You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
Parallel Translations
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You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
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In which thynges ye walked once. when ye lived in them.
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Wherein ye also walked once, when ye liued in them.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Colossians 3:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.
- 1 Peter 4:3-4 For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries. They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming.
- Romans 6:19-20 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
- Titus 3:3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
- Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
- Colossians 2:13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 7. In which ye walked. Erasmus mistakingly refers this…
7. In which ye walked. Erasmus mistakingly refers this to men, rendering it, “inter quos,” (“among whom,”) for there can be no doubt that Paul had in view the vices, in which he, says that the Colossians had walked, during the time that they lived in them. For living and walking differ from each other, as power does from action. Living holds the first place: walking comes afterwards, as in Galatians 5:25,
If ye live in the SPIRIT, WALK also in the Spirit.
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By these words he intimates, that it were an unseemly thing that they should addict themselves any more to the vices, to which they had died through Christ. See the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. It is an argument from a withdrawment of the cause to a withdrawment of the effect.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 7 In the which ye also walked some time,…
7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Ver. 7. When ye lived in them] Man’s life is a walk, and each action a step either to heaven or hell.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain In the which; some render it, amongst whom; but,…
In the which; some render it, amongst whom; but, alas! They lived amongst such disobedient ones still; therefore we do better render it in which, i.e. sins or vices.
Ye, the now believing Colossians, also walked some time; had heretofore practised and exercised; and had not only been infected with the venom of them, in descending from polluted parents, but lived in them, were servants to them, Rom 6:17,19, while in a sensual course of life they were carried away with them, 1Co 12:2, before their conversion, when they did live and reign in their mortal bodies, Col 1:21; 1Co 6:11; Eph 2:3,11,12; 5:8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain In the which ye also walked some time,.... Either…
In the which ye also walked some time,.... Either in or among the children of disobedience, Col 3:6, or rather in the afore mentioned sins, Col 3:5. Sin is a road or path, in which sinners walk a way of their own, or of their own choosing and approving, though a dark and crooked one, and which leads to destruction: walking herein denotes a continued series of sinning, a persisting in it, a progress therein, a proceeding from evil to evil, taking pleasure, and going on securely in it; and which is the case and state of God's elect before conversion, which is a turning of them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and out of the ways of sin, into the paths of righteousness, when the course of their walk, of their lives and conversations, is altered; and which is suggested here, and made use of as another reason for the mortification of the deeds of the body of sin, taken from their former state, and their deliverance out of it; and therefore the time past of their lives, when they walked in these things, should suffice, and they should now cease from sin, from a series and course of sinning:
when ye lived in them; in sins, and were dead in them; for to be dead in sin, and to live in sin, is the same thing; living in sin is the death of sin. To live in sin is to live after the flesh, after the dictates of corrupt nature, to live a sinful course of life; it is for a man to give up himself to sin, be wholly bent upon it, take delight in it, and make it his work and business. This had been the case of these believers, but now they were dead to sin, and it became them to live no longer therein, but to mortify it by denying it, and abstaining from it, and living soberly, righteously, and godly.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Living denotes the inward principle; walking, the outward acts.
Living denotes the inward principle; walking, the outward acts.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. In the which ye also walked sometime]…
Verse 7. In the which ye also walked sometime] When ye were in your unconverted state, ye served divers lusts and pleasures. See Clarke on Ro 7:5, and "Eph 2:2".
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain In the which - In all which evil passions.
In the which - In all which evil passions.
Ye also walked sometime - You formerly lived. These were the common vices of the pagan; Eph 5:8, note; 1Co 6:10-11, notes; compare Rom 1:24-32, notes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain walked . . . when ye lived in them--These…
sometime--"once."
walked . . . when ye lived in them--These sins were the very element in which ye "lived" (before ye became once for all dead with Christ to them); no wonder, then, that ye "walked" in them. Compare on the opposite side, "living in the Spirit," having as its legitimate consequence, "walking in the Spirit" (Gal 5:25). The "living" comes first in both cases, the walking follows.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 7. Ye also walked—They had once been alive to…
7. Ye also walked—They had once been alive to these things, and freely practised them, as did the mass of heathens around them. But they had now become alive to God, and had put off those sins.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. In the which] “things,” mentioned just above.—Otherwise we…
7. In the which] “things,” mentioned just above.—Otherwise we may render, “among whom” (R. V. margin); i.e. among “the children of disobedience.” If those words are not retained in the text, this latter rendering of course falls.
walked] The same verb is rendered (by A. V.) in the parallel, Eph_2:3, “had our conversation,” that is, our action and intercourse in life. The metaphor “walk” in such a sense is common in St Paul. See above on Col_1:10.—With this searching appeal to memory cp. 1Co_6:11; Eph_2:2; Eph_4:22; Eph_5:8; Tit_3:3; 1Pe_4:3.
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sometime] “Sumtyme,” Wyclif; antique English for “once on a time.” So “sometimes” in the A. V. of Eph_2:13.—In Eph_2:3 (parallel here) the A.V. renders the same Greek, “in times past.”
lived] Not merely “existed,” or “dwelt,” but found what seemed “life.” See on Col_2:20 above. From the “life” issues the “walk,” as Lightfoot points out.—“He argues from the withdrawal of the cause to the withdrawal of the effect” (Calvin).
in them] Far better, with mss. &c., in these things (R. V.).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) In the which ye also walked some time,…
(7) In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived (were living) in them.—The former condition of heathenism was that in which “they were living,” with contagion of evil on every side. But St. Paul is not content without noting their own active participation—“ye walked in them.” (Comp. Eph_4:17-20.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain In which also ye walked once, when you were…
In which also ye walked once, when you were living in these (things) (Eph_2:3 Eph_5:8; Rom_6:19-21; 1Co_6:11 1Co_12:2; Tit_3:3; 1Pe_4:3) Even retaining "sons of disobedience" in ver. 6, it seems better, with Alford, Lightfoot, and the English Version, to read oi=v as neuter, "in which," referring to the same antecedent (ver. 5)as "because of which" in ver. 6; not "amongst whom" (Ellicott, Meyer). The latter interpretation is against the general usage of "walk in" with St. Paul (Col_4:5; Eph_2:2, 10 4:17; Rom_6:4; 2Co_4:2) and seems to condemn the mere fact of living "amongst the sons of disobedience" (see, on the other (1Co_5:9, 1Co_5:10; Php_2:15; Joh_17:15; 1Pe_2:12) The parallel "because of which" (ver. 6) gives also its force: these sins are visited with the Divine anger, and moreover are the very sins in which the Colossians aforetime had lived; observe the same connection in Eph_5:6-8; 1Co_6:10, 1Co_6:11. "Were living" stands opposed to "make dead" of ver. 5, and to "ye died". (ver. 3: Col_2:20; Gal_2:20) it marks the time when "the old man" (ver. 9), with his "earthly members" (ver. 5) was alive and active. (comp. Rom_7:5, Rom_7:9, "sin came to life "In these things" (toutoiv, not aujtoiv: Revised Text) points to the things enumerated in ver. 6, with a mental gesture of contempt.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 7. In the which ye also walked. They had…
7. In the which ye also walked. They had been Gentile heathen, and among them licentiousness was at that time universal. See notes on 1 Cor. 6:9–11. Even moralists sanctioned every kind of unchastity except that of a wife.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.