This blog is about Let the indicatives (truths) of Scripture set up the imperatives (commands).

Let the indicatives (truths) of Scripture set up the imperatives (commands).

Colossians 3:5-11 provides a good example of this.

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Colossians 3:5-11, NIV)

If we take this passage out of its immediate context, then this sounds like a negative and discouraging passage. Sure, the content is sobering and we ought to take seriously the call to resist sin. However, read in isolation, this sounds like a daunting or even impossible task!

Colossians 3:5 is a call to action: “put to death”; it is the command, the imperative.

Common to Paul’s writings, commands do not come out of thin air, they are grounded in a truth that he has already laid out. He presupposes his readers will read the imperatives in light of the indicatives.

It’s easy to overlook the word “therefore,” in verse 5 (above), but let’s not do that. It is there for a reason! And its purpose is to link what came before with what is being said. To be purposefully redundant, the “therefore” links the imperative to the indicative; it links the call to action with the truth that has already been substantiated. So, where is the indicative? Where is that truth that is grounding this ethical call to action? Unsurprisingly, it is contained within the passage that came just prior.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4, NIV)

More than one thing is going on in this passage, so for the sake of our discussion, I have bolded the part I want you to hone in on.

“Put to death” (Colossians 3:5) is built on the previous assertion that “you died” (Colossians 3:3). This fits with Paul’s overall portrait of how the Christian has undergone a significant change, having the death and resurrection of Jesus become vicariously efficacious for themselves as well (for example, Colossians 2:11-12). For the Christian, to “put to death” the practices of the old and fallen world comes as a natural by-product of having died and no longer being under that order!