Colossians 3 KJV
Rules for Holy Living
Colossians Chapter 3: Rules for Holy Living
This chapter explores themes of Forgiveness, Worship. The phrase 'hid with Christ in God' (v. 3) evokes Jewish apocalyptic notions of the righteous being concealed in the divine presence until eschatological revelation, reframing present Christian identity as already participating in that hidden reality.
1f ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6 For which thingsโ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
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Did You Know?
The phrase 'hid with Christ in God' (v. 3) evokes Jewish apocalyptic notions of the righteous being concealed in the divine presence until eschatological revelation, reframing present Christian identity as already participating in that hidden reality.
Verse 11's catalog of divisions includes the rare pairing of 'Scythian' with 'Barbarian,' deliberately naming the nomadic steppe peoples stereotyped as the most savage outsiders in Greco-Roman imagination to signal the gospel's erasure of ethnic hierarchies.
The household instructions (vv. 18-25) invert standard Aristotelian codes by addressing slaves first as moral agents and by qualifying every relationship 'as unto the Lord,' thereby embedding a theological criterion that limits absolute patriarchal or masterly authority.
The baptismal imagery of stripping off vices (vv. 8-9) and clothing oneself with virtues (v. 12) mirrors the literal garment changes in early Christian baptismal rites, turning ethical exhortation into a performative reenactment of the rite itself.
The call to 'sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord' (v. 16) suggests that internal disposition, not merely audible performance, constitutes authentic worship, a distinction that challenges both Jewish temple liturgy and pagan cultic display in the first century.