◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 118:1-2 14-24 (On this day God has acted); Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 (Israel crosses over the sea); Colossians 3:5-11 (The new life in Christ) (New English Translation)

Prev Day

April 10, 2023

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

April 2023
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Return to today's reading

Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 118:1-2

Psalm 118^[a]

118 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures.^[b]
²Let Israel say,
“Yes, his loyal love endures.”

Psalm 118:14-24

¹⁴The Lord gives me strength and protects me;^[a]
he has become my deliverer.”^[b]
¹⁵They celebrate deliverance in the tents of the godly.^[c]
The Lord’s right hand conquers.^[d]
¹⁶The Lord’s right hand gives victory;^[e]
the Lord’s right hand conquers.
¹⁷I will not die, but live,
and I will proclaim what the Lord has done.^[f]
¹⁸The Lord severely^[g] punished me,
but he did not hand me over to death.
¹⁹Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple.^[h]
I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
²⁰This is the Lord’s gate—
the godly enter through it.
²¹I will give you thanks, for you answered me,
and have become my deliverer.
²²The stone that the builders discarded^[i]
has become the cornerstone.^[j]
²³This is the Lord’s work.
We consider it amazing!^[k]
²⁴This is the day the Lord has brought about.^[l]
We will be happy and rejoice in it.

Footnotes

Psalm 118:14 tn Heb “my strength and protection [is] the Lord.” The Hebrew term זִמְרָת (zimrat) is traditionally understood as meaning “song” (“my strength and song [is] the Lord”) in which case one might translate, “for the Lord gives me strength and joy” (i.e., a reason to sing). However, many recent commentators have argued that the noun זִמְרָת is here a homonym, meaning “protection” or “strength.” See HALOT 274 s.v.; cf. NEB “The Lord is my refuge and defence”; NRSV “my strength and my might.”
Psalm 118:14 tn Or “salvation.”
Psalm 118:15 tn Heb “the sound of a ringing shout and deliverance [is] in the tents of the godly.”
Psalm 118:15 tn Heb “does valiantly.” The statement refers here to military success (see Num 24:18; 1 Sam 14:48; Pss 60:12; 108:13).
Psalm 118:16 tn Heb “exalts.”
Psalm 118:17 tn Heb “the works of the Lord.”
Psalm 118:18 tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following verbal idea.
Psalm 118:19 tn Heb “the gates of justice.” The gates of the Lord’s temple are referred to here, as v. 20 makes clear. They are called “gates of justice” because they are the entrance to the just king’s palace. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Psalm 118:22 tn Or “rejected.”
Psalm 118:22 tn Heb “the head of the corner.”sn The metaphor of the stone…the builders discarded describes the way in which God’s deliverance reversed the psalmist’s circumstances. When he was in distress, he was like a stone which was discarded by builders as useless, but now that he has been vindicated by God, all can see that he is of special importance to God, like the cornerstone of the building.
Psalm 118:23 tn Heb “it is amazing in our eyes.” The use of the plural pronoun here and in vv. 24-27 suggests that the psalmist may be speaking for the entire nation. However, it is more likely that vv. 22-27 are the people’s response to the psalmist’s thanksgiving song (see especially v. 26). They rejoice with him because his deliverance on the battlefield (see vv. 10-12) had national repercussions.
Psalm 118:24 tn Heb “this is the day the Lord has made.” Though sometimes applied in a general way, this statement in its context refers to the day of deliverance which the psalmist and people celebrate.

Exodus 14:10-31

¹⁰When^[a] Pharaoh got closer,^[b] the Israelites looked up,^[c] and there were the Egyptians marching after them,^[d] and they were terrified.^[e] The Israelites cried out to the Lord,^[f] ¹¹and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert?^[g] What in the world^[h] have you done to us by bringing^[i] us out of Egypt? ¹²Isn’t this what we told you^[j] in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians,^[k] because it is better for us to serve^[l] the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’”^[m]

¹³Moses said to the people, “Do not fear!^[n] Stand firm^[o] and see^[p] the salvation^[q] of the Lord that he will provide^[r] for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.^[s] ¹⁴The Lord^[t] will fight for you, and you can be still.”^[u]

¹⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.^[v] ¹⁶And as for you,^[w] lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that^[x] the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷And as for me, I am going to harden^[y] the hearts of the Egyptians so that^[z] they will come after them, that I may be honored^[aa] because^[ab] of Pharaoh and his army and his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸And the Egyptians will know^[ac] that I am the Lord when I have gained my honor^[ad] because of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

¹⁹The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar^[ae] of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. ²⁰It came between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp; it was a dark cloud^[af] and it lit up the night so that one camp did not come near the other^[ag] the whole night.^[ah] ²¹Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart^[ai] by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided. ²²So the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the water forming a wall^[aj] for them on their right and on their left.

²³The Egyptians chased them and followed them into the middle of the sea—all the horses of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴In the morning watch^[ak] the Lord looked down^[al] on the Egyptian army^[am] through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw the Egyptian army^[an] into a panic.^[ao] ²⁵He jammed^[ap] the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving,^[aq] and the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee^[ar] from Israel, for the Lord fights^[as] for them against Egypt!”

²⁶The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow back^[at] on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!” ²⁷So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state^[au] when the sun began to rise.^[av] Now the Egyptians were fleeing^[aw] before it, but the Lord overthrew^[ax] the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. ²⁸The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea^[ay]—not so much as one of them survived!^[az] ²⁹But the Israelites walked on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. ³⁰So the Lord saved^[ba] Israel on that day from the power^[bb] of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead^[bc] on the shore of the sea. ³¹When Israel saw^[bd] the great power^[be] that the Lord had exercised^[bf] over the Egyptians, they^[bg] feared the Lord, and they believed in^[bh] the Lord and in his servant Moses.^[bi]

Footnotes

Exodus 14:10 tn The disjunctive vav introduces a circumstantial clause here.
Exodus 14:10 tn Heb “drew near.”
Exodus 14:10 tn Heb “lifted up their eyes,” an expression that indicates an intentional and careful looking—they looked up and fixed their sights on the distance.
Exodus 14:10 tn The construction uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) with the participle, traditionally rendered “and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them.” The deictic particle calls attention in a dramatic way to what was being seen. It captures the surprise and the sudden realization of the people.
Exodus 14:10 tn The verb “feared” is intensified by the adverb מְאֹד (m^eʾod): “they feared greatly” or “were terrified.” In one look their defiant boldness seems to have evaporated.
Exodus 14:10 sn Their cry to the Lord was proper and necessary. But their words to Moses were a rebuke and disloyal, showing a lack of faith and understanding. Their arrogance failed them in the crisis because it was built on the arm of flesh. Moses would have to get used to this murmuring, but here he takes it in stride and gives them the proper instructions. They had cried to the Lord, and now the Lord would deliver.
Exodus 14:11 sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 396-97) notes how the speech is overly dramatic and came from a people given to using such exaggerations (Num 16:14), even using a double negative. The challenge to Moses brings a double irony. To die in the desert would be without proper burial, but in Egypt there were graves—it was a land of tombs and graves! Gesenius notes that two negatives in the sentence do not nullify each other but make the sentence all the more emphatic: “Is it because there were no graves…?” (GKC 483 §152.y).
Exodus 14:11 tn The demonstrative pronoun has the enclitic use again, giving a special emphasis to the question (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
Exodus 14:11 tn The Hebrew term לְהוֹצִּיאָנוּ (l^ehotsiʾanu) is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a suffix, “to bring us out.” It is used epexegetically here, explaining the previous question.
Exodus 14:12 tn Heb “Is not this the word that we spoke to you.”
Exodus 14:12 sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 164) explains this statement by the people as follows: “The question appears surprising at first, for we have not read previously that such words were spoken to Moses. Nor is the purport of the protest of the Israelite foremen (v 21 [5:21]) identical with that of the words uttered now. However, from a psychological standpoint the matter can be easily explained. In the hour of peril the children of Israel remember that remonstrance, and now it seems to them that it was of a sharper character and flowed from their foresight, and that the present situation justifies it, for death awaits them at this moment in the desert.” This declaration that “we told you so,” born of fright, need not have been strictly accurate or logical.
Exodus 14:12 tn Heb “better for us to serve.”
Exodus 14:12 tn Since Hebrew does not use quotation marks to indicate the boundaries of quotations, there is uncertainty about whether the Israelites’ statement in Egypt includes the end of v. 12 or consists solely of “leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians.” In either case, the command to Moses to leave them alone rested on the assumption, spoken or unspoken, that serving Egypt would be less risky than what Moses was proposing. Now with the Egyptian army on the horizon, the Israelites are sure that their worst predictions are about to take place.
Exodus 14:13 tn The use of אַל (ʾal) with the jussive has the force of “stop fearing.” It is a more immediate negative command than לֹא (loʾ) with the imperfect (as in the Decalogue).
Exodus 14:13 tn The force of this verb in the Hitpael is “to station oneself” or “stand firm” without fleeing.
Exodus 14:13 tn The form is an imperative with a vav (ו). It could also be rendered “stand firm and you will see” meaning the result, or “stand firm that you may see” meaning the purpose.
Exodus 14:13 tn Or “victory” (NAB) or “deliverance” (NIV, NRSV).
Exodus 14:13 tn Heb “do,” i.e., perform or accomplish.
Exodus 14:13 tn The construction uses a verbal hendiadys consisting of a Hiphil imperfect (“you will not add”) and a Qal infinitive construct with a suffix (“to see them”)—“you will no longer see them.” Then the clause adds “again, for ever.”sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 164) notes that the antithetical parallelism between seeing salvation and seeing the Egyptians, as well as the threefold repetition of the word “see” cannot be accidental; so too the alliteration of the last three words beginning with ʿayin (ע).
Exodus 14:14 tn The word order places emphasis on “the Lord” (Heb “Yahweh”).
Exodus 14:14 tn The imperfect tense needs to be interpreted in contrast to all that Yahweh will be doing. It may be given a potential imperfect nuance (as here), or it may be obligatory to follow the command to stand firm: “you must be still.”
Exodus 14:15 tn The text literally says, “speak to the Israelites that they may journey.” The intent of the line, using the imperative with the subordinate jussive or imperfect expressing purpose is that the speaking is the command to move.
Exodus 14:16 tn The conjunction plus pronoun (“and you”) is emphatic—“and as for you”—before the imperative “lift up.” In contrast, v. 17 begins with “and as for me, I….”
Exodus 14:16 tn The imperfect (or jussive) with the vav (ו) is sequential, coming after the series of imperatives instructing Moses to divide the sea; the form then gives the purpose (or result) of the activity—“that they may go.”
Exodus 14:17 tn הִנְנִי (hin^eni) before the participle gives it the force of a futur instans participle, meaning “I am about to harden” or “I am going to harden” their heart.
Exodus 14:17 tn The form again is the imperfect tense with vav (ו) to express the purpose or the result of the hardening. The repetition of the verb translated “come” is interesting: Moses is to divide the sea in order that the people may cross, but God will harden the Egyptians’ hearts in order that they may follow.
Exodus 14:17 tn For the comments on this verb see the discussion in v. 4. God would get glory by defeating Egypt.
Exodus 14:17 tn Or “I will get glory over.”
Exodus 14:18 tn The construction is unusual in that it says, “And Egypt will know.” The verb is plural, and so “Egypt” must mean “the Egyptians.” The verb is the perfect tense with the vav consecutive, showing that this recognition or acknowledgment by Egypt will be the result or purpose of the defeat of them by God.
Exodus 14:18 tn The form is בְּהִכָּבְדִי (b^ehikkav^edi), the Niphal infinitive construct with a preposition and a suffix. For the suffix on a Niphal, see GKC 162-63 §61.c. The word forms a temporal clause in the line.
Exodus 14:19 sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 400-401) makes a good case that there may have been only one pillar, one cloud; it would have been a dark cloud behind it, but in front of it, shining the way, a pillar of fire. He compares the manifestation on Sinai, when the mountain was on fire but veiled by a dark cloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22). See also Exod 13:21; Num 14:14; Deut 1:33; Neh 9:12, 19; Josh 24:7; Pss 78:14; 105:39.
Exodus 14:20 tn The two nouns “cloud” and “darkness” form a nominal hendiadys: “and it was the cloud and the darkness” means “and it was the dark cloud.” Perhaps this is what the Egyptians saw, preventing them from observing Moses and the Israelites.
Exodus 14:20 tn Heb “this to this”; for the use of the pronouns in this reciprocal sense of “the one to the other,” see GKC 448 §139.e, n. 3.
Exodus 14:20 tc The LXX reads very differently at the end of this verse: “and there was darkness and blackness and the night passed.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 218) summarizes three proposals: (1) One takes the MT as it stands and explains it along the lines of the Targum and Jewish exegesis, that there was one cloud that was dark to one group and light to the other. (2) Another tries to reconstruct a verb from the noun “darkness” or make some use of the Greek verb. (3) A third seeks a different meaning for the verb “lit,” “gave light” by comparative philology, but no consensus has been reached. Given that there is no easy solution apart from reconstructing the text, and given that the MT can be interpreted as it is, the present translation follows the MT.
Exodus 14:21 tn Or “drove the sea back” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV). The verb is simply the Hiphil of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk, go”). The context requires that it be interpreted along the lines of “go back, go apart.”
Exodus 14:22 tn The clause literally reads, “and the waters [were] for them a wall.” The word order in Hebrew is disjunctive, with the vav (ו) on the noun introducing a circumstantial clause.sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 119), still trying to explain things with natural explanations, suggests that a northeast wind is to be thought of (an east wind would be directly in their face he says), such as a shallow ford might cooperate with an ebb tide in keeping a passage clear. He then quotes Dillmann about the “wall” of water: “A very summary poetical and hyperbolical (xv. 8) description of the occurrence, which at most can be pictured as the drying up of a shallow ford, on both sides of which the basin of the sea was much deeper, and remained filled with water.” There is no way to “water down” the text to fit natural explanations; the report clearly shows a miraculous work of God making a path through the sea—a path that had to be as wide as half a mile in order for the many people and their animals to cross between about 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:389). The text does not say that they actually only started across in the morning watch, however.
Exodus 14:24 tn The night was divided into three watches of about four hours each, making the morning watch about 2:00-6:00 a.m. The text has this as “the watch of the morning,” the genitive qualifying which of the night watches was meant.
Exodus 14:24 tn This particular verb, שָׁקַף (shaqaf), is a bold anthropomorphism: Yahweh looked down. But its usage is always with some demonstration of mercy or wrath. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 120) suggests that the look might be with fiery flashes to startle the Egyptians, throwing them into a panic. Ps 77:17-19 pictures torrents of rain with lightning and thunder.
Exodus 14:24 tn Heb “camp.” The same Hebrew word is used in Exod 14:20. Unlike the English word “camp,” it can be used of a body of people at rest (encamped) or on the move.
Exodus 14:24 tn Heb “camp.”
Exodus 14:24 tn The verb הָמַם (hamam) means “throw into confusion.” It is used in the Bible for the panic and disarray of an army before a superior force (Josh 10:10; Judg 4:15).
Exodus 14:25 tn The word in the text is וַיָּסַר (vayyasar), which would be translated “and he turned aside” with the sense perhaps of removing the wheels. The reading in the LXX, Smr, and Syriac suggests a root אָסַר (ʾasar, “to bind”). The sense here might be “clogged—presumably by their sinking in the wet sand” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 120).
Exodus 14:25 tn The clause is וַיְנַהֲגֵהוּ בִּכְבֵדֻת (vay^enahagehu bikh^evedut). The verb means “to drive a chariot”; here in the Piel it means “cause to drive.” The suffix is collective, and so the verbal form can be translated “and caused them to drive.” The idea of the next word is “heaviness” or “hardship”; it recalls the previous uses of related words to describe Pharaoh’s heart. Here it indicates that the driving of the crippled chariots was with difficulty.
Exodus 14:25 tn The cohortative has the hortatory use here, “Let’s flee.” Although the form is singular, the sense of it is plural and so hortatory can be used. The form is singular to agree with the singular subject, “Egypt,” which obviously means the Egyptian army. The word for “flee” is used when someone runs from fear of imminent danger and is a different word than the one used in 14:5.
Exodus 14:25 tn The form is the Niphal participle; it is used as the predicate here, that is, the verbal use: “the Lord is fighting.” This corresponds to the announcement in v. 14.
Exodus 14:26 tn The verb, “and they will return,” is here subordinated to the imperative preceding it, showing the purpose of that act.
Exodus 14:27 tn The Hebrew term לְאֵיתָנוֹ (l^eʾetano) means “to its place,” or better, “to its perennial state.” The point is that the sea here had a normal level, and now when the Egyptians were in the sea on the dry ground the water would return to that level.
Exodus 14:27 tn Heb “at the turning of the morning”; NASB, NIV, TEV, CEV “at daybreak.”
Exodus 14:27 tn The clause begins with the disjunctive vav (ו) on the noun, signaling either a circumstantial clause or a new beginning. It could be rendered, “Although the Egyptians…Yahweh…” or “as the Egyptians….”
Exodus 14:27 tn The verb means “shake out” or “shaking off.” It has the significance of “throw downward.” See Neh 5:13 or Job 38:13.
Exodus 14:28 tn Heb “that was coming after them into the sea.” The referent of “them” (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Exodus 14:28 tn Heb “not was left among them as much as one.”
Exodus 14:30 tn The Hebrew term וַיּוֹשַׁע (vayyoshaʿ) is the key summation of the chapter, and this part of the book: “So Yahweh saved Israel.” This is the culmination of all the powerful works of God through these chapters.
Exodus 14:30 tn Heb “the hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for power.
Exodus 14:30 tn The participle “dead” is singular, agreeing in form with “Egypt.”
Exodus 14:31 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.
Exodus 14:31 tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.
Exodus 14:31 tn Heb “did, made.”
Exodus 14:31 tn Heb “and the people feared.”
Exodus 14:31 tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (ʾaman). sn S. R. Driver says that the belief intended here is not simply a crediting of a testimony concerning a person or a thing, but a laying firm hold morally on a person or a thing (Exodus, 122). Others take the Hiphil sense to be declarative, and that would indicate a considering of the object of faith trustworthy or dependable, and therefore to be acted on. In this passage it does not mean that here they came to faith, but that they became convinced that he would save them in the future.
Exodus 14:31 sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT—the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles—if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.

Exodus 15:20-21

²⁰Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand drums and with dances.^[a] ²¹Miriam sang in response^[b] to them,

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.”^[c]

Colossians 3:5-11

⁵So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth:^[a] sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion,^[b] evil desire, and greed which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.^[c] ⁷You also lived your lives^[d] in this way at one time, when you used to live among them. ⁸But now, put off all such things^[e] as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. ⁹Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices ¹⁰and have been clothed with the new man^[f] that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. ¹¹Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave^[g] or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Footnotes

Colossians 3:5 tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”
Colossians 3:5 tn Or “lust.”
Colossians 3:6 tc The words ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας (epi tous huious tēs apeitheias, “on the sons of disobedience”) are lacking in P⁴⁶ B b sa Cl Ambst Hier, but are found in א A C D F G H I Ψ 075 0278 33 1175 1505 1739 1881 2464 M lat sy bo. The words are omitted by several English translations (NASB, NIV, ESV, TNIV). This textual problem is quite difficult to resolve. On the one hand, the parallel account in Eph 5:6 has these words, thus providing scribes a motive for adding them here. On the other hand, the reading without the words may be too hard: The ἐν οἷς (en |ois) of v. 7 seems to have no antecedent without υἱούς already in the text, although it could possibly be construed as neuter referring to the vice list in v. 5. Further, although the witness of B is especially significant, there are other places in which B and P⁴⁶ share errant readings of omission. Nevertheless, the strength of the internal evidence against the longer reading is at least sufficient to cause doubt here. The decision to retain the words in the text is less than certain. sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 5:6.
Colossians 3:7 tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripateō) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).
Colossians 3:8 tn The Greek article with τὰ πάντα (ta panta) is anaphoric, referring to the previous list of vices, and has been translated here as “all such things.”
Colossians 3:10 sn Put off all such things. The commands in vv. 8-9 are based on two reasons given in vv. 9-10—reasons which are expressed in terms of a metaphor about clothing oneself. Paul says that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Two things need to be discussed in reference to Paul’s statement. (1) What is the meaning of the clothing imagery (i.e., the “have put off” and “have been clothed”)? (2) What is the meaning of the old man and the new man? Though some commentators understand the participles “have put off” (v. 9) and “have been clothed” (v. 10) as imperatives (i.e., “put off!” and “put on!”), this use of participles is extremely rare in the NT and thus unlikely here. It is better to take them as having the semantic force of indicatives, and thus they give an explanation of what had happened to the Colossians at the time of their conversion—they had taken off the old man and put on the new when they trusted in Christ (cf. 1:4). While it is difficult to say for certain what the background to Paul’s “clothing” metaphor might be (whether it is primarily Jewish and comes from the OT, or primarily Gentile and comes from some facet of the Greco-Roman religious milieu), it is nonetheless clear, on the basis of Paul’s usage of the expression, that the old man refers to man as he is in Adam and dominated by sin (cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22), while the new man refers to the Christian whose new sphere of existence is in Christ. Though the metaphor of clothing oneself primarily reflects outward actions, there is a distinct inward aspect to it, as the rest of v. 10 indicates: being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Paul’s point, then, is that Christians should take off their dirty clothing (inappropriate behavior) and put on clean clothing (behavior consistent with knowing Christ) because this has already been accomplished in a positional sense at the time of their conversion (cf. Gal 3:27 with Rom 13:14).
Colossians 3:11 tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

New English Translation (NET)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 118[a]

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 118^[a]