SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:5
¶ Mortificad, pues, vuestros miembros que estn sobre la tierra: fornicacin, inmundicia, deleite carnal , mala concupiscencia, y avaricia, la cual es servicio de ídolos;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Colossians 3:5
Verse 5. Mortify, therefore, you members] nekrwsate? Put them to death: the verb is used metaphorically to signify, to deprive a thing of its power, to destroy its strength. Use no member of your body to sin against God; keep all under dominion; and never permit the beast to run away with the man. To gratify any sensual appetite is to give it the very food and nourishment by which it lives, thrives, and is active. However the body may suffer by excessive sensual indulgences, the appetite increases with the indulgence. Deny yourselves, and let reason rule; and the animal will not get the ascendency over the rational man. See the notes on Rom. vi. 11, &c. Inordinate affection] paqov? Unnatural and degrading passion; bestial lusts. See Rom. i. 26, 27; and the notes there.
Evil concupiscence] epiqumian kakhn. As epiqumia signifies strong and vehement desire of any kind, it is here joined with kakh, evil, to show the sense more particularly in which the apostle uses it.
Covetousness, which is idolatry] For the covetous man makes his money his god. Now, it is the prerogative of God to confer happiness; every godly man seeks his happiness in God; the covetous man seeks that in his money which God alone can give; therefore his covetousness is properly idolatry. It is true his idol is of gold and silver, but his idolatry is not the less criminal on that account.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. Mortify therefore your members , etc.] Not your bodies, as the Ethiopic version reads, nor the members of the natural body, but of the body of sin, indwelling sin; which as a body consists of various members, which are parts of it, rise out of it, and are used by it, as the members are by the body; and intend the sins of the flesh, or sinful actions, which are generally performed by the members of the natural body, in which the law of sin is, and by which it operates; so that the mortification the saints are here exhorted to, in consideration of having a spiritual life in them, and a hope of eternal life in Christ, from whence the apostle argues, is not a mortification or destruction of the body of sin itself, or of the being and principle of it in the soul, where it is, and lives, and dwells, and will as long as the saints are in this tabernacle, but of the deeds of the body, or of sinful actions, as to the life and conversation; and signifies a denial of them, an abstinence from them, and a non-performance of them; (see Gill on Romans 8:13). These members, or deeds of the body, or acts of sin, are called your: for as the old man is ours, the vitiosity of nature is what we bring into the world with us, and is rooted and incorporated into us; so the actions that flow from it, and are done by it, are not to be ascribed to God, nor even to Satan, but they are our own actions, and which are performed by the members of our mortal body, or by the faculties of our souls: and are, which are on earth : or earthly; are concerned about earthly things, the things of the world, worldly lusts and pleasures, which rise out of earthly mindedness, and incline unto it, and are only what are done here on earth, and will have no place in heaven. The particulars of which follow: fornication ; the sin of uncleanness committed by single persons, or out of the state of marriage, and which the Gentiles did not account sinful: hence so much notice is taken of it, with a censure, and so often, by the apostle, in almost all his epistles, and dehorted from, as a sin against the body, as what disqualified for church communion, and was not to be named among the saints, who should be dead to that, and that to them, as to the commission of it. Uncleanness ; of every sort, all other impure actions, as adultery, incest, sodomy, and every other unnatural lust; all which should be abstained from, and never committed by those who profess to be alive unto God. Inordinate affection ; which may intend the passions, or first motions of sin, stirred up by the law, and which work in, and operate by the members of the body, and bring forth fruit unto death, and therefore to be opposed by such as have a life in Christ; and also those vile affections, which some in a judicial way are given up unto, and prevail with those who are effeminate, and abusers of themselves with mankind, and which are to be abhorred and denied by all who are heirs of the grace of life, and expectants of an heavenly one. Evil concupiscence ; so called to distinguish it from that natural concupiscence, or desire after things lawful and necessary, and which is implanted in nature by God himself; and from that spiritual concupiscence or desire after spiritual things, and that lusting against the flesh and carnal things, which is formed in the heart of a regenerate man by the Spirit of God. It is the same with [rh rxy , the evil imagination, or corruption of nature so much spoken of by the Jews. This here is what is forbidden by that law, thou shalt not covet, ( Exodus 20:17); and includes every fleshly lust and inordinate desire, or every desire after that which is not lawful, or does not belong to a man; as what is another's property, his wife, or goods, or anything that is his; and so very naturally follows, covetousness ; an immoderate love of money, the root of all evil, an insatiable desire of having more, and of having more than a man's own; and is enlarged as hell, and as death is not satisfied, but still craves more, without making any good use of what is possessed: which is idolatry . The covetous man, and the idolater, worship the same for matter and substance, even gold and silver; the covetous man lays up his money, makes no use of it, as if it was something sacred; he looks at it, and adores it, and puts his trust and confidence in it, and his heart is so much set upon it, that he neglects the worship of the true God; and indeed no man can serve God and mammon. Some think, that by this pleonexia rendered covetousness, is meant, that greedy desire after the commission of all uncleanness, and impure actions, which were perpetrated by the followers of Simon Magus in their religious assemblies, and under the notion of worship, and as acceptable to God, and therefore called idolatry; and which ought not to be once named, much less practised, among the living members of Christ. Moreover, such filthy actions were performed by the Gentiles in the worship of their deities.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 5-11 - It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermi which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carna indulgences. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. It is necessary to mortif sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospe changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, an supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite an passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions an circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, becaus Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness.
Greek Textus Receptus
νεκρωσατε 3499 5657 ουν 3767 τα 3588 μελη 3196 υμων 5216 τα 3588 επι 1909 της 3588 γης 1093 πορνειαν 4202 ακαθαρσιαν 167 παθος 3806 επιθυμιαν 1939 κακην 2556 και 2532 την 3588 πλεονεξιαν 4124 ητις 3748 εστιν 2076 5748 ειδωλολατρεια 1495
Vincent's NT Word Studies
5. Mortify (nekrwsate). Only here, Rom. iv. 19; Heb. xi. 12. Mortify is used in its literal sense of put to death.
So Erasmus: "Christ was mortified and killed." And Shakespeare:
" - his wildness mortified in him, Seemed to die too."
"I Henry v., 1, 26"
Members (melh). See on Rom. vi. 13. The physical members, so far as they are employed in the service of sin. The word falls in with the allusions to bodily austerities in ch. 2.
Which are upon the earth. Compare ver. 2. The organs of the earthly and sensuous life.
Fornication, etc. In apposition with members, denoting the modes in which the members sinfully exert themselves.
Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence (paqov, ejpiqumian kakhn). See on Rom. i. 26.
And covetousness (kai pleonexian). And has a climactic force; and especially; see on Rom. i. 29.
Which is (htiv estin). The compound relative, explanatory and classifying. Seeing it stands in the category of. Compare Eph. v. 5. Idolatry. See on 1 Cor. v. 10.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
3:5 {Mortify} (nekrwsate). First aorist active imperative of nekrow, late verb, to put to death, to treat as dead. Latin Vulgate _mortifico_, but "mortify" is coming with us to mean putrify. Paul boldly applies the metaphor of death (#2:20; 3:3) pictured in baptism (#2:12) to the actual life of the Christian. He is not to go to the other Gnostic extreme of license on the plea that the soul is not affected by the deeds of the body. Paul's idea is that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (#1Co 6:19). He mentions some of these "members upon the earth" like fornication (porneian), uncleanness (akaqarsian), passion (paqos), evil desire (epiqumian kaken), covetousness (pleonexian) "the which is idolatry" (hetis estin eidwlolatria). See the longer list of the works of the flesh in #Gal 5:19-21, though covetousness is not there named, but it is in #Eph 4:19; 5:5.
