Commentary on Colossians 3:1-17: Living the Risen Life
Colossians 3:1-17 · King James Version
Quick Answer: This commentary on Colossians 3:1-17 explains how believers—risen with Christ—set their minds on heaven and reject old, destructive patterns. Paul pairs inward transformation with outward behavior: holiness, truthfulness, mercy, forgiveness, and peace. The passage also highlights worship of Christ through gracious speech, gratitude, and letting God’s Word dwell richly in your heart.
Colossians 3:1-17 (King James Version)
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
And have put on the new
man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond
nor free: but Christ
is all, and in all.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also
do ye.
And above all these things
put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Colossians was written to believers in Colossae, a city shaped by trade and cultural exchange in the Roman Empire. The church there included people from diverse backgrounds, which helps explain Paul’s emphasis that Christ is central “and in all” (as the passage later states). In the first-century world, identity and morality were often tied to ethnicity, status, or ritual boundaries. Paul redirects the community’s identity: their true belonging is with Christ.
Another factor in Colossians is the presence of teaching that risked distracting believers from Christ’s sufficiency. Paul therefore moves from Christological truth (Christ’s lordship and believers’ union with him) to ethical results. He does not treat holiness as mere rule-keeping; instead, he frames moral change as the fruit of a new life grounded in Christ’s death and resurrection.
The “put off / put on” imagery fits Greco-Roman and Jewish everyday life, where clothing could represent identity and transformation. In a church setting, that language would resonate: communal life should look different because the members are different—alive with Christ, oriented above, and shaped by peace, forgiveness, and truthful speech.
