Colossians 3:9

Colossians 3:9, in plain English

Stop lying to each other, because you've already made the decision to shed your old way of living with all its deceptions and dishonest patterns.

Why it's here

Lying is mentioned specifically because it strikes at the heart of community. You can't build trust, unity, or genuine fellowship when people are deceiving each other. For the Colossians, this was practical—false teachers were promoting deception, and now Paul is calling them to radical honesty with one another. The verb tense 'have taken off' suggests they've already made this break; now they need to live consistently with that choice.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

This appears in Ephesians 4:25 and connects to Proverbs' consistent warnings about false witness. It's also foundational to the command in 1 John 1:7 that living in the light with one another requires truth.

The scholarly reading

Do not deceive one another through falsehood, since you have ritually disrobed yourselves of your old identity and its characteristic patterns of deception in baptism.

Language and setting

Paul grounds the prohibition of lying (Greek: ψεύδομαι, pseudomai) in the reality of baptismal identity already established in verse 3. The apodotic construction (μὴ ψεύδεσθε...ἐκδυσάμενοι, me pseudesthe...ekdysamenoi—don't lie...having stripped off) creates logical necessity: if you've genuinely died to the old self, you cannot authentically inhabit its characteristic vices. This addresses potential liars in the congregation, possibly false teachers promoting deceptive cosmological claims.

Voice

Paul, employing baptismal theology to ground ethics.

Significance

This extends Ephesians 4:25's command to speak truth in love, rooting it in the deeper reality of baptismal transformation. It resonates with the wisdom tradition (Proverbs 6:16-19) while being reformulated through Christian sacramental theology.

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

8But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

9Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,

10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

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.