Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Comment: Does the sentence ‘Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:‘ mean that we should all go out and commit suicide? You could truly say but my body is all made up of what is found in common earth dirt and our bodies when fully decayed are just ‘dust’! In Biblical language Paul is saying, ‘Stop living in that way which shows rebellion to God’. Recently I’ve met several people who claim that they aren’t sinners. There are at least two varieties of sin. The first form of sin, chosen by Adam, is one ‘forced upon us’ by our being human. Whether we like it or not, God, who is the Ruler of the Universe, the Boss, gave Adam and Eve a choice to, on behalf of all humanity, decide whether or not humans would be His followers or to choose how they wanted to live. Sorry, but they chose foolishly and we are all affected! The second is what we do in a way that displeases God. Some try to live by the Golden Rule and avoid the big sins like thievery, murder, embezzlement etc and accept other things as ‘human frailty’. God doesn’t think that way! Some want, even expect, God to do all the work of transforming our lives. He offers help through His indwelling Spirit but this passage commands us to ‘put off and put on ‘characteristics appropriate for the children of God! ‘Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free.’ There are no followers of Jesus excused from these commands for ‘Christ is all, and in all’. The character that we are commanded to dress ourselves with is unbelievable better than the ‘rags’ which we are told to take off!
John 15: 1&2 – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Prayer: Help me to work with You, Lord Jesus, as You do Your work in me. To take off and to put on what You tell me to.
As I read it! 