Col 3 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Col 3:1-11: 3:1-11 Paul summons the Colossians to a new way of thinking that results in a new lifestyle. 3:1 set your sights on the realities of heaven: Christians live on earth, but because they have been raised with Christ, their true being is oriented to the spiritual realm over which Christ rules. In contrast, the rules and regulations of the false teachers focused on the earthly realm (2:22 ).

Summary for Col 3:1-11: 3:1-11 ^a Paul summons the Colossians to a new way of thinking that results in a new lifestyle. 3:1 ^b set your sights on the realities of heaven: Christians live on earth, but because they have been raised with Christ, their true being is oriented to the spiritual realm over which Christ rules. In contrast, the rules and regulations of the false teachers focused on the earthly realm (2:22 ^c).
Summary for Col 3:3-4: 3:3-4 ^d you died to this life: See 2:20 ^e.

• What is now hidden will one day be revealed (cp. 1:26 ^f). We cannot now see that Christ is enthroned at the right hand of God and that we have been raised to new life with Christ. But by faith in the Good News, we know that these things are true. When Christ returns in glory, his supremacy will be evident to all and our relationship to him will be a direct experience.
3:5 ^g So put to death: Our death to this life (3:3 ^h) must be made real in the way that we live day by day.

• a greedy person is an idolater: Greedy people pursue the objects of their greed—money, sex, power, possessions—in the place of God, with the hope of finding satisfaction in those things.
3:6 ⁱ coming: Some manuscripts read coming on all who disobey him. In the Greek text, these words occur verbatim in Eph 5:6 ^j, so it is possible that an early scribe added them here, either intentionally or accidentally.
3:8 ^k get rid of (literally take off): Taking off clothes is a metaphor for ridding our lives of practices that interfere with our walk with the Lord (see Rom 13:12 ^l; Eph 4:22 ^m, 25 ⁿ; Heb 12:1 ^o; Jas 1:21 ^p; 1 Pet 2:1 ^q).
Summary for Col 3:9-10: 3:9-10 ^r your old sinful nature ... your new nature: Paul contrasts old and new identities (see also Rom 5:12-21 ^s; 6:6 ^t; Eph 4:22-24 ^u). Believers strip off their old life and put on Christ’s new life, allowing him to be Lord and to guide the way they live.
3:11 ^v barbaric, uncivilized: Literally Barbarian, Scythian. The Greeks mocked people from other cultures for their inability to speak Greek well, claiming they could only say “bar bar” (hence the word barbarian). The Scythians were tribes that had settled on the north coast of the Black Sea and were widely viewed as fierce and crude (see Josephus, Against Apion 2.38). All such distinctions do not matter in our relationship with God through Christ.
Summary for Col 3:12-17: 3:12-17 ^w Paul describes the nature of the new life of people who have been raised with Christ (3:1 ^x). Their virtues and activities contribute to the peace and strength of the Christian community.
3:15 ^y Just as Christ is one, so there can be only one body of Christ (see 1:18 ^z; Eph 4:4-6 ^aa). Allegiance to Jesus as Lord must transcend differences and will result in peace (harmonious relationships).
3:16 ^ab Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs are songs of praise and worship (see 1 Cor 14:26 ^ac; Eph 5:19 ^ad). The prototype is the book of Psalms.
3:17 ^ae as a representative of the Lord Jesus (literally in the name of the Lord Jesus): In the Bible, a person’s name represents that person. To do something in the name of the Lord Jesus is therefore to act in a way that is in harmony with his identity and under his authority.
Summary for Col 3:18-4:1: 3:18–4:1 ^af This series of exhortations is called a household code. Paul gives instructions to wives (3:18 ^ag), husbands (3:19 ^ah), children (3:20 ^ai), fathers (3:21 ^aj), slaves (3:22-25 ^ak), and masters (4:1 ^al). Such codes appear in Greco-Roman writers and elsewhere in the New Testament (see Eph 5:22–6:9 ^am; 1 Pet 2:18–3:7 ^an). 3:18 ^ao To submit is to recognize one’s place under someone else in a social order. Such submission always implies that God is at the top and that his will is paramount (cp. Acts 4:19-20 ^ap; 5:29 ^aq).
3:19 ^ar The exhortation to wives to submit to their husbands is immediately followed by a command to the husbands to love their wives (see also Eph 5:25-30 ^as; 1 Pet 3:7 ^at).
Summary for Col 3:22-24: 3:22-24 ^au Slaves have earthly masters whom they must obey. Slavery was central to the life and economy of the ancient world, and the New Testament never attacks the practice as such. However, Christian faith establishes relationships that change the nature of the social structure (see Phlm 1:15-16 ^av).

• and that the Master you are serving is Christ: All Christians, both slave and free, serve a higher Master, whose will is paramount.