Colossians 3:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Colossians 3:8

Comments

Here are five departments of evil temper, and they call for some explanation because we may think the apostle repeats himself, but each term refers to a distinct department of ill-temper. ‘Anger’ – the word refers in the Greek to entrenched, continuous anger. This is the seething, the simmering anger towards someone or something. You have not said anything yet; you have not done anything yet. It is just boiling, seething, simmering inside you. It is your nastiness; it is the old nature. ‘Wrath’ is another form of anger altogether. The Greek comes from the verb ‘to rush at something’, and it is used in Greek literature for heavy breathing. This second term, wrath, refers to the eruption, the outburst of fury or temper. Weak emotional muscle, lack of self-control: now comes the outburst. Then ‘malice’, the third term. Malice is something to do with the mind. It is a malevolent view, it is a kind of settled spitefulness. You are not furious, you are not seething, there is no outburst, but there is a kind of settled, quiet hostility which schemes evil. ‘I will do such and such to that person’ – a settled animosity, a malevolence. Next is ‘blasphemy’. The English word blasphemy these days has to do with insults to God, but the Greek word includes insults to God or man, and it is man who is in mind here. Blasphemy, it is insulting behaviour. The fifth department is ‘filthy communication out of your mouth.’ Why, our translation may give us the impression that this is about obscenities, but actually it refers to is any shameful language, which of course can include swearing. It is really abuse which is in mind, any hurtful attack, any barb against other people, designed to hurt.You will seldom find anything in human literature quite as sophisticated as this. A person can be a Christian believer and can suppress these things and conquer them. and then suddenly, under great pressures or by spiritual neglect or pride or neglect of the Word, through the subtilty of the devil, the old nature can be stirred up and all of a sudden, traits of temper which have not been manifested for years can start to come out again. The old nature can re-express itself in times of carelessness and we have to watch out and we have to mortify it, put it to death.

Application

All these sins are to be ‘put off’, as you might cast off soiled clothing. In a sense it is immensely encouraging language. ‘You mean, if I as a Christian have succumbed to some form of temper (we will look at the detail) and I erupt and I shame myself and behave badly, I can put it off? I can just throw it away and discard it?’ ‘Yes, put it to death’, says the apostle. Put it away, take it off. I can stop myself and not do it. It does not have to go on, it does not have to become a regular, ugly feature of life and conduct. Yes, but only the believer can do that by the enabling of God. This is the privilege of the believer as well as his duty. As you pray to God and quench that thing, and switch it off and put it from you, he will strengthen and enable you to carry that through. The worldling who is equally infected with the old nature, may find that it comes to dominate him and rule him. He may have a much harder job putting it off. But you are a praying believer, converted to God; you can do this by his help, and you should.

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Colossians 3:8 Commentary and Bible Study