It’s been said that Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians serves as a template for the letter to the Ephesians. Whether or not that’s the case, the passage on the "new man" in Colossians 3 closely parallels that in Ephesians 4, with some notable augmentations.
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old man with its evil practices, and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (Col. 3:1-17)
The "therefore" that begins chapter 3 refers back to Paul’s reminder that following ascetic laws ("Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" — 2:21) and other forms of self-abasement have no value in eliminating fleshly indulgence. Stop paying attention to these worldly concerns, Paul tells his readers. Consider yourself dead to immorality and impurity. Instead, "keep seeking the things above," "set your mind on the things above" (3:1-2).
Is Paul advocating a simplistic psychology here, along the lines of "ignore it and it will go away" combined with the power of positive thinking? Or is he envisioning a magical mystical transformation of the self, whereby the believer is able to draw directly on the power of God to overcome sin? These interpretations can’t be ruled out, but I think Paul’s main point is to emphasize that these things aren’t all that important in the long run. You are flesh: you will surely die, and when you do these fleshly shortcomings will die along with you. Paul suggests that, instead of obsessing about your continued failures — failures will go away eventually anyway — pay attention to the things that will last. It’s the resurrection life that matters, a life characterized not by the absence of sin but by the presence of knowledge, compassion, patience, peace, and love. These are "the things above, where Christ is."
…and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him (3:10)
As in Ephesians 4, the new man isn’t a static entity but rather a source of continuing vitality. Again the believer is encouraged to "lay aside" the old man and to "put on" the new. Again there’s the idea of the new man being a new creation in which the old-creation distinctions — Greek versus Jew, slave versus freeman — no longer hold.
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This is the last of the five Pauline passages referring explicitly to the "new creation." In a few days, based on these posts and discussions, I’ll try to summarize the idea as Paul presents it.
Re: The New Man in Colossians 3
You know, I’m sure it’s very empty in here - just you, me and one or two observers in the wings.
All I can say, John, in response to your three options for interpreting the passage, is ‘none of the above’. But I am simply reiterating the conventional interpretation.
Paul’s emphasis throughout the passage is on what has been accomplished through Christ for believers now, rather than how it will be in the future.
Remarkably therefore, we are described as already raised (from the dead), and already seated with Christ where he is, our lives being already ‘hidden with Christ in God’. This emphasis on the resurrection provides, for me, a key to the otherwise obscure reference to ‘the first resurrection’ in Revelation 20:5.
So Paul is describing the means of living a holy life. How is ‘sensual indulgence’ (2:23) to be restrained? How are we to rid ourselves of ‘anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language’? How are we to ‘clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility and patience’- 3:12(b)? While these are attitudes which require conscious choice, hence ‘clothe yourselves’ - 3:12(a), they are also a life which is energised by the resurrection of Christ - the inner life of Christ himself, imparted by the Spirit.
This inner life of Christ is suggested in ‘your life is now hidden with Christ in God’ - 3:3(a); ‘Christ who is your life’ - 3:3(b). The same idea is conveyed in 2:6 - ‘just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him’, where union with Christ is described as a living reality.
This is the ‘new creation’, the existence of which is proclaimed as a reality for all, but mediated through faith in Christ. Faith is the precondition - since Christ was received through faith in the first place - 2:6.
But, looking around, I see that I am the last one in the room, the gust of wind and swirl of the curtains being the only visible sign of your hasty departure. And is this the bar steward I see tacking between the tables towards me, with what looks like a very large bill on his silver salver?
Re: The New Man in Colossians 3
Perhaps we ought to regard the empty parlor as a kind of monastic retreat where we might sequester ourselves from the cacophony and empty chatter of the world in order to give ear to those inconspicuous and subtle truths that make themselves known only in silence. Now I must take a brief stroll in order to ponder your thoughts and my possible reply. And perhaps tomorrow or the next day we proceed to summaries and conclusions. I do notice, however, that I ve left my wallet at home, so if you wouldn’t mind terribly…
Re: The New Man in Colossians 3
Near the beginning of my walk I thought of a more apt phrase for my prior comment: replace "the cacophony and empty chatter of the world" with "the shrill cacophony of the theological marketplace." Further along the trail I wondered how many OST readers have witnessed the beauty of a high prairie liberally dotted with the surprisingly gaudy yellow blossoms of low-growing cacti.
And yes, I also thought about Colossians 3. We veer farther afield by considering the broader Pauline themes of morality, the law, justification, and sanctification, but we must address them at least cursorily in the context of the "new man."
In Romans 6:2 Paul says that he died to sin; then, in 7:4, he says he also died to the law, in order that he might be joined to the resurrected Christ. Paul repeats this thought in Gal. 2:19: I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live to God. Now, in Col. 3, Paul tells his readers to consider themselves dead to sin, but in the prior chapter he told them that ascetic self-denial wasn’t of any value. So which is it: dead to sin or dead to law? The general message is something like this: neither obedience to the law nor disobedience, neither self-denial nor self-gratification, will bring you into the life of God. Both of these seemingly opposing attitudes are part of the same dead thing; namely, "the flesh."
Reading this translation one might think that Paul is advocating an Aristotelian (also Watchman Nee) tripartite division of the self into body, soul, and spirit: the soul (or mind) can focus on bodily lusts, which lead to death, or it can turn its attention to spiritual things, leading to life. But here is a more literal translation of that same verse:
The flesh and the spirit are alternative ways of thinking, of orienting oneself to reality. The orientation called "the flesh" is concerned with the old-creation distinctions between Jew and Greek, and it is simultaneously obsessed with achieving justification through obeying the law and with succumbing to the desire to break the law. This fleshly orientation is death, so Paul tells his readers to die to this death-dealing thought pattern: death to the distinctions between Jew and Greek, death to law, death to sin. Instead, Paul encourages his readers to adopt the alternative orientation toward the world called "the spirit." The spirit is concerned with other matters: knowledge and wisdom, peace and compassion, kindness and forebearance, God, love, life.
I think we probably agree more than disagree here, Peter. You say:
Yes, that’s right. It’s not through setting aside the sinful life that the believer is gradually transformed into a good person. When considered from the perspective of the spirit the believer is already good.
I don’t think that’s true. Setting aside the unholy life doesn’t provide the means of living a holy life. If that were true, then following the law would lead to holiness. Paul insists this isn’t the case: consider yourself dead to the law and any expectations you might still entertain that through ceasing your immorality and behaving well you will become holy. Dying to unholiness isn’t the same thing as living in holiness. The one is part of the continual dying to the old man; the other results from the continual renewal of the new man.
Agreed. This living reality is participation in Christ’s resurrection life. Death to the old life, the flesh, the old man, the Jew-Gentile distinction, the law and sin — this death is inevitable and not to be resisted. The new creation is something else altogether: a subjective partipation in the subjectively-experienced event of Christ’s resurrection. Ultimately it’s living in the new that’s Paul’s main concern throughout his letters.
Re: antisoliloquy
I keep trying to imagine the missing background to these epistles. They are rather like bullets ricocheting off distant targets and here we are forensically trying to determine range and source.
I assume that these folks have already been introduced to Jesus and have been enjoined to follow in those footsteps (something that our silent moderator might disagree with) and so would certainly have been keeping busy with ‘doing’ in a Jesus-like manner.
So, what has got Paul so bothered that in epistle after epistle and to places of such contrasting cultures he feels called to stress certain particular themes? Yes, on the one hand the Law is trying to make a comeback, but Paul does seem to encompass a broader canvas especially in Ephesians- Colossians (assuming Pauline authorship).
There appear to be generic misunderstandings and misapplications of the gospel message + apostolic instruction. Particular types of ‘theologies’ seem to be taking hold that Paul feels seriously distort the truth that he has been teaching all along.
Perhaps any schema is dangerous. Perhaps we humans tend to hide behind any patina of conformation to ‘the truth’ and slip effortlessly back to our old ways. After all, we were ‘saved’, we are now members of the right fellowships, we attend our bible studies, we pray fervently together and sometimes we even go out together to do good stuff for the downtrodden. In the name of our righteousness, a little righteous anger, even more justifiably righteous backbiting-slander-wrath-malice is surely excusable, especially if it is righteous enough in origin?
Live to serve : Serve to live
Re: antisoliloquy
I like your antisoliloquy Sam, and your ricochet hermeneutic seems quite on target. We understand one another better when we’re both standing on the same firing range so to speak. A lot of our shared perspective remains implicit: it "goes without saying." When we don’t share the perspective of the speaker, then the unspoken feels more like a gap than a common ground. Standing at a great distance in space and time from the act of shooting, we can picture the same volley of words hitting any number of possible targets. Still, when Paul expresses the same thoughts in different contexts, he lets us triangulate on what target he’s aiming at: a hermeneutic of parallax you might say.
In traditional theories of revelation the text the Word channels the the Truth, the reality of the writer’s experience, directly into the reader’s mind. One becomes skeptical when so many Spirit-inspired readers draw such different conclusions from the Word. Or maybe the Word really is inherently polyvalent.
Re: The New Man in Colossians 3
I believe it is important to note the importance of Paul’s words and the power of the Spirit behind his words. And for me this passage is referring to the significance of the Spirits dwelling within our lives. It is interesting to note that the same characteristics that Paul is describing for a person to have is similar to the “Fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians. Once a person has this Spirit inside of them, then the sins and “flesh” is not as big as factor as it once was because of the forgiveness of sins that Jesus saved us from. ‘Through the appropriated biblical text, the Spirit forms in us a communal interpretive framework that creates a new world… . the Spirit creates in the present a foretaste of the future, eschatological world and constitutes us as the eschatological people who serve as a sign pointing to the eschatological community’ (Grenz and Franke, Beyond Foundationalism, 81).
Re: The New Man in Colossians 3
Awhile back Peter said,
At first I disagreed, but on further consideration I’ve changed my mind. My original objection centered on equating holiness with sinlessness. This makes holiness a kind of negative quality, an absence of sinfulness. I thought that Paul envisioned something more, something positive about the resurrection life. And Peter did say this in the last sentence of the above-cited paragraph. Positive holiness is what Paul regards as the centerpiece of his message to teh Colossians:
Through Christ’s crucifixion Jews and Gentiles are brought together collectively as the "new creation." In the text from Grenz and Franke that njohnson cites, "the Spirit forms in us a communal interpretive framework that creates a new world." But participation in the new collective is also an individual affair, as evidenced in Eph. 4 and here in Col. 2. The new creation is energized by resurrection life, as is each "new man" who participates in it.
A dual operation is underway here: a setting aside of the old man, as well as a taking on of the new man. The old man participates in the old dead world, in which all Gentiles were by Law excluded from even the possibility of holiness. That’s what the Law was for: to set a holy nation apart from all other unholy nations, and to divide holy from unholy within the holy nation and among its people. In the old creation the Gentiles are unholy by definition, regardless of what they do, whether they act in accord with the Law or in opposition to it.
But now Paul moves toward something universal underlying the Law, an outscoping and abstraction that seems more Greek than Jewish. Acts of sanctification are prescribed in the Jewish Law — washings, offerings, rituals, designations of particular places for performing particular actions, circumcision — that serve only to maintain a structural barrier between the holy and the unholy. But there is also an intrinsically holy sort of human behavior for which being Jewish or Gentile makes no difference, a holiness which can, to an extent, be encoded in law-like prohibitions: don’t be angry or wrathful toward one another, don’t slander or verbally abuse or lie to one another (Col. 3:8-9). These aren’t positive statements of holiness (do this good thing); they’re more like the negation of unholiness (don’t do this bad thing). Obeying the prohibitions won’t turn the unholy man holy — negating the negative doesn’t become a positive.
Paul employs a variety of metaphors to describe to the Colossians the relationship between the resurrected Christ and the believer: Christ in/among you (1:27), you in Christ (2:6-11), you with Christ (2:12-13, 3:1-4). So when Paul exhorts his readers to "put on the new man" (3:10), it’s in this all-pervasive context of death and resurrection where "Christ is all, and in all" (3:11). To put off the old man is to set aside the deadly obstacles to holiness: anger, wrath malice, etc. (3:8-9). To put on the new man is to live positively in the holiness of Christ that characterizes the new creation. These aspects of positive holiness include compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, peace, and above all love (3:12-15). Ceasing to act from anger, wrath, and malice is one thing; acting with compassion, kindness, and love is something else altogether. The former is how the old man dies; the latter is how the new man lives.
To reiterate, then: Setting aside the old man means not doing unholy things; taking on the new man means doing holy things. To stop doing unholy things doesn’t make you holy; it only makes you dead to the old man. To do holy things means living inside of the resurrection life of Christ, and letting that life live inside and among you. How this resurrection life "works" — whether it should be interpreted as a mystical force for goodness or a thoroughgoing change of heart and mind — goes beyond the scope of my comment here.