Col 3:1-11

Put on the New Human

Warm-up: When was the last time when you bought a new computer, and how did you feel about transitioning to its new software? What made you do it?

Read: Colossians 3:1-11

1) v1: What did Paul mean by “If you have been raised with Christ…”? cf Col 2:12

2) v2 further explains what it means to “seek”: How?

  • “set your mind on… not on…”: Why not both?
    • gr. phroneo, to mind (reason+affection): Why is the mind needed for this?
  • How did Jesus teach this in the gospels? Mt 6:19-24

3) How do vv3-4 describe the logic of our calling in vv1-2?

  • “For you…” – must now submit more decidedly to God’s will as decreed by the law? How would this turn Paul’s teaching on its head?**
  • In what sense is the new Christian life hidden? v3; cf 1Jn 3:2
    • If that new life were a new “identity”, what sense would it make (if any) to hide it? Hint: Paul insists that “the new” is and remains hidden until resurrection day.***
    • What remains instead hidden about our bodies? Ro 8:17-25; 1Cor 15:41-50
  • v4: Why was it necessary to remind the reader in this context that our bodies still await redemption?
    • Hint: Every Christian has died with Christ in baptism spiritually. Why is it necessary to know this? And what are we therefore called to do with our mortal body, and for how long, v5? cf Lk 9:23; Jn 12:23-26****

4) vv5-7: Every believer already died once and for all with Christ in baptism. What then remains for them to put to death?

  • What remains “earthly” (lit. organs which are on earth) also in Christians?
    • Can you think of a member of your body that is exempted (including the brain)?
  • How are habits of our mortal body idolatrous?
    • Certain people therefore condemn even what God created for good use. Why? cf Ti 1:15; 1Tim 4:1-5
  • v5: To literally mutilate the body is not Christian. Therefore, how else should one interpret v5?

5) vv8-10 But now put them all away…: What exactly, and how?

  • How do Paul’s imperatives in vv7-9 compare to the ten commandments of Moses?
    • Which ones do you find more strict? How would you summarize the key difference?
    • What happens when a modern translation adds “you must… ” (not found in the Greek)? Why would they do this?
    • Unlike v5, all of the vices in vv8-9 are somehow connected to the mouth: What do you make of that? Why such huge emphasis on truthfulness, v9? cf Jn 8:31-32
  • v10: “…is being renewed”: How and by who? In a parallel passage, in Gal 5:16-17, Paul insisted that this work by the Spirit is not Law: Why not?**
    • If not with laws, how else does the Spirit lead the Christian?

6) vv10-11 …put on the new (man): What is “the new”? v9

  • v10 contrasts “the new” to the old man (gr. anthropos, lit. a human, or mankind). By contrast, several modern translators replace “New Human” by “New Self“: Do you think it’s the same, or do you feel a shift?
    • Christ as the new ‘human’ is contrasted to Adam as the old also in Ro 5:14 and 1Cor 15:22. Read “new self” instead of Christ into these verses, and “old self” instead of Adam: What will happen?
    • What happens when translations do this to Col 3:9-10? => Consider next:
  • Who is actually asked to “put on the new”?
    • Why can no one do it except your new “self” (since the old already died and was buried, Col 2:12)?
    • How meaningful would it be if Paul had asked your new “self” to dress itself with its own SELF??
  • Since the New Human thus cannot possibly be the “Self”, what else is it?
    • v10 “…after the image of its creator”: What is an image, and how did Paul go on to describe how it looks? v12ff

7) Personal & application

  • What do you like about this passage, and how does it perhaps disturb you?
  • Paul himself applied his teaching about the New Human to promote unity: How so? v11
    • How does the virtue of the New Human serve unity?
    • Can you expect that such unity just ‘happens’? Why not?
  • Putting on a dress fashioned in the image of Christ’s character is a powerful metaphor:
    • How does it illustrate what we practice daily as Christians?
    • How does it illustrate the difference between Christian obedience and legalism?
    • Does it illustrate anything that you do not yet practice, but which you resolve to make a new habit?

*’The heavens’ were created (Job 9:8; Ps 8:3; 33:6), they exist from the beginning until the end of spacetime (2Pet 3:7-10). Accordingly, the heavens can only be God’s ‘throne’ in a metaphorical sense. Otherwise He could not be the “I am” who – unlike His creation – was and is forever. Perhaps, the meaning of the throne metaphor is that everyting that exists only exists by and under His rule (Mt 6:10).

**A discussion of the proper use of the law is part e.g. of the study on Galatians 6.

*** Elsewhere, a new name “that no one else knows” is promised to the victorious as a reward, Rev 2:17; 3:2. Being a reward, it cannot refer to identity. Col 3:3 also mentions no hidden identity. Instead, the life that remains hidden refers to the immortality of a new body, for which we hope, but still without seeing it, cf Ro 8:23-25. Hidden, because immortal bodies will only materialize in the future.

**** v5 teaches how our spiritual dying to the Law of Moses (Ro 7:4-6; Gal 2:19) must not be confused with the subsequent lifelong task of self denial (Lk 9:23): To Christians, a “burial” already happened once and for all through their spiritual union with Christ (v4) . It thus became the reason why they pursue self-denial freely for the rest of their present life (v5).

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.