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Selected Verse: Colossians 3:5 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Col 3:5 |
King James |
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Mortify--Greek, "make a corpse of"; "make dead"; "put to death."
therefore--(See on Col 3:3). Follow out to its necessary consequence the fact of your having once for all died with Christ spiritually at your regeneration, by daily "deadening your members," of which united "the body of the sins of the flesh" consists (compare Col 2:11). "The members" to be mortified are the fleshly instruments of lust, in so far as the members of the body are abused to such purposes. Habitually repress and do violence to corrupt desires of which the members are the instruments (compare Rom 6:19; Rom 8:13; Gal 5:24-25).
upon the earth--where they find their support [BENGEL] (Compare Col 3:2, "things on earth"). See Eph 5:3-4.
inordinate affection--"lustful passion."
evil concupiscence--more general than the last [ALFORD], the disorder of the external senses; "lustful passion," lust within [BENGEL].
covetousness--marked off by the Greek article as forming a whole genus by itself, distinct from the genus containing the various species just enumerated. It implies a self-idolizing, grasping spirit; far worse than another Greek term translated "the love of money" (Ti1 6:10).
which is--that is, inasmuch as it is "idolatry." Compare Note, see on Eph 4:19, on its connection with sins of impurity. Self and mammon are deified in the heart instead of God (Mat 6:24; see on Eph 5:5). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Mortify therefore your members - Since you are dead to sin and the world, and are to appear with Christ in the glories of his kingdom, subdue every carnal and evil propensity of your nature. The word mortify means to put to death (Rom 8:13, note; Gal 5:24, note), and the meaning here is that they were entirely to subdue their evil propensities, so that they would have no remains of life; that is, they were not at all to indulge them. The word "members" here, refers to the different members of the body - as the seat of evil desires and passions; compare the notes at Rom 6:13. They were wholly to extirpate those evil passions which he specifies as having their seat in the various members of the earthly body.
Fornication - Notes, Rom 1:2.
Uncleanness - Notes, Rom 1:24.
Inordinate affection - πάθος pathos. Rendered in Rom 1:26, "vile affections;" see the notes at that verse. In Th1 4:5, the word is rendered "lust" - which is its meaning here.
Evil concupiscence - Evil desires; licentious passions; Rom 1:24. Greek.
And covetousness, which is idolatry - It is remarkable that the apostle always ranks covetousness with these base and detestable passions. The meaning here is:
(1) that it is a low and debasing passion, like those which he had specified; and,
(2) that it secures the affections which properly belong to God, and is, therefore, idolatry. Of all base passions, this is the one that most dethrones God from the soul. See this whole passage more fully explained in the notes at Eph 5:3-5. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Mortify (νεκρώσατε)
Only here, Rom 4:19; Heb 11:12. Mortify is used in its literal sense of put to death. So Erasmus: "Christ was mortified and killed." And Shakespeare:
" - his wildness mortified in him,
Seemed to die too."
"1 Henry V., 1, 26"
Members (μέλη)
See on Rom 6:13. The physical members, so far as they are employed in the service of sin. The word falls in with the allusions to bodily austerities in ch. 2.
Which are upon the earth
Compare Col 3:2. The organs of the earthly and sensuous life.
Fornication, etc.
In apposition with members, denoting the modes in which the members sinfully exert themselves.
Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence (πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν).
See on Rom 1:26.
And covetousness (καὶ πλεονεξίαν)
And has a climactic force; and especially; see on Rom 1:29.
Which is (ἥτις ἐστιν)
The compound relative, explanatory and classifying. Seeing it stands in the category of. Compare Eph 5:5.
Idolatry
See on Co1 5:10. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Mortify therefore - Put to death, slay with a continued stroke. Your members - Which together make up the body of sin. Which are upon the earth - Where they find their nourishment. Uncleanness - In act, word, or thought. Inordinate affection - Every passion which does not flow from and lead to the love of God. Evil desire - The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life. Covetousness - According to the derivation of the word, means the desire of having more, or of any thing independent on God. Which is idolatry - Properly and directly; for it is giving the heart to a creature. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Mortify, therefore, you members - Νεκρωσατε· Put them to death: the verb is used metaphorically to signify, to deprive a thing of its power, to destroy its strength. Use no member of your body to sin against God; keep all under dominion; and never permit the beast to run away with the man. To gratify any sensual appetite is to give it the very food and nourishment by which it lives, thrives, and is active. However the body may suffer by excessive sensual indulgences, the appetite increases with the indulgence. Deny yourselves, and let reason rule; and the animal will not get the ascendency over the rational man. See the notes on Rom 6:11, etc.
Inordinate affection - Παθος· Unnatural and degrading passion; bestial lusts. See Rom 1:26, Rom 1:27; and the notes there.
Evil concupiscence - Επιθυμιαν κακην. As επιθυμια signifies strong and vehement desire of any kind, it is here joined with κακη, evil, to show the sense more particularly in which the apostle uses it.
Covetousness, which is idolatry - For the covetous man makes his money his god. Now, it is the prerogative of God to confer happiness; every godly man seeks his happiness in God; the covetous man seeks that in his money which God alone can give; therefore his covetousness is properly idolatry. It is true his idol is of gold and silver, but his idolatry is not the less criminal on that account. |
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.