Telling Anger and Co to Leave the House
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices Colossians 3:8,9
‘But now (because of your transition from the old to the new) you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these’ (3:8). They must be ‘put behind you’ (J. B. Phillips). ‘All such things as these’ obviously begins with the sins listed in 3:5 and includes those about to be names in 3:8. When a tide of sexual passion rises or a surge of anger begins, it must be dealt with as an alien intruder and told to leave the house. It has no right to remain, let alone beginning to order you around.
Paul now turns to the next list. ‘Anger’ is a smouldering or seething hatred; ‘rage’ is when this state breaks out into actual angry words or deeds; ‘malice’ here probably means evil intended to cause hurt; ‘slander’ is speech which puts malice into effect (the Greek word is blasphemia which is more rightly speech which dishonours God Himself); ‘and filthy language’ covers words which either by association or intent, contaminate both speaker and listeners. All such things are to be removed ‘from your lips.’ We can’t stop angry thoughts from coming into our thinking but we can stop them becoming angry words. Like wild plants blown by the wind, hateful words can scatter their seeds far and wide, birthing more anger where they land.
Among the most dangerous seeds are words that aren’t true: ‘do not lie to each other’ (3:9). Truth can be hard for a Christian but you must not try to change it ‘since you have taken off your old self with its practices’ (3:9). This is more than just a demand for a changed life ‘since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self’ (3:9,10). The new self is ‘being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator’ (3:10). The behaviour outlined in 3:5 and 8 is characteristic of distorted humanity. Being out of shape, it tends to twist everything else (people by manipulation and facts by lying) to make them fit in with its own distortions. The humanity, which has been straightened out according to the perfect model of Christ Himself (1:15-20; 2:6) has no excuse for such behaviour. The standard now is the life of heaven (3:1-4) and no one behaves like that there.
Though it may not always feel like it, those who have joined Christ’s family have become different people. They have ‘taken off’ the old humanity like shabby old clothes. This isn’t turning over a new leaf or making a new resolution. This is God’s action in grace and by His Spirit, of our leaving one family and moving, lock, stock and barrel, into a new one.