3:1 If then you were raised together with Christ,
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
3:2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
 

3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

3:4 When Christ, our life, is revealed,
then you will also be revealed with him in glory.

3:5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth:
 

sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;

3:6 for which things' sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

3:7 You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
3:8 but now you also put them all away:
 

anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
3:9 Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,

3:10 and have put on the new man, that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,

3:11 where there can't be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.

3:12 Put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
 

a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,
if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.

3:14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.

3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;
in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another
with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

3:17 Whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.

3:18 Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and don't be bitter against them.

3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.

3:21 Fathers, don't provoke your children, so that they won't be discouraged.

3:22 Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh,
not just when they are looking, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
 

3:23 And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,
3:24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance;
for you serve the Lord Christ.

3:25 But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done,
and there is no partiality.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Mt 6:33

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Rom 12:2

But what are "the things above" which we should be setting our minds on?
Abstract concepts such as love, justice, holiness, grace, and other attributes of God from which we can formulate praise and thanksgiving.

What then would be earthly things?
Sensual lusts, greed, pride, covetousness.

vs 3,4 Death is rather a permanent thing, wouldn't you say? And it is in this permanent state that we should view ourselves. We have died. Therefore, since there is no going back, we should look to the future glory and prepare to be with Christ. So let us live as if that were in fact our future.

vs 5-9 If we have died, then why must we still put to death our earthly nature? Because it is our inner man which is reckoned as having died, but our outer man (our flesh), is alive with sin. These two are reckoned separate. Consider for example the question: "If Christians have been forgiven, then why must they still physically die? Death is the penalty for sin, but haven't we been forgiven of sin?" It is because our soul has been forgiven, but we still suffer in the flesh the consequence of our sins because our flesh has not yet been redeemed. In this life we will always struggle against our flesh in which sin dwells, as we look forward to physical death and physical resurrection - the redemption of our bodies in which sin will no longer dwell.

"Put to death" simply means to not do these things any longer. Of course this means we must examine ourselves to determine if these attitudes are present and working themselves out to affect our behavior.

Whereas vs 5 deals with sensual lusts, vs 8 deals with verbal expressions of sinful desires. So it is both the internal lusts themselves and their outward expressions that we have to suppress.

"Lying" is one such expression which is often excused because of its being deceptively subtle. In a society that prides itself with being politically correct, words are often used to hide truth. In Christians circles, lies are promoted in the name of "unity." People will promote lies just to make others feel good about themselves.

vs 10 As I mentioned, Paul had prayed in Chapter 1 that they be filled with the knowledge of God's will. And then in Col 1:10 that they grow in the knowledge of God. And whereas in humanism, knowledge is relative being derived from the opinions of men, in Biblical Christianity, knowledge is absolute, being derived externally from God. And if we are not created beings, then there really is no meaning and purpose to life in a absolute sense. But having been created, just as with all things created, our meaning and purpose are defined by our Creator.

vs 11 The concept of a common Creator also invokes a sense of unity within the Christian community. Although Christians don't all play the same role in the body of Christ, as there are variety of gifts and ministries, yet all are equally children of God. God does not show favoritism on an illegitimate basis as the world does in racism.

Notice that he says there are no distinctions between slave and free. Yet in vs 22 and 4:1 he does make a distinction between slave and free. Why? Because there's a difference between position in Christ and ministry role. We have an equal position in Christ, but different ministry roles.

vs 12 Clothes are external things. Yet he seems to be referring to internal attitudes. What if you simply don't feel these things? Behave as if you did! This is not being duplicitous. For we are simply trying to bring out Christ who dwells in us. We walk by faith, not by feelings.

Christians should be empathetic without compromising holiness. We need to feel for people, but we need to keep away from their sin. Kindness is a rare quality. Paul uses the same greek word in Rom 3:12 for kindness saying:

there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.Rom 3:12 (NRSV)

vs 13 An inherent in such toleration is forgiveness. As I mentioned, humility is essential and makes these rather easy. In humility we can say, "who am I that I should hold something against someone else? Others are more important than me. And if they can be edified after I've tolerated their abuse then I would glady endure such abuse."

vs 14 Biblical love is not primarily sensual. It is simply the desire to meet the real needs of others. Inherently such love promotes unity.

vs 15 The peace of God is not simply a feeling a sense of serenity, as the world in its sensualness thinks. The feeling of serenity is an outworking of the peace of God. But the peace itself is simply an absence of hostility between us and God, having been justified and forgiven of all sin. We are reckoned righteous in His sight by the blood of Christ and as such we are no longer reckoned enemies, but rather we have entered God's family having our destiny secure in heaven. Once again as with love, this common sense of peace with God also brings peace between Christians as we can identify with one another in this sense.

vs 16 The "word of Christ" is the Bible from which we derive applications like writing spiritual songs. Popular Christianity misuses the term "word of God" to mean something other than the Bible or Christ. When we speak, let us be care to keep in line with the Bible. It's good to memorize it both for the purpose of meditation and to have it available to speak prophetically (by which I mean revealing how it applies to a particular situation or application). The closer we are to the source material, the more certainty we can have that we have God's thoughts on the matter. But if stray from the Bible, reckoning whatever comes out of our mouth or the mouth of some preacher to be the Word of God, we are in danger of being misled. Opinions like this commentary are helpful in giving ideas as to the meaning an application of the Bible, but should not themselves be consider the "word of Christ."

Jesus left us with two things - the Holy Spirit and a book. These are interdependent. The Bible cannot be understood or applied properly if it is not read in the right spirit. Nor does the Holy Spirit simply speak to us distinctly apart from the Bible. I would say that the Holy Spirit manipulates our intuition with our cooperation as we hear and study the Bible, helping us to infer ideas and applications which may be universally applied or particular to our situation.

vs 17 Notice "whatever you do" is repeated in vs 23. To do things in his name is not simply to say, "I do this in the name of Jesus" after we do something. But rather we conform our lifestyle, our activities and our speech to one which is in service to Jesus Christ. This implies that we should ask ourselves in whatever we're doing, "In what way does this thing that I'm doing serve Christ?"

vs 18 to 4:1 speaks of vertical role relationships. In popular Christianity these have become somewhat politically incorret to speak of, as a sort of egalitarian philosophy permeates modern Christian thinking. Paul had spoken previously on equality in vs 11. But as I mentioned that there also exists a diversity of gifts, ministries and roles within the body of Christ. And if we are to grow to maturity in Christ we need to learn to appreciate such diversity.

The first of these role relationships deals with gender. And there are roles within the body of Christ which are limited to one's gender. vs 18 and 19 are gender-specific commands. The proper role relationship between husband and wife Paul expands on in Ephesians 5:21-33. The marriage relationship is a vertical relationship modeled after Christ's relationship with the church. The wife has a role of submission and the husband a role of authority. Popular Christianity, being permeated with the feminist philosophy, generally rejects this concept or accepts it only nominally. The role of the husband is not a recognized role of authority these days - neither in the society nor in the church.

A common characteristic of arguments over this issue is that each spouse tends to focus on the other's responsibility rather than their own.

vs 20, 21 Naturally the parent-child relationship is a vertical relationship, although in practice Americans, when compared to other cultures, tend to have their children raise themselves. And thus is comes as no surprise when Americans have a laissez faire attitude towards authority. And although independence is not synonymous with rebelliousness, Americans do tend to get rather hostile over issues of submission.

But notice that in both cases, fathers and husbands are told to exercise their authority with gentleness. I find particularly in the Chinese community that there exists what I call "The Chinese Emperor Syndrome", in which once in authority one from a Chinese cultural background will tend to become authoritarian and oppressive. This is not simply an observation of Chinese forms of government as in Singapore, China, and Taiwan. For I have found this to be the case in Chinese churches as well.

Such oppression can discourage. And that can defeat the purpose of authority. By driving your children too hard, they can get burned out and distain the very thing you want them to do. On the other hand, no disciple at all can lead to lawless behavior. Thus there should be a balance. However this requires feedback. For one has to recognize when one's children are becoming discourage. Oppressive forms of authority limit such feedback and often reject it altogether. One is reminded of the Tianmian Square incident.

vs 22-25 Slavery is also an area in which in the Bible takes a politically incorrect view. The Bible doesn't speak directly against slavery, but certainly does discourage its oppressive form. In the Bible, even Christians were slave owners as 4:1 reveals, as was also Philemon whom Paul wrote concerning his escaped slave who had become a Christian. Paul sent Onesimus back and encouraged Philemon to free him, but didn't command him to do so.

An indirect application can be made to employees who are also under authority. Although the realm of authority of their bosses are not as extensive as slave owners had over their slaves. Though in some cases, people can become highly dependent upon their jobs especially during a recession, and thus the threat of loss of employment introduces a form of slavery to the job.

The main application is to go beyond simply fulfilling your responsibility. To serve whole-heartedly, as you would also want someone to serve you. A good servant doesn't have to ask his master what he wants him to do, but rather he understands his master's mindset and knows what is best to meet his master's objectives. I think Daniel was a good example in these matters. While serving whole-heartedly, he did not compromise his godly values.

Secular work can be reckoned as spiritual work if we recognize God's sovereignty in that God has given us the job we have. And since God has given us such a responsibility, we should do it as if serving God. There are rewards in heaven for serving God properly. Popular Christianity doesn't speak much about such rewards, as there has been concern that such a concept may be misconstrued as performance-based salvation. But much is spoken of rewards which go beyond simple justification. (1Cor 3:11-15 , HRA)