Colossians 3:9 - Exposition

Lie not one to another, having stripped off the old man with his deeds ( Ephesians 4:14 , Ephesians 4:15 ; 20-25; 1 Timothy 1:6 ; Revelation 21:8 ; Colossians 2:11 ; Romans 6:6 ; Romans 8:12 , Romans 8:13 ; Galatians 5:16 , Galatians 5:24 ). The imperatives of Colossians 3:5 and Colossians 3:8 were aorists, enjoining a single, decisive act; this is present, as in Colossians 3:1 , Colossians 3:2 , Colossians 3:15 , Colossians 3:18 , etc., giving a rule of life. Only in Colossians and Ephesians do we find the apostle give a general warning against lying. What reason there was for this we cannot tell; unless it lay in the deceit of the heretical teachers ( Colossians 2:8 : comp. Ephesians 4:14 , Ephesians 4:15 ; Acts 20:30 ; 2 Corinthians 11:13 ; 1 Timothy 4:2 ; 2 Peter 2:1 ; 1 John 4:1 ; Revelation 2:2 ; Revelation 3:9 ). The lying in question is uttered within the Church ("to one another"), and is fatal to its unity (verse 11; Ephesians 4:25 ; Acts 20:28-30 ). The following aorist participles, "having stripped off" and "having put on" (verse 10), may, grammatically, be part of the command —"strip off," etc., and "lie not"—as e.g. in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 ; Hebrews 12:1 ; or may state the fact on which that command is based. The latter view is preferable (Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, English Version; but see Lightfoot); for the participles describe a change already realized—a change of principle , which has, however, still to be more fully carried out in practice ( Colossians 2:11-13 , Colossians 2:20 ; Colossians 3:1 , Colossians 3:3 , Colossians 3:7 , Colossians 3:11 ; Ephesians 4:20-24 ; Galatians 3:27 , Galatians 3:28 ): in Hebrews 12:12 the imperative mood is resumed with an emphatic "therefore," implying a previous reference to fact. (On the double compound ἀπ εκ δυσάμενοι , "having stripped off (and put) away," see notes, Colossians 2:11 , Colossians 2:15 .) The "Old man"; is the former self, the "I no longer living" ( Galatians 2:20 ) of the Colossian believer, to whom "the members that are upon the earth" ( Colossians 2:5 ) belonged—the entire sinful personality of "him who is in the flesh" ( Romans 8:8 ). His "deeds" ("practices," "habits of doing," Romans 8:13 ; see Trench's 'Synonyms' on πράσσω ) are the pursuits of which Colossians 2:5 , Colossians 2:8 , Colossians 2:9 supply examples.