Bible Commentaries
Colossians 3

Verses 1-25

CORRECTION-DEPORTMENT

The secret of pleasing God is a conduct conformed to our spiritual position. The key to this position is the great truth that we have not only died and have been roused with Christ, but have ascended with Him into celestial spheres. Our interests, our expectations, are no longer on earth at all, but among the celestials. Let this great and glorious truth be behind our motives and guide us into the path that pleases Him.

Correction-Deportment

5 We are exhorted to transform faith into fact. Are we dead to the world? Then let us live as those who are past the practices which pollute it. How can we keep on in the course which will draw down God's indignation not upon us-but upon those who do not trust Him?

9 The old humaniity, with its diversity and division, no longer reflects the Image of its Creator. In the new, or fresh, humanity, in which Christ displaces Adam, these divisions disappear. The religion of the Jew and the philosophy of the Greek, the privileges of the

Circumcision and the proscription of the Uncircumcision, the subjection of the slave and the superiority of the freeman-all these find no place in the young humanity of which Christ is the Head. We should so behave that it will be recognized as created in His image.

12 The greater our appreciation of our Lord's grace toward us, the greater grace will we show towards all who belong to Him. Without this compelling power we shall be able only to exercise our natural, ungracious dispositions.

14 Love, the greatest of the abiding trinity (1 Corinthians 13:13), is the tie which binds us to the Lord and should be the tie which unites us to our fellow saints. Before maturity, in the preparatory era preceding the present economy, the saints were united (or rather divided) by a common rite, as Circumcision, or a common ancestor, as Israel. Now that these are abolished there is a spiritual unity unmarred by any division (Ephesians 4:3-6). Love is the tie that makes us one, peace is the tie that keeps us one.

15 All difficulties should be submitted to the arbitration of the peace of Christ.

16 The sincerest source of song is a heart full of grace. It should be the overflow of a heart surcharged with an appreciation of God's love. All other motives are a mockery, and discordant to His ears.

17 God is jealous that His Son be duly honored in all we do or say. Even our thanksgiving must be accompanied by the incense of His name.

Correction-Deportment

17 We should always distinguish between our place "in Christ" and "in the Lord". "In Christ" physical distinctions vanish, even the distinction between the sexes is gone. There is neither male nor female ( Galatians 3:28 ). But "in the Lord" these are all recognized and regulated. Let us never base conduct on our place in Christ, it is in the Lord. Service is to the Lord, not to Christ. In the Lord, woman is subject, in Christ, she is the equal of the man.

18 The ideal family is characterized by love on the part of the husband, which smoothes the way for subjection on the part of the wife and obedience on the part of the children. It is a sign of the last days that children no longer heed this injunction (2 Timothy 3:2).

22 As slavery is almost a thing of the past, these injunctions may well be the guide of those whose service is voluntary rather than compulsory. It is a marvelous help to look beyond all earthly masters and work for One above. Our employer may be hard to please, or unjust, or harsh, not giving proper compensation, but if we become the slave of Christ our work will be sincerely done and we will look to Him for appreciation and due deserts. On the other hand we will be restrained from injurious acts by the fear of Him in that day.