Put off

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Colossians 3:8-11

There is a whole list of things that we are told to put off as believers risen with Christ. These are some obvious things – anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, lying, and the like.

Then Paul summarises it with the words ‘put off the old man.  This part of the list is not about what we consider to be the gross and obvious sins to gratify the flesh. These actions all affect others around us.

This section tells us to put off things that affect how we feel about others and how we treat them. If I could parrowphrase this I would say something like ‘stop being such a jerk. Treat people with respect. Stop being so angry, stop using filthy language, stop lying. Watch your mouth.

There is no need for that kind of nonsense from believers. I think we get a hint of what Paul says that out the end of the verse. There were already divisions  because Paul says the reason we don’t talk like this is because we are all one in Christ. We can’t speak poorly of anyone because there is no longer Greek or Jew or those who keep the law and those who don’t or any other nationality or even slave or free because we are all one in Christ and there is no excuse to fight with any other believer – no matter what.