Members (3196) (melos) refers to a limb or member of the body and in the plural (and in the context of the present verse) refers to the members of body as the seat of the desires and passions.
Melos is used 34 times in the NT (Matt. 5:29, 30; Ro 6:13, 19; 7:5, 23; 12:4, 5; 1Co. 6:15; 12:12, 14, 18, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26 (4x), 1Co 12:27; Ep 4:25; 5:30; Col. 3:5; Jas. 3:5, 6; 4:1) and is rendered in the NAS as member, 4; members, 27; part, 1; parts, 2.
In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructed his hearers that...
everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 and if your right eye makes you stumble (skandalizo = ensnares you = describes the bait stick that springs the trap when an animal touches it. Anything that morally or spiritually traps us and causes us to fall into sin should be eliminated quickly and totally - see related word skandalon), tear it out (pluck or root it out), and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish (destroyed wholly or utterly - not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of well–being), than for your whole body to be thrown into hell (Gehenna)." (See notes Matthew 5:28; Matthew 5:29)
Based on the truth of the believer's new position in Christ (see notes), Who is now the our life (source and power) Paul wrote...
Therefore consider the members (melos) of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col 3:5-note)
Vine commenting on Colossians 3:5 describes melos as
"A member or limb, here in the plural, is used morally, our actual limbs being used as instruments either for the world, the things on the earth, instead of being put to death, or used for Christ and His glory, and the things in the heavens. We thus either identify ourselves with the old man, or with the new man." (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson or Logos)
Marvin Vincent adds that melos refers to the
Physical (members) though some include mental faculties. Compare Col 3:5-note, where members is expounded by fornication, uncleanness, etc., the physical being a symbol of the moral, of which it is the instrument. The physical members, so far as as they are employed in the service of sin. (Vincent, M. R. Word studies in the New Testament)
James describes one of those "members" writing that
the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. (Jas 3:5, 6) (See devotionals related to the untamable tongue, all from Our Daily Bread - (Taming The Tongue) (The Tongue That Defiles) (Hold Your Tongue) (Twice Is Once Too Many) (Taming A Tiger)
James asks the rhetorical question
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? (Jas 4:1)
Paul explains that...
while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. (Ro 7:5-note)
He went on to explain that
I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (Ro 7:22, 23-note)
When the believer counts upon the fact that the power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken, and operates his life on that principle, he stops allowing that nature to reign as a king in his life. But he does something else. He obeys Paul’s admonition,
Stop putting your members as weapons of unrighteousness at the service of the sinful nature.
He not only refuses obedience to its sinful behests, but he refuses to put his eyes, ears, tongue, mind, hands, and feet at its service, in order that the fallen nature might use these as weapons of unrighteousness in the battle of Satan against God. The Christian is in a warfare. Paul sees him as a soldier of Jesus Christ fighting in the armies of righteousness. When the Christian puts his members at the service of the sinful nature, he is guilty of "high treason", fighting against his own Captain, the Lord Jesus.
Wiersbe notes that...
The tongue is a "little member" of the body (James 3:5), but it is one member that must be yielded to God as a tool of righteousness (Ro 6:12, 13).
Sin (266) (hamartia from verb hamartano = miss the mark and so not share in the prize, to err, offend, sin, to act contrary to the will and law of God and so miss the mark in relation to God) in the present context does not refer to the sins we commit (missing the mark) but, as discussed above, is personified by Paul as the evil nature still resident in the believer. Sin in this verse refers to Sin as a controlling power and as an enslaving tyrant. Paul's has presented the evidence in the preceding verses of Romans 6 that should convince every believer that they have died in relation to the power of Sin as their master.
AS INSTRUMENTS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS: hopla adikias te hamartia: (Ro 1:29; 2:8,9; Dt 25:16; Isa 3:10,11; 55:7; Ezek 18:4; 1Cor 6:9; 2Th 2:12; 2Pe 2:13, 14, 15; 1Jn 1:9)
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Greek Word Studies ( - )
Read freely Greek Word Studies from the Austin Precept text commentary of the Bible in text and pdf format. Precept Austin is an online free dynamic bible commentary similar to wikipedia with updated content and many links to excellent biblical resources around the world. You can browse the entire collection of Commentaries by Verse on the Precept Austin website.We have been "bought with a price" to be "ambassadors for Christ" and our "salvation is nearer to us than when we believed" so let us "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" "so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." (1Cor 6:20, 2Cor 5:20, Ro 13:11, 2Cor 7:1, 1Jn 2:28)