The duty of mortifying the old man.
The apostle proceeds to deduce the practical consequences of our "death in Christ" in the mortifying of tendencies to impurity, covetousness, malice, and falsehood. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
I. THE NATURE AND DUTY OF MORTIFICATION.
1. Its nature. It is to resist the solicitations of sin, to suppress its first motions, to weaken its power.
2. The duty of mortification.
II. THE SPHERE OF THIS MORTIFICATION, "Your members which are upon the earth." He refers:
1. To the instruments of sinfulness. They are called members in allusion to the apostle's figure of sin, as a body of sin (Colossians 2:11), and in allusion to the necessity of the bodily organization to their action. They are "upon the earth," because they belong to our body or our earthly condition, or tend to mere earthly gratification. But they are to be turned into "instruments of righteousness unto God."
2. To the various manifestations of this sinfulness.
(a) Sins of impurity.
( α) Fornication.
(i.) It is God's will we should abstain from it (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:4).
(ii.) It is one of the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19).
(iii.) It ought not once to be named among Christians (Ephesians 5:12).
(iv.) It takes away the heart (Hosea 4:11).
(v.) It brings dishonour and shipwreck of character (Proverbs 6:27-29; Proverbs 23:1-35. 28).
(vi.) The body was made, not for a harlot, but for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:15, 1 Corinthians 6:16). It is a sin against our own bodies.
(vii.) The promises of the gospel ought to engage us to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1).
( β) Uncleanness. This is a generic product, as fornication is a specific product, of "the earthly members." The observations in the one apply to the other. Those who commit such sins are "alienated from the life of God through their ignorance and hardness of heart" (Ephesians 4:17), and are "delivered up to a reprobate mind" (Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26).
( γ) Lustfulness and evil desire. These point to" the lust of concupiscence" (1 Thessalonians 4:5), which is of the devil (John 8:44), which wars against the soul (1 Peter 2:11), which drowns men in destruction and perdition (1 Timothy 6:9), and keeps men from "coming to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7).
These various sins of impurity are to be mortified: how?
( α) We can only cleanse our hearts by taking heed to the Word (Psalms 119:9).
( β) By prayer, as the apostle did with the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:9).
( γ) By watchfulness (Proverbs 23:1-35. 26, 27). We ought to guard against idleness (Ezekiel 46:1-24 :49), fulness of bread, evil company (Proverbs 1:20).
( δ) We must not "fulfil the lusts of the flesh," but "put on Christ" (Romans 13:14).
(b) The sin of covetousness. The apostle here introduces a new type of sin by the use of the definite article, as if he thus exhausted the full catalogue of sin in the world. It is curious to find it linked with sins of impurity. Yet it is so elsewhere (1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:3; 2 Peter 2:14). There is a likeness between these two classes of sins. They both imply an unlawful direction of desires not in themselves unlawful, and they both grow by indulgence. Covetousness:
( α) Issues, as a defiling thing, "out of the heart of man" (Mark 7:22).
( β) It implies a greedy and distracting care (Luke 12:15).
( γ) It exposes to many a piercing sorrow (1 Timothy 6:10).
( δ) It is a trouble to a man's own house (Proverbs 15:27).
( ε) It argues little dependence or faith in the Lord (Luke 12:30). Therefore "let us have our conversation without covetousness and be content with such things as we have" (Hebrews 13:5).
( ζ) Its heinousness—"seeing it is idolatry." It sets up another object of worship besides God. We cannot "serve both God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). Covetousness is base, because it sets up self in the heart, it is odious to God (Psalms 10:3), turns our hearts away from him (1 John 2:15), and grudges the time spent in God's worship (Amos 8:5). Sins of impurity are the sins of youth as the sin of covetousness is the sin of old age.
III. ARGUMENTS TO ENCOURAGE US TO THIS DUTY OF MORTIFICATION. "For which things' sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: in the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these things."
1. The consideration of the wrath of God.
2. A consideration of the former state of the Colossians. "In the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these things." It is good to be reminded of our past sin,
A warning against social sins.
The sins already noticed are personal; the sins now to be specified arise in connection with man's social relationships. "But now put ye also away all these: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth. Lie not one to another." These sins, again, divide themselves into two classes—three of each:
I. SINS OF INWARD FEELING. "Anger, wrath, malice."
1. Anger and wrath. There is an anger that is righteous. "Be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26). Even our Lord was angry as he looked upon the Pharisees (Mark 3:5). But the anger here condemned is sinful. It is a settled feeling of hatred as distinguished from wrath, which is more passionate and transient.
2. Malice. This is the vicious habit of mind that delights in injury to others.
II. SINS OF OUTWARD EXPRESSION. "Railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth. Lie not one to another."
1. Railing. This is "the strife of words."
2. Shameful speaking. This applies to foul abuse, not to obscene language. While railing is the expression of angry and malicious feeling, this is the expression of coarse contempt and insolence.
3. Falsehood. This habit is to be put off; for:
The ground of these practical precepts.
"Seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him who created him." We have here the negative and the positive aspects of the great spiritual change effected in conversion.
I. THE NEGATIVE ASPECT OF CONVERSION. "Ye have put off the old man with his deeds."
1. The old man is the old unconverted self, strong in his deeds of sin. His deeds are catalogued among the "works of the flesh;" (Galatians 5:22, Galatians 5:23), as well as in the context. He is to be discerned, indeed, by his works like a tree by its fruits.
2. The putting off of the old man is twofold, namely, at conversion and in the gradual process of sanctification. Some teach that the old man is an unchanged and unchangeable being, and that, as he has been crucified in Christ (Romans 6:6), we have nothing more to do with him. In that case, if we have put on the new man, we are perfectly sinless.
II. THE POSITIVE ASPECT OF CONVERSION. "And have put on the new man." This is the regenerate man. He is a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).
1. The nature of this newness.
2. It is a nature constantly renewed unto full knowledge. "Which is being renewed unto knowledge." It is not at once complete, but in a state of constant development by the Holy Spirit. Knowledge is a principal part of the new grace of the believer.
3. Its renewal is after a Divine pattern. "After the image of him who created him." The allusion is to Genesis 1:26. The image of Christ in the believer is analogous to that of the image of God in the original man, but will be far more glorious, as the second Man is more glorious than the first man. Thus we see the process of putting on the new man in its beginning (Galatians 3:27), in its continuance (Romans 13:14), and in its completeness (1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54).—T.C.