ἐν ἐν preposition G1722
- τούτοις· οὗτος demonstrative pronoun · dative plural neuter G3778
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.
- 1 Peter 4:3 For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
- Romans 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
- Titus 3:3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
μὴ ψεύδεσθε εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἀπεκδυσάμενοι τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ,
- μὴ μή particle · nominative G3361
- ψεύδεσθε ψεύδομαι verb · present middle or passive deponent imperative, 2nd person plural G5574
- εἰς εἰς preposition G1519
- ἀλλήλους, ἀλλήλων reciprocal pronoun · accusative plural masculine G240
- ἀπεκδυσάμενοι ἀπεκδύομαι verb · aorist middle deponent participle, nominative plural masculine G554
- τὸν ὁ article · accusative singular masculine G3588
- παλαιὸν παλαιός adjective · accusative singular masculine G3820
- ἄνθρωπον ἄνθρωπος noun · accusative singular masculine G444
- σὺν σύν preposition G4862
- ταῖς ὁ article · dative plural feminine G3588
- πράξεσιν πρᾶξις noun · dative plural feminine G4234
- αὐτοῦ, αὐτός personal pronoun · genitive singular masculine G846
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Ephesians 4:22 that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
- Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
- Leviticus 19:11 "'You shall not steal. "'You shall not lie. "'You shall not deceive one another.
- Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
- John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
where there can't be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
ὅπου οὐκ ἔνι Ἕλλην καὶ Ἰουδαῖος, περιτομὴ καὶ ἀκροβυστία, βάρβαρος, Σκύθης, δοῦλος, ἐλεύθερος, ἀλλὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν Χριστός.
- ὅπου ὅπου adverb G3699
- οὐκ οὐ particle · nominative G3756
- ἔνι ἔνι verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G1762
- Ἕλλην Ἕλλην noun · nominative singular masculine G1672
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- Ἰουδαῖος, Ἰουδαῖος adjective · nominative singular masculine G2453
- περιτομὴ περιτομή noun · nominative singular feminine G4061
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- ἀκροβυστία, ἀκροβυστία noun · nominative singular feminine G203
- βάρβαρος, βάρβαρος adjective · nominative singular masculine G915
- Σκύθης, Σκύθης noun · nominative singular masculine G4658
- δοῦλος, δοῦλος (II) noun · nominative singular masculine G1401
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Corinthians 12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.
- Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.
- Ephesians 3:6 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News,
- Ephesians 1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων καὶ χαριζόμενοι ἑαυτοῖς, ἐάν τις πρός τινα ἔχῃ μομφήν· καθὼς καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἐχαρίσατο ὑμῖν οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς·
- ἀνεχόμενοι ἀνέχω verb · present middle or passive deponent participle, nominative plural masculine G430
- ἀλλήλων ἀλλήλων reciprocal pronoun · genitive plural masculine G240
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- χαριζόμενοι χαρίζομαι verb · present middle or passive deponent participle, nominative plural masculine G5483
- ἑαυτοῖς, ἑαυτοῦ reflexive pronoun G1438
- ἐάν ἐάν conditional G1437
- τις τὶς indefinite pronoun · nominative singular masculine G5100
- πρός πρός preposition G4314
- τινα τὶς indefinite pronoun · accusative singular masculine G5100
- ἔχῃ ἔχω verb · present active subjunctive, 3rd person singular G2192
- μομφήν· μομφή noun · accusative singular feminine G3437
- καθὼς καθώς adverb G2531
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
- Mark 11:25 Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions.
- James 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Ephesians 4:2 with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
- Matthew 6:14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
Αἱ γυναῖκες, ὑποτάσσεσθε τοῖς ἀνδράσιν, ὡς ἀνῆκεν ἐν Κυρίῳ.
- Αἱ ὁ article · nominative plural feminine G3588
- γυναῖκες, γυνή noun · nominative plural feminine G1135
- ὑποτάσσεσθε ὑποτάσσω verb · present middle or passive imperative, 2nd person plural G5293
- τοῖς ὁ article · dative plural masculine G3588
- ἀνδράσιν, ἀνήρ noun · dative plural masculine G435
- ὡς ὡς adverb G5613
- ἀνῆκεν ἀνήκω verb · imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular G433
- ἐν ἐν preposition G1722
- Κυρίῳ. κύριος noun · dative singular masculine G2962
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Ephesians 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
- 1 Corinthians 11:3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
- Titus 2:4 that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children,
- 1 Peter 3:1 In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, so that, even if any don't obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word,
- Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
From the interpretive tradition
The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God.
Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.