Colossians 3

Notes on the verses

Chap. III. Ver. 5. Mortify—That is, “kill.” Macknight, “put to death.” Not the members of the animal body, but the body of sin and death. See (Romans 7:24).—Members which are upon the earth—and earthly, as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection.—Macknight, “unnatural lust.” Ver. 10. Put on the new man.—Compare (Ephesians 2:15). Ver. 14. Put on charity [or love]—Which, as a capacious robe, “covers a multitude of faults,” or sins. (James 5:20). Ver. 15. Let the peace of God rule.—Doddridge, “preside.” He thinks it alludes to the Master who presided at the Olympic games. Ver. 16. In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.—So in (Ephesians 5:19). As David’s sacred compositions are differently inscribed, psalms, hymns (tehillim,) and (shirim,) sacred odes or songs, Calvin, and others of our old divines, think none but the inspired compositions of the Old Testament can be here referred to.

But Doddridge, Macknight, and our modern divines in general, extend the latter terms to those extemporaneous (and often inspired) compositions common among the first Christians; who, according to a well-known passage in Pliny, used to “meet before daylight, and sing hymns to Christ as to a God.” Nor does this absolutely require inspiration, since Burney (the musical historian) mentions it as a common practice among the gondoliers (or bargemen of Venice) to address and challenge one another in extemporaneous stanzas. Ver. 17. To God and the Father.—Doddridge, “Even the Father.”