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At the close of this list of evil things the apostle adds as a deterrent:--
"For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the sons of disobedience. In the
which ye also walked in times past, when ye lived in them" (Col. 3: 6, 7).
We have, in the previous article, drawn attention to the connection between Eph. 2: 1
and Col. 3: 1-4 with reference to the glorious doctrine of death to sin and sins. There is
also a close connection between the verses that follow Col. 3: 1-4 and the verses that
follow Eph. 2: 1:--
"Wherein in times past ye walked according to the age of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
doing the wishes of the flesh and of the mind; and were children of wrath, even as
others" (Eph. 2: 2, 3).
The words of Col. 3: 7: "Ye walked in them, when ye lived in them" may be
contrasted with Col. 2: 6: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in Him."
The apostle seeks to deter the believer in Col. 3: by speaking of the wrath of God.
In Eph. 5: he uses a double argument to the same end--first a warning concerning the
inheritance, and then a warning concerning the wrath of God. The first of these is in
verse 5:--
"For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph. 5: 5).
This is a statement similar to that of Gal. 5: 19-21, where a similar list of the works
of the flesh concludes with the words:--
"Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in the time past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5: 21).
The fact that these works of the flesh merit the wrath of God, and that, if persisted in,
they will result in forfeiture of the inheritance of the kingdom of Christ and of God,
should be sufficient warning to any who may have been tempted to think of liberty as
though it meant license.
Before concluding our examination of this section, we must correct a possible
misunderstanding. It is true that we are to mortify our members which are on the earth
and consider them as good as dead. But this by itself may be misunderstood. The
members of the body that we possessed in the days when we were without Christ, are the
same members that we possess to-day. And they can and should be used in the service of
the Lord. Scripture is very clear on this point:--
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts
thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but