Colossians 3:5

Colossians 3:5, in plain English

You need to decisively kill off the sinful patterns that come from your old earthly nature—sexual sin, selfish desire, obsession with stuff—because these things are fundamentally opposed to God.

Why it's here

Paul shifts from the 'why' (verses 1-4) to the 'how.' The Colossians aren't being told to be perfect, but to recognize that certain behaviors belong to the person they used to be, not to the person Christ has made them. The phrase 'put to death' is military language—it's not gentle or negotiable. He groups sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and greed together because they all represent wanting something more than you want God. That's why he calls greed idolatry—it's replacing God with something else.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

This echoes Romans 8:13, where Paul writes that if you live by the flesh you'll die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. It's a constant theme in Paul's letters because following Jesus isn't just about belief—it's about a transformed life.

The scholarly reading

Systematically eliminate from your behavior the vices rooted in unredeemed human nature—sexual transgression, lustful desires, and acquisitiveness—recognizing that such greed functions as practical idolatry, a disordered worship of material things.

Language and setting

Paul catalogs the 'works of the flesh' (cf. Galatians 5:19-21) but with particular emphasis on sexual and economic vice—precisely the arenas where Colossian cultural pressures mounted. The appositive equation of greed with idolatry (Greek: ἡ πλεονεξία, ἥτις ἐστιν εἰδωλολατρία, he pleonexia, hetis estin eidololatria) represents Paul's incisive theological diagnosis: acquisitiveness violates the first commandment by treating material accumulation as ultimate concern.

Voice

Paul, employing a participial imperative construction that emphasizes ongoing, deliberate moral action.

Significance

This recalls the Torah's prohibition of coveting (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21) while extending Old Testament idolatry language to internal orientation rather than merely external worship. It anticipates medieval moral theology's recognition of greed as a capital sin.

3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

5Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

7When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.

Read all of Colossians 3 — You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Strip off the old self like worn-out clothing and put on compassion, kindness, and love.