3:8a

But now: Paul was contrasting the way the Colossians should behave now that they had trusted Christ with the way they used to behave (3:7).

you must put aside all such things as these: In Greek the verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates put aside can literally mean “take-off/remove” clothes. Here Paul was using it as an idiom. It means almost the same thing as “Put to death” in 3:5a: “Do not do any of these things any more.” This same idiom is used in Romans 13:12; Ephesians 4:22, 4:25; 1 Peter 2:1; and James 1:21.

all such things as these: It is possible that all such things refers back to the list of evil things in 3:5. But most scholars and translations say that these words refer forward to the evil things that Paul listed in 3:8b and 3:9.

3:8b

anger, rage: These two words, anger and rage, mean almost the same thing. If you have two synonyms in your language for anger, you can use them here, otherwise you can combine the two words and say, “do not be angry in any way.”

malice: To act with malice means to act in wicked, hateful ways, to do things to people just to be unkind. Here is another way to translate this word:

hateful feelings (Good News Translation)

slander: This means to say hateful, unkind, insulting things about people. This may mean telling lies about people, but it can also include saying true things about people, but with the intent to hurt them.

filthy language: This probably refers to obscene talk or cursing. If you do not have an expression in your language for speaking in this offensive or profane manner, you may be able to say, “using words that should not be spoken.”

from your lips: The Greek is literally “from your mouth.” Notice that the Berean Standard Bible, along with several other English versions, has translated the Greek word for “mouth” with lips. This is because in English it is more natural to refer to words being “on someone’s lips” than “in their mouth.” In other languages, it may be more natural to refer to the throat or the tongue. You should use the term that is most natural in your language.

© 2001 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.