Col 3:1-10 Old Man – New Man

COLOSSIANS 3:1-10

Exegesis and Commentary

Before we can understand the Apostle Paul’s warnings and admonitions, we have to understand the religious systems that were competing for their allegiance.  There were at least three groups that wanted to have dominance over the church:

1)   The Jewish element in the church who insisted that everyone adopt the Mosaic Law as part of their spiritual lives;

2)   There were the ascetic Gnostics; and

3)   The antinomian Gnostics that combined Jewish, Greek, Asian and Christian principles trying to synthesize a new view out of all of these.

Colossians 3 begins with the conjunction oun, translated “therefore.”

“Therefore” indicates we are drawing a conclusion and advocating action based on what has come before.  Therefore, we must consider the total context by looking at chapter 2 as the basis of oun in chapter 3.  Chapter 2 discusses the false religion of the Jews who had turned the law into a means of salvation and insisted that believers in the church age continue to follow its rules.

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day– 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

• dietary laws, festivals and sabbaths which are shadows of what is to come.
• Mosaic Law as Shadow Christology but the reality is now come in Christ.

Paul also warns against the ascetic Gnostics whose fascination with angelic beings and denial of the flesh was another system competing for the hearts of the believers in the church.

Colossians 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.  20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) – in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

• The Gnostics believed that all physical matter was inherently evil and that God who was pure, was unable to directly interact with the earth or its inhabitants.
• Based on this view, they pictured God creating an agent who in turn caused a series of creatures to exist, each one more physical and therefore more evil than the last until one was able to create and interact with the earth and mankind.
• This brand of Gnostic was ascetic and used extreme privation of the body as the means of escaping the evil influence of the body, its desires and earthly matter.
• Paul tells the believers to stop listening to the crazy talk and focus on Christ.

The conclusion of chapter 2 is that Paul warns them against being influenced by Jewish believers who will insist that they continue to follow the Mosaic Law and by the ascetic Gnostics who will insist that they deny themselves any of the normal pleasures of life.

Paul says, “Do not allow either of these religious systems to judge you or influence you.”

In chapter 3, he begins with an emphasis of our position in Christ and because our life is hidden in Christ who sits at the right hand of God-Father, we should pursue the things of heaven and focus our minds on the things of Christ in His heavenly position.  He says our life now is there with Christ, not here on the earth and so we are to not focus on the things of the earth like dietary rules or ascetic extremes, both of which deal with denying the human body.  Then, he discusses the other brand of Gnosticism that said since the body was evil and separate from the soul, it didn’t matter what you did with your body, so indulge your most extreme desires as you wish.

Colossians 3:5-7 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

• This is where these believers used to live, in the sphere of these lust trends and sins and this is the life they practiced.  Now that they were saved and no longer lived in this sphere of people, they were to consider their earthly members as dead when they imagined using them to commit these sexual sins.  It is possible that he is even referring to the pagan rituals of using sex as part of their religious rituals.

In 3:8-10, the passage of immediate interest, he begins by using the adverb nuni, meaning “now.”

“Now” in contrast to “then” when you lived in those things.  Now that you are saved and your life is hidden in the sphere of Christ and not in the sphere of these sex laden religious views, lay aside this next category of sins that deal with our relationships.  The sins listed in 3:8-9 are mental and verbal sins that occur in intimate relationships, such as different types of anger and sins of the tongue that come from our anger at others.

3:8 – but now put aside also – de is the connector and kai means also, in addition to the sins mentioned in 3:5.

3: ‑ 8 put away – apotithemi – aorist, middle, imperative – place away from you; put off, the same word in Ephesians 4:22 to put off the old-man.

The aorist imperative is the strongest of the commands in the Greek.  It is a hut-to, command meaning do-it and do-it now.  When Paul uses the aorist imperative he means business and intends that these believers take action.

3:9 – stop lying – me pseudomai ‑ present, middle, imperative – the negative me + present imperative can mean to stop an action already in progress.

Paul gives a similar command in Ephesians 4:25 when dealing with the same subject of the old-man and new-man.  Now it might have been that Gentiles in the ancient world were notorious liars and benders of the truth so that he had to command them to stop telling untruths to one another but I think not.  I believe the reference here is to pretending with one another, wearing the mask with one another, where out of old-man motivation to look good to others, everyone was presenting the cleaned up version of their self to others rather than being honest with one another about the real struggles they were each having trying to put off their old-man lifestyle.

Al Rosenblum translates 3:9 – stop pretending with one another.

3:9 – having put off the old-man – apekduomai aorist, middle, participle – literally, to strip off clothing; figuratively, to take off old-man beliefs.

The action of the aorist participle occurs prior to the action of the main verb, which is “stop pretending” in verse 3:9.

3:9 ‑ stop pretending with one another since you have already taken off the old-man.

• The aorist tense indicates the time of action (prior to the command to stop pretending) and kind of action (punctilliar – a point in time indicating a previous point in time).
• The previous point in time was the point of salvation when the old-man was positionally taken off and rendered dead, crucified with Christ.

3:9 – with his practices – praxis – habitual doings; normal behaviors that the old-man does in the sphere of life in which he lives.

• At the point of salvation, these believers had separated themselves from their normal public connections and ceased to practice some of their previously accepted behavior.
• It is clear that they had not ceased all old-man behavior since we have the admonitions of 3:8-9.
• They had stopped practicing some old-man behaviors and I would suggest that they had ceased from the more obvious and public sins like the ones listed in 3:5.

Notice that Paul says to consider their bodies to be dead to these sins and not to stop practicing them like he does with the relationship sins, indicating a difference in their practice of the sins in 3:5 and the relationship sins of 3:8-9.

3:9 stop pretending with one another since you have taken off the old-man with his more obvious behaviors.

3:10 ‑ having put on – enduo aorist, middle, participle – to put on; literally, to dress oneself; figuarively, to put-on the new-man.

The action of the aorist participle occurs before the action of the main verb to “stop pretending.” Both taking off the old-man and putting on the new-man are actions that had already occurred (both are aorist participles) when Paul commanded them to put away the relationship sins and to stop pretending with one another.

• Time of action – prior to the action of the main verb – stop pretending.
• Kind of action – punctilliar – a point in time – point of salvation.
• Notice that the only points in time of significance in the Christian life are the point of salvation and the point of death.

3:10 ‑ the new-man – neos – new with reference to time and the neos is superior to the old.

The new-man is new in relation to time meaning that the capacities given to the Church Age believer were new in human history.  Never before had these kind of abilities been given to any human being, the ability to think, feel, speak and behave like Christ.

3:10 – the one being renewed – ho anakainoo – to be made new in quality, superior.

The process of being made new in our beliefs.  Having positionally taken off the old-man and put on the new-man with his new spiritual capacities, the new-man can be programmed with the belief system of the One who created him.

3:10 ‑ unto complete knowledge – eis epignosis – with the goal of full knowledge.

Renewal is only accomplished by obtaining full knowledge.

3:10 ‑ according to the image – eikon – the manifestation.

eivkwn

1)   as an artistic representation, such as on a coin or statue image, likeness (Matthew 22:20).

2)   as an embodiment or living manifestation of God form, appearance (Colossians 1:15).

3)   as a visible manifestation of an invisible and heavenly reality form, substance (Hebrews 10:1).

The new-man is renewed into the image of his creator.

3:10 ‑ the one having created him – aorist, active, participle – to create in the same sense as the Hebrew word bara – the creation of something out of nothing.

The new-man is the product of the creative power and genius of God.  As He created the universe out of nothing, He created the new-man out of nothing that already existed in the soul of the new believer.  God created these new capacities to relate to God, to understand and apply spiritual concepts that unbelievers are unable to do.

Conclusions

1.  Taking off of the old-man and putting on the new-man occur at a point in time based on the aorist tense of the participles in 3:9-10.

• I suggest that the point in time in view is the point of salvation.

2.  Notice that the emphasis is placed on the ceasing of old-man behaviors rather than when the old-man was taken off or the new-man put on.

• The main verbs carry the main ideas with the participles giving us secondary ideas surrounding the main verbal ideas.
• Paul could have easily placed more emphasis on the old-man new-man by using different verbal structures like he does in Ephesians 4:22-24.
• Ephesians 4:22-24 Paul uses a series of infinitives indicating the purpose of the teaching they had received about their relationship with Christ.

3.  The Colossians passage deals with the subject based on its positional aspects and the Ephesians passage discusses it from an experiential view.

• The Colossians 3 passage uses aorist participles to show the prior taking off – putting on.
• The Ephesians 4 passage discusses the subject from an experiential aspect using a series of infinitives (purpose/result) to show the purpose of the teaching they had been given.

4.  The only real, existing entities in the analogy are the souls of the believers and the 2 systems of influence, but the analogy requires us to flesh it out with all its parts.

• The soul yielded to the influence of the body’s sinful nature (OSN) is the old-man – the soul using the old, previous way of thinking before we knew Christ.
• The soul yielded to the influence of the Bible and God the Holy Spirit is the new-man – the soul using the new way of thinking.
• If we have an old-man and a new-man then we picture a person who is the old and a different person who is the new.
• The person who is the old-man is under the influence of his sinful nature (OSN).
• The person who is the new-man is under the influence of God.

So, we have a person who has a soul that is yielding to a system of thinking, either the old system, i.e., old-man or yielding to the new system, i.e., the new-man.