Colossians 3:6

For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:5-11 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 vermin which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carnal 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 mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, because Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For which things' sake ... - See the notes at Ephesians 5:6, where the same expression occurs.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. (See on [2423]Eph 5:6.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Especially remembering how the indulging or sparing any of them will be of dreadful consequence; see Ephesians 5:6; for however they may by carnal men be looked upon as little faults, which God will overlook of course, yet they do certainly incur Divine displeasure, and will bring most inevitable judgments upon those unpersuadable, rebellious, and contumacious ones, who would be thought God’s children and yet remain incorrigible, Matthew 24:38,39 1 Corinthians 6:9 Galatians 5:21.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For which things' sake,.... Those sins above mentioned, Colossians 3:5,

the wrath of God; the effects of it in temporal judgments, and eternal ruin and destruction, the wrath to come, which all are deserving of, and there is only deliverance from by Christ:

cometh upon the children of disobedience: who are disobedient both to the law of God, and Gospel of Christ: who are unbelievers in him, are rebellious and gainsaying, reject his calls, the persuasions of his ministers, set at nought his counsel, and will have none of his reproof. There have been already instances of God's displeasure at sin, his indignation against it, and his judgments on account of it: his wrath is revealed from heaven, and it will come down from thence on disobedient and rebellious sinners, and that suddenly, and with great power, like a mighty torrent, that there will be no standing before it. This is a reason why such who have life in Christ should mortify, repress, and abstain from the above sins; for though this regards sinners, and ungodly persons, yet the effects of God's wrath on such show how much such sins are displeasing to him, and detested by him, and therefore to be avoided by the saints.

Geneva Study Bible

For which things' sake the wrath of God {d} cometh on the children of disobedience:

(d) Used to come.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Colossians 3:6. This relative affirmation stands in a confirmatory reference to the νεκρώσατε κ.τ.λ. above, the omission of which would draw down upon the readers, instead of the φανερωθῆναι ἐν δόξῃ of Colossians 3:4, a fate such as is here described.

διʼ ὅ (see the critical remarks) has the significant stress of the relative clause: on account of this immorality mentioned in Colossians 3:5. The Recepta διʼ ἅ is to be taken just in the same way, and not to be referred to the μέλη (Bähr), since it is not the latter themselves, but their life activities specified by πορνείαν κ.τ.λ., which call forth the wrath of God.

ἔρχεται] namely, at the judgment. Comp. Ephesians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:10 : ἡ ὀργὴ ἡ ἐρχομένη; Matthew 3:7 : ἡ μέλλουσα ὀργή. Hence: ἡμέρα ὀργῆς in Romans 2:5; Revelation 6:17. Chrysostom well says: Paul warns διὰ τῶν μελλόντων ἐξ ὧν ἀπηλλάγημεν κακῶν. See also on Ephesians 5:6. The frequent reference to the manifestation of the divine wrath (comp. Romans 1:18 ff.) in the course of this temporal life (Huther and many others) overlooks the correlation with Colossians 3:4, and the apostle’s conception of the nearness of the Parousia. Hence, also, the combination of the two references (Theophylact and others, also Flatt) is to be rejected.

Respecting the υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθ. (the Jews and Gentiles, who reject the gospel and thereby disobey God), comp. on Ephesians 5:6, and as to this mode of expression generally, Steiger on 1 Peter 1:14.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Colossians 3:6. Parallel to Ephesians 5:6, from which ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας has been added in most MSS. The sentence is abrupt without them, and Colossians 3:7 is more easily explained if they are retained (as by Mey., Kl[17], Ol.), yet their omission in [18], combined with their presence in the parallel Ephesians 5:6, is too strong to admit of their retention. The verse may refer to a general principle which acts in human life, or the reference may be eschatological. The latter seems to be more in accordance with Paul’s usage. ὀργὴ is here the outward manifestation of the anger which God even now feels at sin.

[17] Klöpper.

[18] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. For which things’ sake, &c.] See Ephesians 5:6 for an almost verbal parallel, only observing that the words “on the children of disobedience” should perhaps be omitted from the reading here; they are possibly an early insertion from Ephesians.

“The wrath of God”:—the eternal personal antagonism of the Holy One, as such, to sin. It is no impulsive “passion,” but it is also no figure of speech, however it may be ignored or explained away.—Cp. John 3:36; Romans 1:18; Romans 2:5; Romans 2:8; Romans 5:9; Romans 9:22; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 6:16; Revelation 19:15, &c.; and see Ephesians 2:3, with our note.

“Cometh”:—is coming; is on its way, till in “the day of wrath” (Romans 2:5) it falls.

on the children of disobedience] So Ephesians 5:6.—Documentary evidence is in favour of the retention of these words, but some important documents omit them. Lightfoot pronounces them an interpolation from Eph., but R. V. text retains them.

Bengel's Gnomen

Colossians 3:6. Διʼ ἅ, for which things) Ephesians 5:6.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - Because of which (things) the anger of God cometh [upon the sons of disobedience] (Ephesians 2:2, 3; Ephesians 5:6; Galatians 5:21; Romans 1:18; Romans 2:5-9; Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; John 3:36; Revelation 6:17; Malachi 3:2). The latter phrase is cancelled by Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort; but retained by Ellicott and, preferentially, by the Revisers. The witnesses against it, though numerically few, are varied and select, and the parallel (Ephesians 5:6) would suggest insertion of the words if originally absent. "The anger of God is coming" is a sentence complete in itself (setup. Romans 1:18). God's "anger" (ὀργή) is his settled punitive indignation against sin, of which his "wrath" (θυμός) is the terrible outflaming (Revelation 16:1; Revelation 14:10); see Trench's 'Synonyms.' "Cometh" implies a continuing fact or fixed principle (see Winer, p. 332); or rather, perhaps, signifies that this "anger" is in course of manifestation, is "on the way:" comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10, "the anger that is coming," not "to come," also the use of ἔρχομαι in John 14:3, 18; Hebrews 10:37. The objects of this anger ("children of wrath," Ephesians 2:2, 3) are "the sons of disobedience." The expressive Hebraism by which a man is said to be s child or son of the dominant quality or influence of his life is frequent in the New Testament. Colossians 3:6

Vincent's Word Studies

Wrath - cometh

Compare Romans 1:18. The present tense denotes the certainty of the future event, as Matthew 17:11; John 4:21. The best texts omit upon the children of disobedience.