3:5-11 It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carnal indulgences. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, because Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness.

Verse 7. - In which also ye walked once, when you were living in these (things) (Ephesians 2:3; Ephesians 5:8; Romans 6:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 12:2; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 4:3). Even retaining "sons of disobedience" in ver. 6, it seems better, with Alford, Lightfoot, and the English Version, to read οῖς as neuter, "in which," referring to the same antecedent (ver. 5)as "because of which" in ver. 6; not "amongst whom" (Ellicott, Meyer). The latter interpretation is against the general usage of "walk in" with St. Paul (Colossians 4:5; Ephesians 2:2, 10; Ephesians 4:17; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 6:4; 2 Corinthians 4:2), and seems to condemn the mere fact of living "amongst the sons of disobedience" (see, on the other hand, 1 Corinthians 5:9, 10; Philippians 2:15; John 17:15; 1 Peter 2:12). The parallel "because of which" (ver. 6) gives also its force: these sins are visited with the Divine anger, and moreover are the very sins in which the Colossians aforetime had lived; observe the same connection in Ephesians 5:6-8; 1 Corinthians 6:10, 11. "Were living" stands opposed to "make dead" of ver. 5, and to "ye died" (ver. 3: comp. Colossians 2:20; Galatians 2:20); it marks the time when "the old man" (ver. 9), with his "earthly members" (ver. 5) was alive and active (comp. Romans 7:5, 9, "sin came to life"). "In these things" (τούτοις, not αὐτοῖς: Revised Text) points to the things enumerated in ver. 6, with a mental gesture of contempt.

In the which ye also walked some time,.... Either in or among the children of disobedience, Colossians 3:6, or rather in the afore mentioned sins, Colossians 3:5. Sin is a road or path, in which sinners walk a way of their own, or of their own choosing and approving, though a dark and crooked one, and which leads to destruction: walking herein denotes a continued series of sinning, a persisting in it, a progress therein, a proceeding from evil to evil, taking pleasure, and going on securely in it; and which is the case and state of God's elect before conversion, which is a turning of them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and out of the ways of sin, into the paths of righteousness, when the course of their walk, of their lives and conversations, is altered; and which is suggested here, and made use of as another reason for the mortification of the deeds of the body of sin, taken from their former state, and their deliverance out of it; and therefore the time past of their lives, when they walked in these things, should suffice, and they should now cease from sin, from a series and course of sinning:

when ye lived in them; in sins, and were dead in them; for to be dead in sin, and to live in sin, is the same thing; living in sin is the death of sin. To live in sin is to live after the flesh, after the dictates of corrupt nature, to live a sinful course of life; it is for a man to give up himself to sin, be wholly bent upon it, take delight in it, and make it his work and business. This had been the case of these believers, but now they were dead to sin, and it became them to live no longer therein, but to mortify it by denying it, and abstaining from it, and living soberly, righteously, and godly.

7. sometime—"once."

walked … when ye lived in them—These sins were the very element in which ye "lived" (before ye became once for all dead with Christ to them); no wonder, then, that ye "walked" in them. Compare on the opposite side, "living in the Spirit," having as its legitimate consequence, "walking in the Spirit" (Ga 5:25). The "living" comes first in both cases, the walking follows.

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