🌟WEB · Colossians 3:8
What does Colossians 3:8 mean?
"but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth."
— Colossians 3:8 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
for which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
Explanation
Colossians 3:8 comes in the middle of Paul's practical instructions to the church at Colossae about what it means to live as someone who has been raised with Christ. In plain language, the verse is a command to strip off, like taking off dirty clothing, a cluster of destructive attitudes and behaviors: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful or abusive speech. Paul isn't offering vague moral advice here; he's naming specific sins that damage relationships and poison community life, and telling believers to actively discard them.
The letter to the Colossians was written by Paul, likely while imprisoned, to a congregation he had not personally founded but cared for deeply, largely because false teaching was creeping in that mixed Christian faith with other philosophies and rituals. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on correcting these theological errors by exalting the supremacy of Christ. Chapter 3 then shifts to ethics: since believers have died to their old way of life and been raised with Christ (3:1-4), their conduct should match that new reality. Verse 8 begins with "but now," signaling a contrast between the old self they used to live in and the new self they are called to put on. The list of sins here isn't random; it moves from internal disposition (anger, wrath) to relational harm (malice), to speech that damages others (slander, shameful speaking), showing how unchecked inner emotion spills out into words that wound people and communities.
Theologically, this verse reflects the biblical pattern of "put off / put on" that runs through Paul's letters (seen also in
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