Lecture 1 — Mortify the body

^3:1^ Therefore if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. [n. 135]

^3:2^ Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. [n. 137]

^3:3^ For you are dead: and your life is hid with Christ in God. [n. 140]

^3:4^ When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory. [n. 143]

^3:5^ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is the service of idols. [n. 144]

^3:6^ For which things the wrath of God comes upon the children of unbelief. [n. 148]

^3:7^ In which you also walked some time, when you lived in them.

135. Above, the Apostle warned the faithful about those who wished to deceive them; here he teaches them to avoid evil habits.

First, he gives his teaching in a general way;

second, he presents it in more detail, at wives, be subject (Col 3:18).

In regard to the first he does two things.

First, he teaches them to have a right intention in regard to their end;

and in the second place, he instructs them about the rectitude of their human actions, at mortify therefore.

The first is divided into two parts.

First, he gives the main idea of his teaching, seek the things that are above;

and second, he gives the reason why they should do so, at for you are dead.

In regard to the first he does two things. First, he mentions the benefit they have received;

second, he draws his conclusion, at seek the things that are above.

136. The benefit that we have received is that, with the resurrection of Christ, we also have risen. And we have risen in two ways. First, by a hope for our bodily resurrection: now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (1 Cor 15:12). In the second way, with the resurrection of Christ we are restored to the life of justice: he was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Rom 4:25). Paul is saying in effect: when Christ arose, you also arose: he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus (2 Cor 4:14).

137. Then when he says, seek the things that are above, he draws his conclusion about the end:

first, that a person should aim at some principal end;

and second, that he should judge other things in the light of that end.

138. Paul says, therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above: seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well (Matt 6:33). For this is our end: one thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Ps 27:4). Therefore, seek this, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: so then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19); sit at my right hand (Ps 110:1).

By the right hand of God he does not mean a member of a body, but he is speaking figuratively, for the right hand of a person is the stronger. Christ sits at the right hand of the Father because, as man, he shares in the stronger and better goods of the Father, while as God, Christ is equal to the Father. Consequently, you should have this intention: that just as Christ died and arose, and was taken up to sit at the right hand of God, so you should die to sin in order to live a life of justice and so be taken up into glory.

Or, we could say, that we arose through Christ; but he is seated at the right hand of God, and so our desire should be to be with him: wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together (Matt 24:28); where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt 6:21).

139. Furthermore, we should judge of other things in the light of Christ; and so Paul says, mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. Here he is affirming one way of life, and rejecting another. A person sets his mind on things that are above, when he governs his life according to heavenly ideas, and judges all things by such ideas: the wisdom from above (Jas 3:15). And a person sets his mind on things that are on earth when he orders and judges all things according to earthly goods, considering them the highest goods: they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things (Phil 3:19).

140. When Paul continues, for you are dead, he gives the reason for his advice.

First, he mentions their death;

second, their hidden life, at and your life;

and third, he teaches when this life will be revealed, at when Christ shall appear.

141. Just before, Paul had rejected one way of life and affirmed another. Now he returns to these two ways. As to the first he says: do not set your minds on earthly things, because you are dead to an earthly way of life. And a person who has died to this kind of life does not set his mind on the things of this world. This is the way you should act if you have died, with Christ, to the elements of this world: so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11); they are dead, they will not live (Isa 26:14).

When he said, consider yourselves dead, he followed this with, and alive (Rom 6:11).

142. And so there is another life which is hidden. And thus Paul also says here, and your life is hid with Christ in God. We acquire this life through Christ. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Pet 3:18). But because this life is obtained through Christ, and Christ is hidden from us because he is in the glory of the Father, this life which is given to us through him is also hidden, namely, where Christ is, in the glory of the Father: long life is in his right hand; in his left hand are riches and honor (Prov 3:16); O how abundant is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you (Ps 31:19); to him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna (Rev 2:17).

143. When he says, when Christ shall appear, he shows how this life will be manifested, that is, just as Christ’s; for we read, our God comes (Ps 50:3). And so Paul says, when Christ shall appear, who is your life, because he is the author of our life, and because our life consists in knowing and loving him: it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20). When Christ appears then you also shall appear: when he appears we shall be like him (1 John 3:2), that is, in glory: God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran (Hab 3:3).

144. Then when he says, mortify therefore, Paul puts order into their actions:

first, by restraining them from sin;

second, by teaching them about good habits, at put on therefore (Col 3:12).

In regard to the first he does two things:

first, he starts with a warning;

second, he explains it, at stripping yourselves of the old man (Col 3:9).

The first is divided into two parts:

first, he forbids carnal vices;

second, he gives his reason, at for which things.

With respect to the first he does two things:

first, he lays down a general prohibition;

second, he goes into detail about it, at which are upon the earth.

145. He says, mortify therefore: you ought not to set your minds on things that are on earth, but mortify whatever is earthly, and in particular, your members which are upon the earth. We can explain this by making a comparison: our life involves many actions, just as our body contains many members. In a good life, prudence is like the eye, which directs a person; and courage is like the feet, which support and carry him. But in an evil life, craftiness becomes the eye, and obstinacy becomes the feet. Therefore, these members must be put to death.

Or we could say that in reference to the members of the body, he had said, you are dead, that is, to an earthly way of life. But how is this death accomplished? He answers: mortify therefore your members. Thus, to the extent we have died to sin, to that extent we are alive with grace. For the life of grace heals us with respect to our mind; but not entirely as to our body, because it retains a tendency to sin: I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin (Rom 7:25); and he said, a little before this: I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members (Rom 7:23). Therefore, because you have died so far as concerns your mind, put to death the sinful desires in your members that are on earth, insofar as they are on earth and are earthly bodies: I pommel my body and subdue it (1 Cor 9:27), by not allowing it to be drawn to carnal things.

146. Now he mentions particular sins: first, those that are purely carnal; second, those that are partly carnal, at and covetousness.

Among the carnal sins, we are inclined to lust especially by concupiscence. Lustful actions are shameful and although they may accord with the nature of man as animal, they are not fitting to it as rational, because every sin is opposed to reason. And so Paul says, fornication: beware, my son, of all immorality (Tob 4:13). Or, a sin can be against nature, and so he says, uncleanness. Again, pleasure might be impure, and so he says, lust; and desire can be depraved, and so he says, evil concupiscence.

Second, he lists the intermediate sins. The first of these is covetousness, whose object is something corporeal, that is, money, but it is completed in a spiritual delight, that is, in the ownership of such. And thus it has some part among the carnal sins. Paul adds, which is the service of idols: one who is covetous that is, an idolater (Eph 5:5).

147. But is covetousness by its nature really a kind of idolatry, and does a covetous person sin as an idolater sins?

I say, not specifically, but by resemblance, because a covetous person puts his very life in money. We have idolatry when someone gives to some image the honor owed to God; but a covetous person gives to money the honor owed to God, because he builds his whole life around it. But because a covetous person intends to act towards money as to God, like an idolater, it is a lesser sin.

148. Then when Paul says, for which things the wrath of God comes, he gives the reason why these sins should be avoided. There are two reasons: the first applies to all; the second applies especially to them.

The first is God’s punishment, because on account of carnal sins the wrath of God, that is, God’s punishment, comes upon the children of unbelief, that is, sinners. Such sinners despair of God because lust is the offspring of despair, since many people abandon themselves entirely to things of the flesh because they have despaired of spiritual things. Or, he says children of unbelief, because of themselves there is no hope for their correction. And so the wrath of God is coming, as in the flood (Gen 6:17) and on the people of Sodom (Gen 18:26; 19:24).

The other reason they have for avoiding these sins is that once they did live that way; and so Paul says, in which you also walked some time, from bad to worse. He gives them this reason, first, because of what Peter says: let the time that is past suffice for doing what the gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry (1 Pet 4:3). Second, he mentions this reason because they knew from their own experience that such conduct is not beneficial, but only brings disorder: but then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed (Rom 6:21).