20 Children, G5043 obey G5219 your parents G1118 in G2596 all things: G3956 for G1063 this G5124 is G2076 well pleasing G2101 unto the Lord. G2962
Honour H3513 thy father H1 and thy mother: H517 that thy days H3117 may be long H748 upon the land H127 which the LORD H3068 thy God H430 giveth H5414 thee.
Exhort servants G1401 to be obedient G5293 unto their own G2398 masters, G1203 and to G1511 please them well G2101 in G1722 all G3956 things; not G3361 answering again; G483
Children, G5043 obey G5219 your G5216 parents G1118 in G1722 the Lord: G2962 for G1063 this G5124 is G2076 right. G1342 Honour G5091 thy G4675 father G3962 and G2532 mother; G3384 (which G3748 is G2076 the first G4413 commandment G1785 with G1722 promise;) G1860 That G2443 it may be G1096 well G2095 with thee, G4671 and G2532 thou mayest G2071 live long G3118 on G1909 the earth. G1093
Therefore G235 as G5618 the church G1577 is subject G5293 unto Christ, G5547 so G3779 G2532 let the wives G1135 be to their own G2398 husbands G435 in G1722 every thing. G3956
For G1063 God G2316 commanded, G1781 saying, G3004 Honour G5091 thy G4675 father G3962 and G2532 mother: G3384 and, G2532 He that curseth G2551 father G3962 or G2228 mother, G3384 let him die G5053 the death. G2288 But G1161 ye G5210 say, G3004 Whosoever G3739 G302 shall say G2036 to his father G3962 or G2228 his mother, G3384 It is a gift, G1435 by G1537 whatsoever G3739 G1437 thou mightest be profited G5623 by me; G1700 And G2532 honour G5091 not G3364 his G846 father G3962 or G2228 his G846 mother, G3384 he shall be free. Thus G2532 have ye made G208 the commandment G1785 of God G2316 of none effect G208 by G1223 your G5216 tradition. G3862
Make G2675 you G5209 perfect G2675 in G1722 every G3956 good G18 work G2041 to G1519 do G4160 his G846 will, G2307 working G4160 in G1722 you G5213 that which is wellpleasing G2101 in his G846 sight, G1799 through G1223 Jesus G2424 Christ; G5547 to whom G3739 be glory G1391 for G1519 ever G165 and ever. G165 Amen. G281
Servants, G1401 obey G5219 in G2596 all things G3956 your masters G2962 according G2596 to the flesh; G4561 not G3361 with G1722 eyeservice, G3787 as G5613 menpleasers; G441 but G235 in G1722 singleness G572 of heart, G2588 fearing G5399 God: G2316
That ye G5209 might walk G4043 worthy G516 of the Lord G2962 unto G1519 all G3956 pleasing, G699 being fruitful G2592 in G1722 every G3956 good G18 work, G2041 and G2532 increasing G837 in G1519 the knowledge G1922 of God; G2316
But G1161 I have G568 all, G3956 and G2532 abound: G4052 I am full, G4137 having received G1209 of G3844 Epaphroditus G1891 the things which were sent from G3844 you, G5216 an odour G3744 of a sweet smell, G2175 a sacrifice G2378 acceptable, G1184 wellpleasing G2101 to God. G2316
Honour G5091 thy G4675 father G3962 and G2532 thy mother: G3384 and, G2532 Thou shalt love G25 thy G4675 neighbour G4139 as G5613 thyself. G4572
And that Jacob H3290 obeyed H8085 his father H1 and his mother, H517 and was gone H3212 to Padanaram; H6307
A son H1121 honoureth H3513 his father, H1 and a servant H5650 his master: H113 if then I be a father, H1 where is mine honour? H3519 and if I be a master, H113 where is my fear? H4172 saith H559 the LORD H3068 of hosts H6635 unto you, O priests, H3548 that despise H959 my name. H8034 And ye say, H559 Wherein have we despised H959 thy name? H8034
In thee have they set light H7043 by father H1 and mother: H517 in the midst H8432 of thee have they dealt H6213 by oppression H6233 with the stranger: H1616 in thee have they vexed H3238 the fatherless H3490 and the widow. H490
Whoso curseth H7043 his father H1 or his mother, H517 his lamp H5216 shall be put out H1846 in obscure H380 H380 darkness. H2822
If a man H376 have a stubborn H5637 and rebellious H4784 son, H1121 which will not obey H8085 the voice H6963 of his father, H1 or the voice H6963 of his mother, H517 and that, when they have chastened H3256 him, will not hearken H8085 unto them: Then shall his father H1 and his mother H517 lay hold H8610 on him, and bring him out H3318 unto the elders H2205 of his city, H5892 and unto the gate H8179 of his place; H4725 And they shall say H559 unto the elders H2205 of his city, H5892 This our son H1121 is stubborn H5637 and rebellious, H4784 he will not obey H8085 our voice; H6963 he is a glutton, H2151 and a drunkard. H5433 And all the men H582 of his city H5892 shall stone H7275 him with stones, H68 that he die: H4191 so shalt thou put H1197 evil H7451 away H1197 from among H7130 you; and all Israel H3478 shall hear, H8085 and fear. H3372
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Colossians 3
Commentary on Colossians 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
Col 3:1-4
The apostle, having described our privileges by Christ in the former part of the epistle, and our discharge from the yoke of the ceremonial law, comes here to press upon us our duty as inferred thence. Though we are made free from the obligation of the ceremonial law, it does not therefore follow that we may live as we list. We must walk the more closely with God in all the instances of evangelical obedience. He begins with exhorting them to set their hearts on heaven, and take them off from this world: If you then have risen with Christ. It is our privilege that we have risen with Christ; that is, have benefit by the resurrection of Christ, and by virtue of our union and communion with him are justified and sanctified, and shall be glorified. Hence he infers that we must seek those things which are above. We must mind the concerns of another world more than the concerns of this. We must make heaven our scope and aim, seek the favour of God above, keep up our communion with the upper world by faith, and hope, and holy love, and make it our constant care and business to secure our title to and qualifications for the heavenly bliss. And the reason is because Christ sits at the right hand of God. He who is our best friend and our head is advanced to the highest dignity and honour in heaven, and has gone before to secure to us the heavenly happiness; and therefore we should seek and secure what he has purchased at so vast an expense, and is taking so much care about. We must live such a life as Christ lived here on earth and lives now in heaven, according to our capacities.
Col 3:5-7
The apostle exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin, the great hindrance to seeking the things which are above. Since it is our duty to set our affections upon heavenly things, it is our duty to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and which naturally incline us to the things of the world: "Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them, suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you.'-Your members which are upon the earth; either the members of the body, which are the earthly part of us, and were curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth (Ps. 139:15), or the corrupt affections of the mind, which lead us to earthly things, the members of the body of death, Rom. 7:24. He specifies,
Col 3:8-11
As we are to mortify inordinate appetites, so we are to mortify inordinate passions (v. 8): But now you also put off all these, anger wrath, malice; for these are contrary to the design of the gospel, as well as grosser impurities; and, though they are more spiritual wickedness, have not less malignity in them. The gospel religion introduces a change of the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the dominion of right reason and conscience over appetite and passion. Anger and wrath are bad, but malice is worse, because it is more rooted and deliberate; it is anger heightened and settled. And, as the corrupt principles in the heart must be cut off, so the product of them in the tongue; as blasphemy, which seems there to mean, not so much speaking ill of God as speaking ill of men, giving ill language to them, or raising ill reports of them, and injuring their good name by any evil arts,-filthy communication, that is, all lewd and wanton discourse, which comes from a polluted mind in the speaker and propagates the same defilements in the hearers,-and lying: Lie not one to another (v. 9), for it is contrary both to the law of truth and the law of love, it is both unjust and unkind, and naturally tends to destroy all faith and friendship among mankind. Lying makes us like the devil (who is the father of lies), and is a prime part of the devil's image upon our souls; and therefore we are cautioned against this sin by this general reason: Seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, v. 10. The consideration that we have by profession put away sin and espoused the cause and interest of Christ, that we have renounced all sin and stand engaged to Christ, should fortify us against this sin of lying. Those who have put off the old man have put it off with its deeds; and those who have put on the new man must put on all its deeds-not only espouse good principles but act them in a good conversation. The new man is said to be renewed in knowledge, because an ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. Without knowledge the heart cannot be good, Prov. 19:2. The grace of God works upon the will and affections by renewing the understanding. Light is the first thing in the new creation, as it was in the first: after the image of him who created him. It was the honour of man in innocence that he was made after the image of God; but that image was defaced and lost by sin, and is renewed by sanctifying grace: so that a renewed soul is something like what Adam was in the day he was created. In the privilege and duty of sanctification there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, v. 11. There is now no difference arising from different country or different condition and circumstance of life: it is as much the duty of the one as of the other to be holy, and as much the privilege of the one as of the other to receive from God the grace to be so. Christ came to take down all partition-walls, that all might stand on the same level before God, both in duty and privilege. And for this reason, because Christ is all in all. Christ is a Christian's all, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness. And to those who are sanctified, one as well as another and whatever they are in other respects, he is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: he is all in all things to them.
Col 3:12-17
The apostle proceeds to exhort to mutual love and compassion: Put on therefore bowels of mercy, v. 12. We must not only put off anger and wrath (as v. 8), but we must put on compassion and kindness; not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; not only not do hurt to any, but do what good we can to all.
Col 3:18-25
The apostle concludes the chapter with exhortations to relative duties, as before in the epistle to the Ephesians. The epistles which are most taken up in displaying the glory of divine grace, and magnifying the Lord Jesus, are the most particular and distinct in pressing the duties of the several relations. We must never separate the privileges and duties of the gospel religion.
It is probable that the apostle has a particular respect, in all these instances of duty, to the case mentioned 1 Co. 7 of relations of a different religion, as a Christian and heathen, a Jewish convert and an uncircumcised Gentile, where there was room to doubt whether they were bound to fulfil the proper duties of their several relations to such persons. And, if it hold in such cases, it is much stronger upon Christians one towards another, and where both are of the same religion. And how happy would the gospel religion make the world, if it every where prevailed; and how much would it influence every state of things and every relation of life!