Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

COLOSSIANS 3:5KJV
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Colossians 3:5 (KJV)

What does Colossians 3:5 mean?

Colossians 3:5 tells readers to put to death their earthly behaviors, specifically listing sexual immorality, impurity, uncontrolled passion, evil desire, and greed, which is called idolatry. The verse urges a decisive break from these harmful actions, treating them as things that should no longer have a place in a believer’s life.

Paul is writing to the Christians in Colossae, encouraging them to live differently now that they follow Christ. The verse uses strong language—“mortify” means to put something to death—to stress how seriously these behaviors should be rejected. Paul lists specific actions and attitudes that were common in the surrounding culture, highlighting that greed (covetousness) is a form of idolatry because it puts desire for things above God.

The Greek behind Colossians 3:5

  • “Mortify” (νεκρώσατε, nekrosate) means to put to death or make dead. Paul uses this strong word to show that these behaviors should not just be avoided but actively killed off in one’s life.
  • “Members” (μέλη, melē) refers to parts of the body, but here it points to aspects of a person’s life or actions that are tied to earthly, sinful behavior.
  • “Covetousness” (πλεονεξία, pleonexia) is described as idolatry (εἰδωλολατρία, eidōlolatria). The Greek makes clear that greed isn’t just wanting more, but is seen as worshipping something other than God, giving it ultimate importance.

Why Colossians 3:5 matters

  • Colossians 3:5 clarifies that following Christ involves a real and practical change in behavior, not just beliefs or feelings.
  • The verse highlights that greed is not a minor fault but is spiritually dangerous, equated with idolatry, which helps readers see the seriousness of unchecked desire.
  • This instruction connects to the wider passage, where Paul describes putting off the “old self” and living in a new way, showing that faith affects everyday actions and choices.

Where else these words appear

“Mortify” Greek G3499 · used in 3 verses

  • Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
  • Hebrews 11:12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

“affection” Greek G3806 · used in 3 verses

  • Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

“idolatry” Greek G1495 · used in 4 verses

  • 1 Corinthians 10:14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
  • Galatians 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
  • 1 Peter 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

“uncleanness” Greek G167 · used in 10 verses

  • Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
  • 2 Corinthians 12:21 And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
  • Ephesians 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;