WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF GOD’S WRATH?

Continuing in our investigation of Colossians...

Colossians 3:5-7 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

Paul is telling the Colossian believers that they are to “deaden, subdue” their body of flesh and all its parts regarding the works of the flesh.  He then goes on to define these fleshly practices that provoke God to wrath.

·      Fornication = to act the harlot, i.e. (literally) indulge unlawful lust (of either sex), or (figuratively) practice idolatry

·      Uncleanness = physical or moral impurity

·      Inordinate affection = excessive passion

·      Evil concupiscence = longing or desire for what is forbidden, harmful, or wicked

·      Covetousness = avarice, i.e. (by implication) fraudulency, extortion…greediness

At first I thought that only covetousness was being connected to idolatry (which is how most of the translations read), but on further thought, I believe idolatry is associated with each one of these practices.  Each one references using one’s body for things other than that which is pleasing to God; it is an act of yielding to the flesh rather than God.  As I looked at the list again, I noticed that it represents broad categories of wicked actions and wicked desires.

These are the very sins for which God’s wrath is going to be expended on the earth and its inhabitants in the “day of the Lord,” the day of God’s wrath.  I think it is important to note that God’s wrath will be directed at “children of disobedience.”  Whose children?  Satan’s.  Jesus made this clear in His condemnation of the Pharisees. 

John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

I think it is also important to note that God’s children are promised deliverance from that time of wrath.

1Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Paul is also making a point of the fact that the Colossian believers had participated in some of these very sins in time past.  It’s always important to remember our roots.  That memory should serve to make us compassionate and motivate us to share the good news of the gospel with those who are bound by such sin.  We should always remember that “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” 

Paul is emphasizing the fact that this is reference to a past way of life, an old life.  The believer enjoys a new life in Christ with the ability to overcome sin through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 3:14–20 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man…that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us….”

(to be continued…)