To Put To Death

DEVOTION

COLOSSIANS

TO PUT TO DEATH

Col 3:5-7

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
NIV

The question that befalls us here is; since we already died, 2:20 and 3:3, what are we putting to death? It would seem that we, the very being, our center, the heart of man is somewhat different then our earthy nature. Having died and risen with Christ a new being, the old passing away, there still stands a nature that we must put to death. Reading the Greek this verse would suggest that we are to subdue our body that is on earth, Webster sums up the word, nature, as The sum of qualities and traits shared by all human beings.
Is there any difference or are these two the same? Perhaps we might consider our members, our body on earth cannot function without the brain, the thought center, the traits shared by all human beings. Therefore since my spirit died and rose with Christ, I must subdue my body, my thinking. I am a new creature, new babe, a reborn spirit, that must learn, a whole new way of thinking, behaving and responding to the world in which I live, no longer sharing the traits and qualities of all human beings, but rather the traits and qualities of Christ.

The list of those things we are to put to death include in the English:
Sexual immorality
Impurity
Lust
Evil desires
Greed

In the Greek it reads:
Pornia- Sexual immorality defines that well, the root word porn says it all
akatharsia – Impuriy both physical and morally
pathos – a strong desire in the area of passion, lust
epithumia – a longing for what is forbidden, evil desires
pleonexia – immoderate desire for wealth

That is a mouth full at best or should I say worse and I find myself in need to put these things to death. If I am truthful with myself, these traits do exist and perhaps this is the war that wages within. Yet I know it is God who made me, as he did all mankind and he made me with the ability to exercise these traits. But I must put them to death, daily.