Raised with Christ
Paul grounds the chapter in believers’ union with Christ’s death and resurrection and in their future appearing with him in glory.
Historical and literary setting
Context Lens
Old self and new self
He calls the church to put off sinful desire and speech and to put on compassion, forgiveness, love, peace, and thanksgiving.
Every household relationship
He applies the new life to wives, husbands, children, fathers, and slaves, and places each relationship under the Lord.
See timeline and full contextTimeline, writing setting, historical world, and biblical frame
Scripture
Colossians 3
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Colossians 3 in the Berean Standard Bible, read by Bob Souer with verse-level following.
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Human narration by Bob Souer of the Berean Standard Bible from official public-domain recordings.
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Colossians 3:1-4
Raised with Christ, Seeking What Is Above
Put On the New Self
Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Colossians 3:5-11
Put Off the Old Self
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
Colossians 3:12-17
Clothed in Christlike Love
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Colossians 3:18-21
Households Under the Lord
Christian Households
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they will not become discouraged.
Colossians 3:22-25
Serving the Lord Christ
Serving with Honor
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only to please them while they are watching, but with sincerity of heart and fear of the Lord.
Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, as for the Lord and not for men,
because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.
Exposition
Read closely
Colossians 3:1-4
Raised with Christ, Seeking What Is Above
Paul begins with what is already true. Because believers have been raised with Christ, they are to pursue and fix their thinking on the realm where the risen Christ now reigns at God’s right hand. This does not draw them away from ordinary life. It gives that life a new center. Their old life ended when they died with Christ, and their true life is now kept secure, hidden with him in God. When Christ, who is their life, is revealed, they will share his glory with him.
Paul begins with what is already true.
Colossians 3:5-11
Put Off the Old Self
New life has a moral shape. Paul tells believers to put to death whatever belongs to their earthly nature: sexual sin and impurity, uncontrolled passion and evil desire, and the greed that amounts to idolatry. God’s wrath is coming because of such things, and the Colossians once lived in them. Now they must also lay aside anger and rage, malice, slander, and foul speech, and they must stop lying to each other. The reason is a change that has already happened. The old self and its habits have been taken off, and the new self has been put on, a self continually renewed in knowledge after the likeness of the One who created it. In this renewed people, distinctions of nation, religion, culture, and social status no longer define or divide, because Christ is everything and lives in every believer.
New life has a moral shape.
Colossians 3:12-17
Clothed in Christlike Love
Paul now describes the new clothing. Believers are God’s chosen people, set apart and dearly loved, and that identity comes before the commands. So they clothe themselves with a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. They put up with one another and forgive whatever complaints they hold against each other, because the Lord has forgiven them. Over all of this they wear love, which binds the whole life of the community together in perfect unity. Christ’s peace is to govern their hearts, since they were called together as one body, and gratitude returns again and again in these verses. The message of Christ is to live richly among them as they teach, correct, and sing to God with thankful hearts. Every word and every action is to be done in the Lord Jesus’ name, with thanks offered to the Father through him.
Paul now describes the new clothing.
Colossians 3:18-21
Households Under the Lord
Paul turns to the household and speaks to each member directly. Wives are to submit to their husbands in the way that fits life in the Lord. Husbands are to love their wives and must never treat them harshly. Children are to obey their parents, because this pleases the Lord, and fathers must not provoke their children until they lose heart. The instructions run in both directions. Paul addresses husbands and fathers as directly as wives and children, and he places every relationship under the Lord.
Paul turns to the household and speaks to each member directly.
Colossians 3:22-25
Serving the Lord Christ
Paul speaks directly to slaves and addresses them as members of the church who answer to the Lord. Their work is to be sincere rather than a performance for whoever is watching, and it is to be offered in reverence for the Lord. Whatever the task, they are to give themselves to it fully, as work offered to the Lord rather than to win human approval. The Lord will give them an inheritance as their reward, because the one they truly serve is the Lord Christ. Wrongdoing will be repaid, and no one receives special treatment in that judgment. The next verse, which opens chapter four, turns to masters and reminds them that they answer to a Master in heaven as well.
Paul speaks directly to slaves and addresses them as members of the church who answer to the Lord.
Old Testament Echo
Genesis 1:27
Renewed in the Creator’s image
Genesis 1 presents humanity as the crown of God’s good creation: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Human beings are made to reflect God and to rule his world under him.
Colossians 3:10 echoes this language when it says the new self is “being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Paul does not quote Genesis here, but the allusion shows what renewal means: God is restoring the human calling to bear his likeness, now in union with Christ.
Godward synthesis
Behold the Lord
God raised believers with Christ, keeps their life hidden with Christ in God, will reveal them with him in glory, renews them in the Creator’s image, chooses and loves them, and through the Lord grants forgiveness and an inheritance. God is gracious and holy. He gives new life and forgiveness first, his wrath is coming because of the sins Paul names, and his judgment shows no favoritism.
Colossians 3 grounds every command in union with Christ’s death and resurrection, the Lord’s forgiveness, and the hope of his appearing in glory.
Worship the risen Christ, trust that your life is secure in him, and hope for the day he appears in glory.
Passage-fitting reflection
Before God
Colossians 3:1-17, 23-24
Start from what God has done: your life is hidden with Christ. Then name one habit of speech or desire this chapter tells you to put off, and one quality of the new self to put on toward a specific person today. At home or at work, do your next ordinary task as service to the Lord Christ, and give thanks.
Prayer
Prayer
Father, thank you that you raised us with Christ and that our life is hidden with him in you. Teach us to set our minds where he reigns. Help us put to death what belongs to the old self, and clothe us with compassion, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love. Let Christ’s peace rule among us, and make our homes and our work faithful service to the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Connections and notes
Connections and Notes
Colossians 3:3-4
A hidden life
Paul does not say the new life is absent, only that it is not yet visible in its full glory. It is kept with Christ in God and will be revealed when he appears, so present struggle is no evidence that the new life has failed.
Colossians 3:5
Greed as idolatry
Paul places greed beside the worship of false gods. The desire for more can claim the trust and devotion that belong to God alone, so it is never a small matter.
Colossians 3:16
The word of Christ
The phrase can mean the message about Christ or the word Christ himself speaks. Either way, his teaching is to fill the church’s shared instruction, correction, and song.
Colossians 3:18-19
Submission in the Lord
Paul frames the wife’s submission by what is fitting in the Lord and, in the next breath, forbids husbands to be harsh. Nothing in these verses permits harshness or asks anyone to accept abuse.
Colossians 3:22-25
Slaves in the household
Paul gives instructions to people inside the household order of his day rather than arguing for slavery itself. He treats slaves as moral agents who will receive an inheritance from the Lord, and verse 11 has already said that slave and free share one Christ.
Colossians 3:25
Who will be repaid
The warning may address slaves who do wrong, or assure them that wrongdoing masters will answer for it. Either way, the judgment is impartial, and in 4:1 Paul immediately holds masters accountable to their own Master in heaven.
Separate commentary and formation
Listen to the Companion Study
6:55
Context, interpretation, orthodox doctrine, gospel application, formation, and prayer.
AI-assisted companionClara
Read the companion transcript
Welcome
You have just heard Colossians chapter three. Paul shows what life looks like for people raised with Christ, from the desires of the heart to the way they speak, forgive, worship, and serve at home and at work.
Context Lens
Colossians chapter three follows Paul’s warning that human rules cannot restrain the flesh. Here he gives the positive answer. New life comes from union with the risen Christ, and it reaches into every relationship.
Read the Passage
Before this walkthrough, pause and read the complete chapter in the Berean Standard Bible. Notice how Paul moves from the risen Christ to the new self and then into the life of the household.
Raised with Christ, Seeking What Is Above
Paul begins with what is already true. Because believers have been raised with Christ, they are to pursue and fix their thinking on the realm where the risen Christ now reigns at God’s right hand. This does not draw them away from ordinary life. It gives that life a new center. Their old life ended when they died with Christ, and their true life is now kept secure, hidden with him in God. When Christ, who is their life, is revealed, they will share his glory with him.
Put Off the Old Self
New life has a moral shape. Paul tells believers to put to death whatever belongs to their earthly nature: sexual sin and impurity, uncontrolled passion and evil desire, and the greed that amounts to idolatry. God’s wrath is coming because of such things, and the Colossians once lived in them. Now they must also lay aside anger and rage, malice, slander, and foul speech, and they must stop lying to each other. The reason is a change that has already happened. The old self and its habits have been taken off, and the new self has been put on, a self continually renewed in knowledge after the likeness of the One who created it. In this renewed people, distinctions of nation, religion, culture, and social status no longer define or divide, because Christ is everything and lives in every believer.
Clothed in Christlike Love
Paul now describes the new clothing. Believers are God’s chosen people, set apart and dearly loved, and that identity comes before the commands. So they clothe themselves with a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. They put up with one another and forgive whatever complaints they hold against each other, because the Lord has forgiven them. Over all of this they wear love, which binds the whole life of the community together in perfect unity. Christ’s peace is to govern their hearts, since they were called together as one body, and gratitude returns again and again in these verses. The message of Christ is to live richly among them as they teach, correct, and sing to God with thankful hearts. Every word and every action is to be done in the Lord Jesus’ name, with thanks offered to the Father through him.
Households Under the Lord
Paul turns to the household and speaks to each member directly. Wives are to submit to their husbands in the way that fits life in the Lord. Husbands are to love their wives and must never treat them harshly. Children are to obey their parents, because this pleases the Lord, and fathers must not provoke their children until they lose heart. The instructions run in both directions. Paul addresses husbands and fathers as directly as wives and children, and he places every relationship under the Lord.
Serving the Lord Christ
Paul speaks directly to slaves and addresses them as members of the church who answer to the Lord. Their work is to be sincere rather than a performance for whoever is watching, and it is to be offered in reverence for the Lord. Whatever the task, they are to give themselves to it fully, as work offered to the Lord rather than to win human approval. The Lord will give them an inheritance as their reward, because the one they truly serve is the Lord Christ. Wrongdoing will be repaid, and no one receives special treatment in that judgment. The next verse, which opens chapter four, turns to masters and reminds them that they answer to a Master in heaven as well.
Old Testament Echo
Genesis chapter one tells how God made humanity in his own image, male and female, to reflect him and to rule his world under him. Paul does not quote that passage here, but Colossians three, verse ten, echoes it. The new self is continually renewed in knowledge after the likeness of the One who made it. Renewal in Christ is not a human self-improvement project. It is God restoring the calling he gave humanity at creation.
Behold the Lord
This chapter begins with what God has already done. Believers have been raised with Christ, who reigns at God’s right hand, and their life is kept safe with Christ in God until he appears in glory. The Creator is renewing his people in his own image and making one people in whom Christ is everything. God has chosen and loved them, and the Lord has forgiven them, so their compassion and forgiveness answer grace already given. Even in the humblest work they serve the Lord Christ, who gives an inheritance and judges without partiality. The good news here is not that we can renovate ourselves. It is that God has joined us to his risen Son, and our life is secure in him.
Before God
Start from what God has done: your life is hidden with Christ. Then name one habit of speech or desire this chapter tells you to put off, and one quality of the new self to put on toward a specific person today. At home or at work, do your next ordinary task as service to the Lord Christ, and give thanks.
Prayer
Father, thank you that you raised us with Christ and that our life is hidden with him in you. Teach us to set our minds where he reigns. Help us put to death what belongs to the old self, and clothe us with compassion, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love. Let Christ’s peace rule among us, and make our homes and our work faithful service to the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Connections
A few details are worth holding carefully. When Paul calls greed idolatry, he places the desire for more beside the worship of false gods, because it can claim the trust that belongs to God alone. The word of Christ may mean the message about Christ or his own teaching. Either way, it is to fill the church’s teaching and song. The household instructions place wives, husbands, children, and fathers under the Lord, and nothing in them permits harshness or asks anyone to accept abuse. Paul addresses slaves within the household order of his day without arguing for slavery, and he treats them as heirs who serve the Lord Christ. And the warning that wrongdoers will be repaid may address slaves, masters, or both. Either way, the Lord judges without partiality.
About This Audio
This is an AI-assisted companion study, voiced by Clara, a synthetic AI voice. It is commentary rather than Scripture. The complete Berean Standard Bible reading is available separately with human narration by Bob Souer.
This companion study uses AI-assisted authorship and a synthetic voice. It is commentary, not Scripture.
Preparation and accountability
Prepared by Ben
This independent formation resource uses an AI-assisted research and production workflow. AI supports research, organization, drafting, and mechanical checks. AI is not treated as a theological authority.
No independent theological review is claimed for this reading.
Last revised 2026-10-05. How these studies are prepared · Report a correction
Sources
Sources and text notice
- Berean Standard Bible official frozen corpus: Exact Colossians 3 BSB text, the Genesis 1:27 Echo quotation, Colossians 4:1, and direct passage observations
- Bible.com, Colossians 3 BSB: Public same-version BSB reader route and attribution