"PUT IT TO DEATH...Understanding the Sins Paul Commands us to kill. (Col. 3:5)"

In Colossians 3, Paul makes one of the strongest statements in the New Testament about the Christian life:

“If you then be risen with Christ… set your mind on things above.”
(Colossians 3:1)

And then he immediately follows with a command:

“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.”
(Colossians 3:5)

The word mortify means put to death, kill, cut off, eradicate.
Paul is not talking to unbelievers —
He’s talking to born-again, Spirit-filled Christians who have been raised with Christ.

In other words:
Since you have new life in Christ, the old life must die.
But what exactly does Paul say we must put to death?
Below is a breakdown of each word and how it applies to the world we live in today.

1. FORNICATION — Sexual Acts Outside God’s Design
Greek: porneia
This is a broad term that includes any sexual behavior outside the covenant of one man and one woman in marriage.
The biblical category of porneia includes:

• adultery
• premarital sex
• pornography
• prostitution
• homosexual practice (Romans 1; 1 Corinthians 6)
• pedophilia and sexual exploitation of minors
• incest, abuse, coercion
• any sexual practice that distorts God’s created order

God isn’t against pleasure — He is against perversion.
Sex is holy when it’s used the way He designed it.
Porneia is a distortion of His design.

2. UNCLEANNESS — The Inner Impurity
Greek: akatharsia
If fornication refers to the actions, uncleanness refers to the inside condition.
This includes:

• dirty thoughts
• lustful imagination
• fantasies
• corrupt motives
• distorted views of sexuality or gender
• the inward pull toward impurity

Uncleanness is the seedbed of outward sin.
Sin grows in the heart long before it shows up in the body.

3. INORDINATE AFFECTION — Desires Out of Control
Greek: pathos
This is when passion begins to dominate a person’s will.
It includes:

• emotional fixation
• desires that overpower obedience
• passions pushing toward forbidden relationships
• same-sex romantic desires
• unhealthy emotional attachments
• grooming tendencies or seductive impulses

These desires have stepped outside the boundaries God set.
They are no longer under control — they are controlling.

4. EVIL CONCUPISCENCE — Intentional Lust
Greek: epithymia kakē
This is not accidental temptation.
This is lust that is pursued.
It includes:

• nurturing fantasies
• feeding desire
• secretly planning to sin
• looking for opportunities
• predatory or obsessive lust
• acting out identity distortions (such as transgender behaviors driven by inner lust or fantasy)

This is desire with direction.
This is sin that has been chosen, not stumbled into.

5. COVETOUSNESS — Desire That Becomes Idolatry
Greek: pleonexia
Paul ends by calling covetousness idolatry.
Why?
Because covetousness is a craving for more —
more pleasure, more fulfillment, more identity, more experience.
Covetousness turns desire into a god.
It shows up as:

• craving pleasure more than purity
• craving identity over obedience
• building life around self-gratification
• letting sexual desire shape identity instead of Scripture

This is where sin becomes worship.
This is where desire takes God’s place.

THE PROGRESSION OF SIN (Colossians 3:5)
Paul isn't listing random sins — he’s showing a downward spiral:

1. Fornication — the behavior
2. Uncleanness — the inner impurity
3. Inordinate affection — desire out of control
4. Evil concupiscence — intentional lust
5. Covetousness — desire worship and identity idolatry

Sin doesn’t start with fornication —
It starts with uncleanness.
A thought not taken captive becomes an affection.
An affection becomes a craving.
A craving becomes idolatry.
And idolatry becomes bondage.

HOW DO WE “PUT IT TO DEATH”?
Paul doesn’t leave us without a path to freedom.
Here is how believers kill the old life:
1. Expose it
Bring it into the light. Sin grows in secrecy.
2. Name it
Don’t redefine it. Don’t justify it. Call it what God calls it.
3. Starve it
Cut off access, opportunity, and temptation.
4. Replace it
Fill your mind with things above, not things below.
5. Clothe yourself in Christ
Compassion, humility, mercy, love — these replace the old patterns.
6. Walk in the Spirit
You cannot crucify the flesh in the flesh.
Only the Spirit kills what the flesh feeds.

FINAL WORD
Christian maturity isn’t just about what you start doing —
It’s about what you stop feeding.
If we are risen with Christ…
if we belong to Him…
if our life is hidden in Him…
Then the old life must die.
Not managed.
Not minimized.
Mortified.

Jesus didn’t rise so we could stay in the grave.
He rose so we could walk in newness of life.