Seek the Things Above and Put on the New Self

Study notes

The passage presents the ethical demands of union with the risen Christ as the direct consequence of having died and been raised with him. Its central burden is to show how the hidden life with Christ requires both the refusal of former patterns of desire and speech and the active adoption of virtues suited to God's chosen people. By moving from the vertical orientation toward things above to the concrete practices of forgiveness, love, and thanksgiving within the community, the text makes clear that the erasure of old social distinctions and the renewal of the self according to the creator's image must shape every word and deed. The commands therefore function not as an independent moral program but as the visible expression of a life already secured in God yet still awaiting its full revelation.

What is Seek the Things Above and Put on the New Self about?

After the warnings of chapter 2 against being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit that depend on human tradition rather than on Christ, the text turns to a series of direct commands. The opening conditional, “If therefore you were raised with the Christ,” links the new instructions to the earlier claim that believers have already been raised with him through faith. The central question therefore becomes how those whose life is hidden with the Christ in God are to conduct themselves while still living on the earth.

This unit matters in its immediate setting because it supplies the positive counterpart to the preceding negatives. Rather than simply avoiding certain practices, the readers are told both to seek the things above and to put to death the members that are upon the earth. The movement from the indicative of their union with Christ to the imperatives of putting off the old self and putting on the new self shows how the argument about fullness in Christ is intended to shape daily conduct inside the community. The section therefore functions as the hinge between the letter’s doctrinal warnings and its later household instructions.

Where does this passage sit in Colossians?

The opening conditional of 3:1, “If therefore you were raised with the Christ,” functions as an explicit hinge between the sustained argument of chapter 2 and the ethical instructions that follow. Chapter 2 had ended by exposing the futility of regulations that cannot restrain the flesh; the present passage supplies the positive counterpart by directing attention to the exalted Christ rather than to earthly observances. This placement converts the preceding negatives into a coherent pattern of life.

The unit stands immediately before the household instructions of 3:18–4:1. Its sequence of “put to death” (3:5), “put away” (3:8), and “put on” (3:10, 12, 14) therefore prepares the ground for the specific directives given to wives, husbands, children, and slaves. The same movement also looks forward to the brief exhortation on prayer and wise speech in 4:2–6, since the final verse of the present section already requires that “whatever you do, in word or in work,” be done in the name of the Lord Jesus."

Within the letter’s architecture the passage escalates an earlier claim. The language of being “raised with” Christ recalls the baptismal imagery of 2:12–13, yet now the focus shifts from what has already occurred to what that event requires in daily conduct. The contrast between “things above” and “things upon the earth” (3:1–2) directly counters the earthly regulations just rejected, while the declaration that “Christ is all and in all” (3:11) dismantles the very distinctions the false teachers had sought to reimpose. The result is not a detached moral code but an ethic rooted in the single reality of union with the risen Lord, extending outward from personal renewal to the ordered life of the household and the wider community.

How is the passage structured?

The unit opens with a conditional clause that immediately directs attention upward: the readers are told to seek the things above because the Christ is seated there. The next sentence sharpens the same movement by commanding them to set their minds on those things rather than on the things upon the earth. Two supporting statements follow, first stating that the readers have died and their life remains hidden, then projecting a future moment when that life will be revealed with him in glory. These four verses therefore establish a vertical axis and a temporal frame before any concrete commands appear.

At verse 5 the text pivots to imperative action on the earth. The command to put to death the members that are upon the earth is followed by a compact list of five vices that ends by equating greediness with idolatry. Two verses then supply motive and recollection: the wrath of God is coming on account of such things, and the readers once walked in them. Verse 8 introduces a second imperative cluster with the contrasting phrase “but now,” listing five more items to be put away, this time focused on speech and relational harm. The sequence of negative commands reaches its most pointed form in the prohibition against lying, which is grounded in the completed action of having put off the old self.

The positive movement begins at verse 10 with the parallel statement that the readers have put on the new self. Verse 11 interrupts the ethical sequence with a sweeping declaration that erases ethnic, religious, and social distinctions because Christ is all and in all. The text then resumes the imperative mood at verse 12, now directing the readers to put on five virtues as God’s chosen ones. Three further instructions follow without a break: bearing with and forgiving one another, putting love on above all as the bond of perfection, and letting the peace of Christ rule while the word of Christ dwells richly. The final sentence gathers every preceding command under a single comprehensive rule: whatever is done in word or work must be done in the name of the Lord Jesus with thanksgiving to God the Father through him.

What is the historical background?

The commands in this section draw on patterns familiar to both Jewish and Greco-Roman readers in the first century. Lists that pair vices to be abandoned with virtues to be adopted appear regularly in moral instruction of the period, whether in Stoic handbooks, Hellenistic Jewish writings such as the Wisdom of Solomon, or community rules from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The particular grouping here—sexual sin, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greediness—reflects a standard way of cataloguing disordered desires that were understood to disrupt both personal conduct and communal life. Greediness receives the added label of idolatry because it treats created things as ultimate objects of trust, a charge already leveled against Gentile practice in Jewish apologetic literature.

The social distinctions named in verse 11 correspond to the most visible lines of division within the eastern Mediterranean under Roman rule. Greek and Jew marked the primary ethnic and religious boundary; circumcision and uncircumcision reinforced that boundary through a concrete bodily sign; barbarian and Scythian evoked the spectrum from civilized city-dwellers to those regarded as remote and uncultured; slave and free named the fundamental legal distinction that governed labor, inheritance, and public status. The claim that these categories lose their dividing force where Christ is all and in all therefore addresses readers who still lived inside those structures.

The clothing language of putting off the old self and putting on the new self echoes the actual practice of changing garments during baptismal rites attested in several early Christian communities. Such a change marked a transfer of allegiance and a new set of obligations within the group. The directive to let the word of Christ dwell richly while teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs points to gatherings in which Scripture and newly composed songs served as shared instruction rather than performances reserved for specialists. These elements together locate the ethical instructions inside the ordinary rhythms of household and assembly life in a provincial city of the Roman Empire.

What does this passage teach about God?

The passage grounds its imperatives in the prior union of believers with Christ. Because they have already died and their life is hidden with the Christ in God, their present conduct must correspond to that hidden reality rather than to the visible order of the earth. The text therefore treats the resurrection life as both accomplished and still concealed, awaiting the moment when the Christ is revealed and the same life appears with him in glory. This future disclosure functions as the horizon that shapes present seeking and setting of the mind.

Human beings are portrayed as bearing an old self whose practices must be put off and a new self that is already being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. The renewal is not presented as an individual achievement but as a corporate reality in which distinctions of ethnicity, ritual status, and social position lose their dividing force because Christ is all and in all. The same people who once walked in the listed vices are now addressed as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, and are summoned to clothe themselves with the corresponding virtues. The text therefore locates moral transformation inside an identity conferred by God rather than inside moral striving that creates the identity.

God is depicted both as the one whose wrath comes upon the sons of disobedience and as the Father to whom thanks is offered through the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s own forgiveness supplies the measure for the forgiveness believers must extend, while the peace of Christ is to rule in their hearts and the word of Christ is to dwell richly among them. These instructions converge in the final directive that whatever is done in word or work should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The passage thus presents ordinary conduct as the sphere in which the hidden life with Christ becomes visible through reordered relationships and sustained gratitude.

What are the interpretive difficulties?

The opening sentence of the unit presents one immediate question of force. The wording “If therefore you were raised with the Christ” follows directly from the earlier claim in chapter 2 that believers have already been raised through faith. Some readers take the conditional as merely rhetorical, assuming the premise is settled for the audience. Others note that the same construction can leave room for self-examination, since the text immediately adds the command to seek the things above. The passage itself does not resolve whether every reader has in fact appropriated that resurrection life.

A second set of questions concerns the lists that follow. The command to put to death the members upon the earth names five vices and then equates greediness with idolatry. The subsequent list of five more items to put away moves from internal dispositions to speech. Nothing in the wording indicates whether these catalogues are meant to be exhaustive or simply representative of the old self. The text also does not specify how a reader is to distinguish between the passions that must be killed and those that may be redirected.

Verse 11 raises a further point of scope. After declaring that the new self erases the distinctions between Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free, the sentence concludes that Christ is all and in all. The claim is stated without qualification, yet the passage does not spell out whether this unity eliminates every social role or only those roles insofar as they define identity before God. Later instructions in the same letter continue to address household relationships, leaving the precise social implications open.

Finally, the closing imperative to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus is framed by the call to let the word of Christ dwell richly and to give thanks. The text does not indicate whether this comprehensive directive is intended as a new law or as the outworking of the peace of Christ already said to rule in the heart. Readers must decide how much weight to give the indicative statements about what has already been put off and put on when they interpret the repeated commands that surround them.

Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.