Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
5 sermons cite this verse
… Notice he says that in connection with the temptation. Colossians 3.5, Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. In the New Living Translation, it says, Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world. Don't get caught up worshiping things in this world. You know why? because he's a jealous God. He's an all-consuming fire and he loves you with a pure and a holy love. And he doesn't want to share your attention because he's in love with you. When you get a chance, go and read Song of Solomon chapter 8 when the Shulamite talks about this love, this jealous love demanding as the grave. she says to Solomon set me as a seal upon your arm and what she's saying to Solomon is love me and never go after another woman you know it's sad because Solomon was warned just like all the children of Israel not to intermarry or go after all of these other women because their hearts would be led astray and the Bible says Solomon loved many foreign women 700 wives and 300 concubines and his heart left the Lord is God and he wasn't faithful in the end and then to add insult to injury he set up false idols and he began to worship and sacrifice to demons you see how he ended was worse than how he began because when he began when he was small in his own eyes …
… and jump out of the will of God just because you're lonely. Colossians 3 verse 5 says, Therefore, men, I'm just talking to the men. That's why men are getting up and leaving right now. You notice that. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, covetousness, which is idolatry. When it says put to death your members, I'll read it this way. Put to death your private parts. Stop letting your private parts tell you what you're going to do next. That's what he's saying right there. Get control of them. Oh, I have this passion. Take a shower. Oh, I have this. I have this. All of these things, passion, need, desire, all of those have been given to us by God. but mismanaged, they can kill us. Men, it's time to repent. It's time to seek God. It's time to be ready. It's time to serve God. But don't think that you can live two worlds. Even if you think you've gotten away with it, you have not gotten away with it. …
… This is why Paul picks up this same imagery and he gets to Colossians 3 verse five. And he says, put to death sin in your life. This isn't something to play with. This isn't something to maintain. This is something to kill. Because when Jesus came, he revealed that our primary problem is not external, it's internal. The biggest enemy isn't out there. The biggest enemy is in here. So put to death the sin in your body. So he says in Romans 8, put to death the misdeeds of the body and the spirit will give you life. And so our job, our responsibility as believers is to take it to the Lord and say, God, would you kill it? I want to say no to what's keeping me from you so that I can say yes to you. That's worship. Worship is the goal. So sin is the enemy because sin is what keeps us from him. We say no to this so we can say yes to him. …
… sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Now, we have to make a discernment here. First of all, it starts, kill off, kill off. Where it says put to death, it literally means kill off what? Well, there's a long list. and verse five is not all the list there is. I mean, you've got sexual obsession and impurity. Then you've got materialism and greed. But if you move on down to verse eight, you've got anger and rage and malice and slander. You've got lying, dishonesty, lack of integrity. And if you go all the way down to verse 11, it looks like there was also other problems there. There's hints that there was class and race strife within the church and it says, there is no Greek or Jew, no circumcised or uncircumcised, no barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, and so on. But what is the cause of all these things? What is at the bottom of all of these problems? And right in the middle of verse five, there are two words that are critical and key, but easy to miss as the key to everything. …
… Let me give you a verse that proves beyond the shadow of any doubt that covetousness is idolatry. Colossians 3 verse 5. Mortify, that means put to death, therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. Now remember, covetousness is a very deceitful thing. Many of us would not say that we're covetous. But covetousness, according to Paul here in this passage to Timothy, is like an octopus. It just wraps its tentacles around you and drags you down. Many people get their identification by what they own, what they possess. A psychiatrist asked this question one time. if I am what I possess and I lose those things, then what am I? What am I? If I am what I possess and if I lose those things, then what am I? Who am I then? I heard about a man who loved gold. I mean, he just loved it. He had an inordinate affection for gold. Finally, he got a lot of gold and he loved it. …