What Does Colossians 3:9 Mean?
Do not lie to one another, since you have stripped off the old human with his deeds.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;THE KEY
The verse treats a lie as clothing of a former self: when the old human is stripped away, its deeds go with it.
THE MEANING
The reader’s speech and identity are joined: lying belongs among the deeds of the former human already put off. The verse holds the old self and its practices together as something removed, so deceit does not define the reader’s deepest nature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a lie is a harmless, detachable act that can coexist with an unchanged identity.
THE ROOT
ἀπεκδυσάμενοι
apekdysamenoi
GROWS FROM
δύω
dyō
to go into; in clothing compounds, to put on or take off
“stripped off” in this verse is apekdysamenoi. The verb here, ἀπεκδύομαι (apekdyomai), pictures stripping off clothing; it belongs to the same clothing family as ἐνδύω, “put on.” The sentence presents the former self and its deeds as something shed together.
ALSO GROWS
ekdyō: to strip off or remove clothing
ἐκδύω
This is the stripping-away side of the clothing image in “put off.”
endyō: to put on or clothe
ἐνδύω
Its opposite direction makes the clothing image visible; the next verse uses this verb for putting on the new human.
παλαιόν
palaion
GROWS FROM
παλαιός
palaios
old, former, belonging to an earlier state
“old human” in this verse is palaion. παλαιός points to what is former, not merely to an elderly person. Joined to “man,” it names a former way of being whose deeds are also put off.
ALSO GROWS
palaioō: to make old or grow old
παλαιόω
The word shows the root describing a change into an old or former state.
palaiotēs: oldness
παλαιότης
This noun makes the root’s sense of an earlier condition explicit.
ψεύδεσθε
pseudesthe
GROWS FROM
ψευδ-
pseud-
falsehood; speaking falsely
“lie” in this verse is pseudesthe. The Greek command addresses people deceiving one another, while the same root names both falsehood and the person who speaks it. The verse places deceitful speech among the practices shed with the former self.
ALSO GROWS
pseudos: a lie or falsehood
ψεῦδος
The noun names the falsehood carried in the act of lying.
pseustēs: a liar, one who speaks falsely
ψεύστης
This branch names the speaker by the same falsehood the verse commands the reader to leave behind.
THE PATTERN
Truthful speech is an outward expression of a whole self, joining inner life with the way one treats a neighbor.
He who walks whole, works alignment, and speaks truth in his heart.These are the things you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor, and judge the judgment of truth and wholeness in your gates.Therefore, taking off lying, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are limbs of one another.THE THREAD
And have put on the new human, which is being made new in full knowing, after the image of him who created him.The next verse completes the clothing image: the former human is put off, and the new human is put on. That pairing makes lying part of what is shed with the former self, rather than an identity the reader is trapped inside.
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