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Colossians 3:5-16 (Listen)

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: [1] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. [2] 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self [3] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, [4] free; but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (ESV)

Footnotes

[1] 3:5 Greek therefore your members that are on the earth

[2] 3:6 Some manuscripts add upon the sons of disobedience

[3] 3:9 Greek man; also as supplied in verse 10

[4] 3:11 Greek bondservant

In short, Paul is directing us to not act like the world. We are to act like Jesus instead through the guidance of the wisdom of His word. This specific passage removed from its context seems to direct the believer to completely remove himself from worldly culture and interaction with non-believers. In addition to the specific moral exhortations (i.e. do not lie), there is the direction to come together as one body of believers separate from the world.

It is important to understand, however, that this comes after verse two where Paul directs the reader to “set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth” (NASB).

Colossians 3:2 (Listen)

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (ESV)

The following passages also deal with where the mind of the Christian is to be, not where his body shall be. While his body can be out in the culture amongst sinners (just as Jesus’ body was during his earthly ministry), the mind of the believer is focused on heavenly things and the salvation of the sinner (just as Jesus’ mind was during His earthly ministry). This passage must be taken in this context and not be used to support monastic separation. In a fallen world, we can never be separate from the things that are fallen. Everything around us is not what it was meant to be. Complete separation is impossible. It is our responsibility, then, to be in the world (“put [it] aside”) without being like the world (“put on the new self who is being renewed”).

I personally attempt to accomplish this by trying to emulate Jesus in all that I do. I am not successful all of the time and sometimes it is very difficult to not be like the world, but it is my hope that I do a better job in each situation that I am in so that next time I am just a little bit better. I know that I can never be perfect like Christ and even if I get twice as good each time I’ll never reach the goal until final perfection comes. This can even be mathematically expressed: suppose you got rid of half your sin each day and your original sin level was 100. The next day it would be 50, the next 25, etc. If this number is divided in half forever it will never reach zero.

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