Colossians 3:4-11, especially vss. 5-7: "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth....Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked...." In reflecting on today's Epistle, let the reader note carefully the grammatical tenses and all references to time in each verse or phrase; for our entire salvation, stretching from the past, to the present, and into the future, is summarized in these brief lines. Here the Apostle exhorts us concerning the labors and tasks of this present life, yet, in swift, impressionistic strokes, he looks ahead to the future, back to the past that was, and then returns again to the present where we now choose, decide, act, and live.
Today's passage begins at verse four. Here the Apostle holds up our present condition: "Christ Who is our life" (vs. 4). However, when he speaks of the life in Christ, he is placing our present within the future. What future? The time yet to come, when the Life-Giver will appear: "then you also will appear with Him in glory"(vs. 4). Participating in the Christian Mystery at present as a member of Christ, astonishingly, places us on a path toward the glory that shall be.
Those who know and firmly hold on to Christ as their inner essence will be manifested in glory when He is manifested in glory. Wondrously, those now motivated and impelled by their belief in Him are to be glorified together with Him (Rom. 8:17). We would be utterly at a loss to receive these words if we did not have the revelation of the glory of God in the flesh, the record of "Wonder" Himself, Who was incomprehensibly born among us in a form senses can comprehend. He enables us to project from this limited present to a limitless, glorious future.
In the reading, the Apostle has us consider what is demanded of the Faithful now in the present by this future of God which is to come: "Therefore put to death your members which are upon earth" (vs. 5). He lists what must be mortified: "fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry." Let us consider: "Are these sins part of us now?"
St. John Chrysostom explains the present need to mortify ourselves by having us imagine one who "has clean scoured a statue that was filthy, or rather who has recast it, and displayed it bright afresh, [as if he] should say that the rust was eaten off and destroyed, and yet should again recommend diligence in clearing away the rust. He doth not contradict himself, for it is not that rust which he scoured off that he recommends should be cleared away, but that which grew afterwards." New and former sins alike can begin anew to corrode our hearts and souls. Now, therefore, let us continue to purify and cleanse every trace of sin that threatens to grow within us so that we may be found worthy of the glorious future appearing of our Savior.
Having encouraged us by means of a God-promised, ineffable future, the Apostle also reminds us of another of God's promises - of future retribution upon those who disobey Him. The "sons of disobedience" will face wrath when the Lord returns (vs. 6). Further, St. Paul reminds us, we "once walked" as these - in "anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, [and] filthy language" (vss. 7,8). So, let us heed him and "put off all traces of these" wrong doings (vs. 
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Returning to St. John's thought: once, in the past, in the waters of Baptism, we were illumined, we were sanctified, we were washed, so now "even unto a ripe old age" we must continue to ascribe glory to God, putting "on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him Who created him" (vs. 10). Let us labor now so that "Christ is all and in all" (vs. 11) - in ourselves and in all those we are able to persuade to live in Him. Then, when He appears in glory, we too shall appear with Him in glory (vs. 4).
Grant a Christian ending to our life and a good defense before Thy dread Judgment seat.