Colossians 3:10: Edit history

Context

Colossians is traditionally held to be a letter that Paul sent to the church at Colossae while he was imprisoned, though some scholars hold that it was written by one of Paul's disciples. Chapter 3 opens with the exhortation that, since believers have been raised with Christ, they should "seek those things which are above" (Colossians 3:1). The chapter then describes what believers are to abandon and what they are to take up, using the image of taking off and putting on clothing. This verse's phrase "And have put on the new man" answers the words of 3:9, "ye have put off the old man with his deeds." Immediately afterward, 3:11 states that in this new man there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free. The passage also continues the line of thought in 2:12, which describes baptism as being buried and raised with Christ.

Interpretation

• Restoration of the image: A widely accepted interpretation identifies "the image of him that created him" with the image of God in Genesis 1:26-27. On this reading, the image damaged by the Fall is renewed in Christ. Because 1:15 calls Christ "the image of the invisible God," some interpreters also connect this image with Christ.
• Reformed (Presbyterian) reading: John Calvin cited this verse together with Ephesians 4:24 to describe the content of the restored image as knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Chapter 4 of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Question 10 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism confess that God created humanity after His own image in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and both cite this verse as a proof text.
• Wesleyan (Methodist and Holiness) reading: Noting that "is renewed" is in the present tense, this tradition reads the verse as describing the ongoing, daily process of sanctification (being made holy). John Wesley held that the goal of faith is the renewal of the heart in the image of God, and this understanding became a central theme of Wesleyan theology.
• Communal reading: This interpretation draws on 3:11 and the "one new man" of Ephesians 2:15. It understands the new man not merely as the inner life of the individual but as a community newly formed in Christ across barriers of ethnicity and social status.

Debates and Issues

The verse is not a point of major disagreement among denominations. Several interpretive questions, however, remain.

• Already put on, or yet to be put on?: In the original Greek, "put off" and "put on" are aorist participles. Interpreters therefore differ over whether they refer to something that already took place at conversion or baptism, or whether they carry the force of an exhortation. Korean translations in the Revised Version (Gaeyeok) tradition render them as accomplished facts, and the command "Put on" in 3:12 follows. This tension between what has already been accomplished and what is still to be worked out is often discussed in explaining the relationship between justification (God's declaring a person righteous) and sanctification.
• The meaning of "knowledge": The word translated "knowledge" here is the Greek epignosis, commonly explained as a deep knowledge of God rather than mere intellectual information. Some scholars hold that the teaching troubling the Colossian church emphasized a special knowledge, and they read this expression as a response to it. Some connect that teaching with early Gnosticism, though opinions differ on its precise identity.

In Korean Churches

In Korean Protestant churches, the expression "putting off the old man and putting on the new man" is commonly used in sermons on conversion and sanctification, as well as in baptismal instruction and new believers' classes.

Related Passages

• Ephesians 4:22-24
• Genesis 1:26-27
• 2 Corinthians 3:18
• Galatians 3:26-29
• Romans 12:2