Colossians 3:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But why, after saying above, "you were buried with Christ" and "you put off the body of the sins of the flesh," does he now again say, "put to death"?

Because the first putting to death was the gift of baptism, which removed the original sin existing in us.

The putting to death now proposed is the work of our will. It consists in blotting out the sins that occur after baptism.

Even more, it consists in not even allowing them to come alive in us, by cutting off their beginning through the mortification of the fleshly mind.

It is as if someone renewed a tarnished bronze statue and restored its shine. He then asked the owner to clean it more carefully from rust.

He would not mean the rust already scraped away, but the rust that might appear afterward.

"Fornication." Here he explains what these members are. He mentions fornication first because this passion has the greatest power.

"Uncleanness, passion." He leaves unspoken in particular what it is unseemly to say. By the words uncleanness and passion he shows every kind of shameful intercourse.

For passion truly is a frenzy of the body, like fever, a wound, or another disease. "Evil desire." Here again he speaks generally of everything, for all such desire is evil.

But there is also a good desire, which expresses longing for God and for divine works. According to this desire Daniel was a man of desires (Dan 9:23; Dan 10:11).

"And covetousness, which is idolatry." The firstborn of evil desire is covetousness. He called it idolatry because it is service to silver and gold.

"The idols of the nations are silver and gold" (Ps 113:12).

Through that connection, the love owed to God alone is divided among many objects. He has renounced all fleshly and worldly marks for the sake of divine grace.

Thus he can say with the blessed Apostle Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" (Rom 8:35), and the rest.

Such a man has become without father, without mother, and without genealogy (Heb 7:3), like the great Melchizedek (cf. Gen 14:17-24).

He is no longer held under the power of flesh and nature, because of the union with the Spirit of God that has come to him.

For this reason it is noted and forbidden in the law of Moses. The law did not allow the unclean even to eat the sacred flesh. It also commanded them to be separated from the midst of the camps, lest by their touch they defile the holy things.

It says: “If any soul, that is, any person, having uncleanness upon him, touches anything unclean and eats the flesh of the peace offering of the Lord, that soul shall be cut off from his people” (Lev 7:20-21).

And in Deuteronomy it is said: “If there is among you any man who is unclean because of what happened to him by night, he shall go outside the camp and shall not enter the camp.

When evening comes, he shall wash his body with water, and after sunset he may enter the camp” (Deut 23:10-11).

Then, as the third member of sin, the Apostle sets down passion. It lies hidden in the secrecy of the soul and can be inflamed even without bodily lust. Libido, passion, is so called from libet, meaning “it is pleasing” or “it is desired.”

After this, passing from greater sins to lesser ones, he placed evil desire as the fourth member. It may refer not only to the aforementioned passion of uncleanness, but also in general to every harmful desire.

It is only the disease of a corrupted will. Concerning this the Lord says in the Gospel: “Whoever looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28).

For it is much harder to restrain the desire of the heart when the occasion of a seductive glance is presented to it.

This clearly proves that, for the perfection of chastity, the purity of bodily abstinence alone cannot suffice unless purity of spirit is joined to it.

After all this, the Apostle calls covetousness the last member of the sinful body. By this he teaches that one must not only refrain from desiring another’s possessions, but must also nobly despise one’s own.

So acted the community of believers mentioned in Acts, of which it is said: “The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul.

No one said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. For all who possessed lands or houses sold them.

They brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the Apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as anyone had need” (Acts 4:32, 34-35).

And lest this seem to belong only to a few, the Apostle testifies that covetousness is idolatry, and rightly so.

For whoever does not give what is necessary to the poor, and prefers his money, which he guards with distrustful stinginess, to Christ’s commandments, falls into the vice of idolatry. He prefers love for worldly matter to the love of God.

“Put to death,” he says, “your members which are on the earth” (Col 3:5). Which members does he command us to put to death?

Certainly he does not command us to cut off hands and feet or other bodily parts. Rather, he commands us to destroy the sinful body, of which he says elsewhere: “that the body of sin might be abolished” (Rom 6:6).

Like every other body, this body also has its members. These are what the Apostle commands us to put to death. He immediately lists what they are.

For after saying, “Put to death your members which are on the earth,” he continues: “fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

The first member is fornication. This is the sin of unlawful bodily intercourse. The second member is uncleanness, which sometimes occurs without any contact with a woman, during sleep or while awake.

The third member is passion. Hidden in the secrecy of the soul, it can be inflamed even apart from the action of lust in the body.

The fourth member is evil desire. It may refer not only to the aforementioned unclean passion, but also in general to all destructive desires. It is only the disease of a corrupted will.

The Apostle sets covetousness as the last member of the sinful body. By this he teaches that one must not only abstain from what belongs to others, but must also nobly despise one’s own possessions.

This is what the first community of believers mentioned in Acts actually did (Acts 4:32-35). From all that has been said I draw this conclusion.

If many for Christ’s sake rejected their property so completely that they cut off from their hearts not only possession of money but even desire for it, then it follows that the fire of fornication can likewise be extinguished.

For the Apostle would not have joined an impossible deed to a possible one. Recognizing both as possible, he commanded both equally to be put to death.

Blessed Paul was so certain that the passion of fornication could be uprooted from our members that he not only commanded it to be put to death. He ordered that even its name should not be pronounced among us.

He says: “Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as befits saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not fitting” (Eph 5:3-4).

Therefore there can be no doubt that the passion of fornication can be destroyed from our members. The Apostle commanded us to cut it off in the same way as covetousness, empty speech, and joking, whose cutting off is easy.

Passions hidden in the soul, brother, are not corrected by bodily labors alone. These labors guard a man from desires, lest he be overcome by them through demonic deception.

But they do not give the soul peace and stillness. Works and labors bring dispassion to the soul, put the earthly members to death, and grant rest to thoughts, when we partake of stillness.

Then turmoil ceases in the outward senses, and for a time they abide in the work of the wisdom of stillness.

Anger overtakes every man because he did not first put to death his "members" which are "on the earth."

That is, he did not heal the infirmity of thoughts through patient exercise in the work of bearing the reproach of the Cross.

Instead, he dared in his mind to dream of the glory of the Cross.

He named fornication directly, but passed over the particular names of the other fleshly sins because of their vileness and shame. "For it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret" (Eph 5:12).

But he called them generally uncleanness, because they defile soul and body. He called them passion, because the one inflamed by them truly suffers and is tormented.

He called desire evil because there is also good desire. When we desire sinful works, our desire is evil. When we desire virtuous works, the desire is good.

Therefore the Prophet Daniel was called a "man of desires," as one who desired good works (Dan 10:11). By "evil desire" he signified the desire for every sin.

Why did he say that covetousness is idolatry? Because idolaters made idols from gold, silver, stone, and every other material, and placed in them their whole hope for prosperity.

So the covetous gather every kind of possession and hope to have from them every protection, delight, and rest.

He begins to sin again and to damage his nature even more than the damaged nature he received from his forefathers. Sin, slain in Baptism, comes alive again in man.

Rooting itself chiefly in his flesh, and gradually growing and strengthening, it strives to master the whole nature of man. In man begins an inward, continuous, and stubborn struggle of revived sin against good and the actions of grace.

Or, as the Apostle says, it is the struggle of flesh and spirit: “the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other” (Gal 5:17; Rom 7:23).

This state of inner struggle in the reborn man the Apostle represents in many places in his Epistles under the image of the old and the new man. Both live in the Christian and constantly wage war with one another.

He urges Christians to put off the old man and to mortify sinful passions within themselves. Or, as he says in the passage under consideration, to mortify their earthly members.

“Put to death your members which are on the earth.” As different bodily functions have different members in the body, so the old man has special members for committing different sinful actions.

To cut off the old man’s possibility of committing these actions, one must put to death the instruments of their commission and cut off the members of sin.

The Savior also commanded us to cut off the offending eye in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 18:8-9; cf. Mt 5:29-30).

But there the cutting off of the offending member cannot be understood literally. So here too, the mortification of earthly or fleshly members must not be taken in a direct, literal sense.

Which earthly members, according to the Apostle, require mortification? They are precisely fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (v. 5).

Further on the Apostle adds to them anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech, and slander (vv. 8-9). He summarizes all these passions under the one name of the old man with his deeds (v. 9).

He calls these passions earthly or sinful members because they constantly move man toward sin and make him wholly sinful.

Among the named passions the Apostle especially marks covetousness, or love of possessions, which he directly calls idolatry. This is, of course, because the Savior said that one who is anxious to acquire wealth serves mammon (Mt 6:24).

He makes gold his god, worships it, places his hopes upon it, and finds his happiness in it. This means that he ceases to serve God, does not believe Him, and rejects His help and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

In short, he becomes an idolater. How then can one attain the mortification of sinful members, or the putting off of the old man?

The Apostle indicates the path for this in cultivating within oneself the virtues opposite to the passions that lead man to sin.

Thus, proposing that Christians put on the new man, he reveals this concept in more detail. He counsels them to put on hearts of compassion, or mercy, and kindness. This, of course, is opposed to covetousness.

He counsels them to acquire meekness and longsuffering, which are opposed to anger and wrath. He counsels them to forgive one another’s sins and to show love for their neighbors, in opposition to malice and slander, and so on (vv. 10-15).

“The first mortification was the gift of Baptism, which took away the ancestral sin present in us. The mortification now proposed is the work of our own will. It consists in effacing sins that occur after Baptism. Still more, it consists in not even allowing them to come to life in us. We cut off their birth by mortifying the carnal mind” (Blessed Theophylact). “The Lord made us alive from the first death, washing away our sins in Baptism. Yet for us another mortification is still needed. This does not mean that we mortify ourselves, but that we mortify the passions, not allowing them to act in us” (Oecumenius). Mortification to sin in Baptism exists only in intention and resolve, strengthened by the grace of God. After Baptism there must follow the keeping of oneself in this mortification, or constant self-mortification by the power of the first mortification. This is directed against passionate and sinful movements and impulses that arise again. The first is in intention and resolve. The second is in reality and life. For even after the spirit is made alive by the grace of God, hates sin, and loves holy life according to God in righteousness and holiness, the soul and body are still full of crookedness. This comes from long habit in sinful deeds, which have distorted their natural needs. Because of this, even afterward the soul and body do not cease drawing one toward sin or presenting what is sinful. They remind one of the former self-pleasing found in the passions. Whoever has received the resolve not to live according to the passions must watch strictly what the soul and body propose. When he meets something passionate among this, he must reject it. This rejection of passionate and sinful suggestions is the mortification of the members which the Apostle commands here. The rejected passionate suggestion will come again, and again it must be rejected. So it is always. By this frequent and constant rejection, which each time is a blow against the passion, the passion will finally die down. So it is with one passion, then another, then a third, and finally with all. This is the goal Saint Paul wishes us to reach: that all passions should finally be dead. Then the whole nature of man will appear dispassionate, pure, and bright. Only under this condition may one hope to appear in glory when Christ the Lord appears. This is why Saint Paul said, “Mortify therefore.” That is, mortify in yourselves all the passions and cleanse yourselves of them, if you desire then to appear in glory. “Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth.” By earthly members the Apostle means the passions, which he then lists. He calls the passions our members because they seem to be inseparable parts of our nature. They take us captive precisely because they seem parts of nature. It seems that, by arming ourselves against them, we are going against nature. In cutting off the passions, it is as though we were cutting off our own members. In reality the passions are not our natural members. They are intruders grafted onto certain natural parts and have distorted them. This may be counted as a second reason why Saint Paul called them our members. Because certain passions are fastened to our members in this way, one cannot act against the passions without also acting against the members to which they are attached. Here self-pity enters, or is introduced by the enemy. It cuts off ascetic energy and then permits the rise of the passion. So that this may not happen, the Apostle writes: cut off your own members, do not spare them. Otherwise you cannot appear in glory with Christ the Lord. In order not to fall under this temptation of self-pity, the struggler must keep this thought and conviction in mind. When he mortifies certain members of his own, he is not killing them, but the passion grafted onto them. The passion, once grafted on, deadens the members. You, by mortifying the passion through a certain mortification of the members, free them from the deadening power of passion and make them alive. The passions are called members “which are on the earth” because all passions rest on the earth and are fed only by the earthly. They act according to the earthly mind and find their satisfaction on earth. Earthliness is the distinctive mark of those who live according to the passions (see Saint Chrysostom). As long as these passions are in force, they will not allow one to set the mind on things above or seek the things above. This applies generally to all passions, and therefore also to those begotten by anger. But Saint Paul first lists passions of desire, and then passions of anger. Among passions of desire he presents various forms of fleshly impurity and covetousness. He passes over a pleasurable life spent in sensory enjoyments: eating, drinking, making merry, and generally living in worldly pomp. This is because it is not the common possession of all. It may also be because such a life is understood under greed. For those who have much usually live “making merry splendidly every day.” Fleshly desire begets fornication, uncleanness, passion, and evil desire. Only the word “fornication” points to definite sinful acts. What the others mean is left for each thoughtful person to determine. Our interpreters suppose that the first word denotes acts of the passionate desire, and the others denote the properties of this passion. It makes man unclean more than other passions, or disorders him more than others. It is truly παθος, an illness like a burning fever (see Blessed Theophylact). Therefore it deserves to be called evil desire. Yet perhaps one may also understand it thus. Fornication denotes known criminal relations with women. Uncleanness denotes unnatural acts in satisfaction of lust. Passion denotes the mania of fornication. Evil desire denotes infatuations that dry one up with jealousy and seek death for others and for oneself. But whatever one understands by them, it is evident that Saint Paul commands the mortification of the fleshly passion in all its manifestations. Its works should not even be named among Christians. More than anything else it is contrary to the spirit of Christianity. Therefore, everywhere in the Apostle, among the things rejected, it stands in the first place. Greed is the unceasing desire to have more and more, an insatiable passion for riches. The Apostle arms us not against possession, but against greed. We need food, clothing, and shelter. We cannot fail to have that by which this need is satisfied. But the measure of possession must be the satisfaction of need. Let need itself indicate the limits of acquisition and of the efforts made for it. Whoever passes beyond need and loves acquisition or possession itself is sick with the passion of avarice. When it takes possession of his heart, it becomes the mistress of all his deeds, thoughts, plans, and undertakings. Then everything is forgotten, both in oneself and in others, both earth and heaven. One goal alone remains: to have and to have. In such a disposition, possession becomes a god already because it takes possession of the whole man. But it is especially a god for the covetous man because he places all his hope in it. His life, his position, and the course of his affairs all stand firmly, because he has much of everything. He rests in hope upon mammon. What should be expected from God alone, he expects from riches. For him it is an idol, which he serves, for which he labors, and in which he hopes. This is why Saint Paul called greed idolatry. Blessed Theodoret writes: “He called covetousness idolatry because the Savior called mammon a master (see Mt 6:24), teaching that one enslaved to the passion of acquisition honors riches as a god.” The one captivated by this passion “serves and worships silver and gold. And the idols of the nations are silver and gold (Ps 113:12)” (Blessed Theophylact). One must keep in mind here that the Apostle has in view not the amount of possessions, but the passion to possess and acquire. Job, Abraham, David, and many others were very rich, but they were not sick with avarice or greed. What the Apostle commands us to mortify in ourselves in this respect is attachment to possessions and the placing of hope in them. One may be subject to this even with little property, just as one may be free from it with much.