Lay aside (put off, spoil, disarm) (554) apekduomai

Laid aside (554) (apekduomai from apo = marker of dissociation > away from + ekduo = to go or come out of, strip one of clothing - the antithesis of enduo) means to take off or strip off from one's self, the apo denoting separation from what is put off. There are only 2 uses of apekduomai in the NT - Col 2:15-note, Col 3:9. Apekdúomai is an intensive double compound, a stronger word than apotithemi [word study] ("put...aside"), which occurs in (Col 3:8-note). The idea of complete separation is conveyed by this verb apekdúomai because it is derived from the preposition apo which conveys the idea of separation of one thing from another by which the union or fellowship of the two is destroyed. Vincent adds that "By the addition... of apo from, there is added to the idea of getting out of one’s clothes that of getting away from them; so that the word is a strong expression for wholly putting away from one’s self." (Vincent, M. R. Word studies in the New Testament. Vol. 3, Page 1-488) The Colossian believers are to remember that because of the new birth, they have wholly put off the old self. They have "stripped him clean off" like a dirty garment and figuratively have gotten away from these filthy rags. It is important however to note that the evil nature of the old self is not (yet) eradicated, but that it remains in the believer until death (when in glory we will be completely free of the taint of sin). However the great news is that its power is broken and it has no more power over the believer than he allows it to have. It is the physical body as dominated by the evil nature that is put away in favor of a physical body now dominated by the divine nature. A B Simpson writes that... By a very fine metaphor the Apostle describes the Christian life under the figure of disrobing and robing a person. Our garments are frequently used to denote our character. And so the word habit has come to mean both our dress and manner of living. There is first the process of disrobing. It begins with the putting off of our old habits and dispositions, our old clothes... Next, however, we strip not only to the skin, but to the bone, and to the very heart. For we put off our very selves. "Ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:8, 9). This is the entire renunciation and crucifixion of our old self and our whole natural life. Next comes the process of robing. This begins inside. There must be a new man first before he can wear his new clothes. You would not put clean and beautiful garments on an unbathed person... Next comes the process of robing. This begins inside. There must be a new man first before he can wear his new clothes. You would not put clean and beautiful garments on an unbathed person. (Christ in the Bible) As John MacArthur reminds us You can tell a lot about people in our society by the way they dress. From baseball players to bus drivers, from postal carriers to policemen, people wear the uniform of their profession. Who we are determines what we wear, and failing to “dress the part” can sometimes have embarrassing consequences. Many years ago a very wealthy man in a Southern California town was found wandering around the local country club wearing shabby clothes. He was promptly seized by security guards and charged with vagrancy—even though he owned the country club. He had failed to dress consistent with who he was... Christians must dress themselves spiritually in accordance with their new identity. They have died with Christ and risen to new life. Salvation thus produces a two-sided obligation for believers. Negatively, they must throw off the garment of the old, sinful lifestyle, as Paul pointed out in Col 3:5, 6, 7, 8, 9a. Positively, they must put on the lifestyle of the new man." (MacArthur, J. Colossians. Chicago: Moody Press) (Bolding added) In short, Paul is saying that if the old man (see note) really has been put off (which it has for a believer), the believer must not at a critical moment revert to the way he acted before his conversion. How we all need to hear and heed Paul's exhortation! The aorist tense pictures a completed action in the past when they were "circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal (apekdusis [noun form of apekduomai] = a putting off or laying aside) of the body of the flesh" (Col 2:12-note). Eadie writes that the... the literal meaning of the participle (is) “having put off the old man with his deeds.”...The putting off of the old man, as described by the aorist, cannot be contemporary with the foregoing imperatives, but it precedes them (eg, do not lie). It is a process consummated...These participles (eg "having put off...") are not to be taken in the sense of imperatives, as the first class of expositors virtually regards them, but they unfold a reason why the sins condemned should be uniformly abstained from. Lie not one to another, as being persons who have put off the old man; or, as the participle has often a causal sense (See Johnson's note below)—since ye have put off the old man with his deeds. De Wette says that such an argument is superfluous, but surely the paragraph may conclude as it began, with an argument. The first argument is, ye are dead; and the second contains one of the results of that spiritual death with Christ. “Since ye have put off the old man with his deeds” The expressive personality—“old man”—has been explained under Eph 4:22-note. It is a bold personification of our first nature as derived from Adam, the source and seat of original and actual transgression, and called “old,” as existing prior to our converted state. This ethical person is to be put off from us as one puts off clothes, and with all his deeds—all the practices which characterized him, and the sins to which he excited. This was a change deeper by far than asceticism could ever reach. For it was a total revolution. Self-denial in meats and drinks, while it prunes the excrescence, really helps the growth of the plant, but this uproots it. (Colossians 3 Commentary) S. Lewis Johnson writes that "laid aside" in the aorist tense "refers to the events of the cross (cf. Eph 4:21, 22-note, Ep 4:23, 24-note). There the great change took place. This past fact is the ground of all apostolic exhortation and true spiritual life. As Nicholson says: “This is the great secret of the believer’s power, not a realization of it. We are never exhorted to crucify ourselves.” ...the fact that the participle ("laid aside" = aorist middle participle) is causal marks this stripping off of the old man as the reason for the admonition to resist the habit of lying. A new position obligates the believer to new life and action." (Bibliotheca Sacra: volume 121, issue 481, 1964). In the only other NT use of apekdúomai we read that Christ divested Himself at the cross of the evil powers which had struggled with Him so strongly during His ministry in attempts to force Him to abandon the pathway of the cross, Paul recording that When He had disarmed (apekdúomai) the rulers and authorities (evil supernatural, demonic forces), He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Col 2:15-note) It should be noted that some commentators take the disarming as active voice which indicates that Christ stripped Satan and his demons, depriving them of their power by His victory at the Cross (which is certainly true). The related noun apékdusis is also found in Colossians 2, again in connection with the effects of the work of the Cross, Paul instructing the Colossian saints that in Christ you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal (apékdusis - the stripping or putting off) of the body of the flesh (the sinful, fallen human nature totally dominating believers before salvation > now it we no longer having the sinful self telling us what we must do) by the circumcision of Christ (Christians have been cleansed of that sinful dominance and been given a new nature). (Col 2:11-note) This same idea of dissociation from who we were in Adam to who we now are in Christ is brought out in other passages such as Paul's reminder to the saints at Ephesus that we were formerly darkness, BUT NOW (we) are Light in the Lord" and consequently we are now to "walk as children of Light (e.g., we are to stop lying, and doing the other things that characterized our former life in darkness) (Ep 5:4-note). Paul is not commanding the Colossians to lay aside the old self but is explaining that this is their present condition. This is who they are in Christ. Paul is however telling them this great truth so that now they might live in the light and power of this transaction. He is explaining that they are to stop lying since they have taken off the old man (see note and here for more discussion of the old man/old self) who had the habit of lying. Because they are now new creatures in Christ (2Cor 5:17-note), they have the power not to act the way they did before their new birth. In essence, Paul is telling them now to apply the truth he had taught earlier that in Christ the saints at Colossae "were also circumcised with a circumcision (circumcision symbolized man’s need for cleansing of the heart and was the outward sign of that cleansing of sin that comes by faith) made without hands (at salvation believers undergo a spiritual “circumcision” = new birth, new creation at time of regeneration = it involves God {through Christ's death and our co-crucifixion with Him} "cutting off" the dominion or power of our sinful nature or flesh, a power to which we were formerly enslaved), in the removal (stripping off) of the body of the flesh ("the sinful nature" = the whole evil, corrupt, carnal, unregenerate nature of man with its passions and lusts inherited from Adam, which causes us, for example, to naturally have the habit of lying, cf Gal 5:24 [see note]) by the circumcision of Christ (His death on the cross of Calvary) having been buried with Him in baptism (when the Lord Jesus died, the believer died also = we died to the controlling power of sin, cf Ro 6:11-note), in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." (Col 2:11, 12-note) Therefore since we who have died with Christ, have died to the power sin formerly had over us to make us habitual liars (for example), we now have the power in Christ to stop lying to one another. These truths now need to be practiced in our lives. Keep pressing on. Sure you will fall occasionally. But don't give up. Discipline yourself for godliness for we shall all soon see our Lord and be completely free of the presence and pleasure of sin. In the meantime Paul is telling us to "occupy" until He comes. In Colossians 2, Paul reminds the saints at Colossae that they have have died (aorist tense = a decisive, completed action in the past; a historical event) with Christ (speaks of the believer's inseparable union with Christ) to the elementary principles of the world. (Col 2:20-note) What does death signify? It means that one is set free from practices (like asceticism, rituals, ordinances -- all of which are man-made and not God-decreed) that some were saying one must perform in order to be "spiritual". Paul says we are already "spiritual" because of our death with Christ. Now live out that spirituality in practice by not lying to one another. In Colossians 3 Paul reminds the saints that you have died (aorist tense = a decisive, completed action in the past - so far as your spiritual being is concerned, you died to or were separated from the former life and everything of an evil nature that pertained to it) and your (new, real, "raised to walk in newness", cf Ro 6:4-note) life is hidden (perfect tense speaks of permanence, Robertson says "No hellish burglar can break that combination") with Christ in God. (Col 3:3-note) Your new spiritual life is no longer in the sphere of the earthly and sensual, but is with the life of the risen Christ, Who is unseen with God. In a similar statement Paul declared "may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Gal 6:14-note) Because of the Cross the world system had lost its appeal to Paul, and he had lost his appeal to the world. Now circumcision was unimportant. Only being a new creation in Christ mattered. The world is spiritually dead to believers, and they are dead to the world. MacDonald adds that On that cross the world died to Paul and Paul to the world. When a man is saved, the world says goodbye to him, and he says goodbye to the world. He is spoiled as far as the world is concerned because he is no longer interested in its fleeting pleasures; the world has lost its attraction for him, because he has found One who completely satisfies. Findlay says: “He can never believe in it, never take pride in it, nor do homage to it any more. It is stripped of its glory and robbed of its power to charm or govern him.” Thus the cross is a great barrier or dividing line between the world and the child of God. (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos) WALK THE TALK! Remember that Colossians 3 and 4 is the "shoe leather" in which we are to live out the great doctrinal truths found in the first chapters 1 and 2. We now need to prove (present imperative = command not a suggestion to make this your lifestyle or habitual practice) ourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. (Jas 1:22-note) Paul is reminding the saints that they really do possess the power to walk the talk. This great change that made this power over lying a possibility took place at the Cross. Christ's finished work at Calvary and our identification with Him now is the ground of all apostolic exhortation and true spiritual life. Based on what is true about us, now we have a responsibility as new creatures with new clothes -- the believer is now obligated to live out his or her new life in thought, word and deed by the power of the Spirit, in the grace in which we stand and to the glory of God the Father. Christian living depends on Christian learning; duty is always founded on doctrine. If Satan can keep a Christian ignorant, he can keep him impotent. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos) The NET Bible Commentary has a lengthy note on put off and old/new self (man)... The commands in Col 3:8-note, Col 3:9 are based on two reasons given in Col 3:9, 10 – reasons which are expressed in terms of a metaphor about clothing oneself. Paul says that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Two things need to be discussed in reference to Paul’s statement. (1) What is the meaning of the clothing imagery (i.e., the “have put off” and “have been clothed”)? (2) What is the meaning of the old man and the new man? Though some commentators understand the participles “have put off” (Col 3:9) and “have been clothed” (Col 3:10) as imperatives (i.e., “put off!” and “put on!”), this use of participles is extremely rare in the NT and thus unlikely here. It is better to take them as having the semantic force of indicatives, and thus they give an explanation of what had happened to the Colossians at the time of their conversion – they had taken off the old man and put on the new when they trusted in Christ (cf. Col 1:4-note). While it is difficult to say for certain what the background to Paul’s “clothing” metaphor might be (whether it is primarily Jewish and comes from the OT, or primarily Gentile and comes from some facet of the Greco-Roman religious milieu), it is nonetheless clear, on the basis of Paul’s usage of the expression, that the old man refers to man as he is in Adam and dominated by sin (cf. Ro 6:6-note; Eph 4:22-note), while the new man refers to the Christian whose new sphere of existence is in Christ. Though the metaphor of clothing oneself primarily reflects outward actions, there is a distinct inward aspect to it, as the rest of Col 3:10-note indicates: being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Paul’s point, then, is that Christians should take off their dirty clothing (inappropriate behavior) and put on clean clothing (behavior consistent with knowing Christ) because this has already been accomplished in a positional sense at the time of their conversion (cf. Gal 3:27 with Ro 13:14-note). (NETBible Colossians 3) THE OLD SELF: ton palaion anthrôpon: Related Resource: In depth discussion = Old Man This section reads more literally Having put off or having laid aside completely the old man

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Lay aside (put off, spoil, disarm) (554) apekduomai

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