Book of Colossians 3:12-14 Put on Therefore…

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[Study Aired November 3, 2026]

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:12–14).

Put on Therefore…

The last study ended with a man already dressed. Paul said the Colossians had put off the old man and put on the new, and that where the new man is, there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free. Verse 12 begins “Put on therefore,” and the sentence turns from what was done to what they are told to do. These three verses move in four steps: who is being addressed, what they wear, how they live with one another, and what goes on over it all.

A difficulty shows at once. In verse 10 Paul said they “have put on” the new man. In verse 12 he commands them to “put on” again, with the same verb. It is fair to ask how a thing already done can be commanded.

The answer is in the objects. In verse 10 the thing put on is the new man. In verse 12 it is the list that follows: bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. They are not told to put on the new man a second time. They are told to wear what that man wears. The “therefore” ties the list to what came before, at least to verse 10, where the new man was put on.

Paul can also say both things of one object. Of Christ himself he says, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27), and with the same verb he commands, “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). So a standing and a command can sit side by side. Here the objects differ, and the case is plainer. The new man has been put on, and now he is to be seen in his clothing.

Before one garment is named, Paul says who is being told to wear it.

As the Elect of God, Holy and Beloved

Paul does not begin with the clothing. He begins with a name for the ones who wear it: “as the elect of God, holy and beloved.” Three words, and each names something God has done. “Elect” (G1588) means ‘chosen’, and the KJV prints the same word “chosen” at 1 Peter 2:9, quoted below. “Holy” means set apart for God. “Beloved” is the form that means loved and still loved, and the same form stands at 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

These are not three separate gifts. Paul puts them close together elsewhere: “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him” (Ephesians 1:4), and “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God” (1 Thessalonians 1:4).

“Holy” needs a word, because it can seem to clash with chapter 1. Paul calls these very readers “the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse” (Colossians 1:2), and “saints” is the same word as “holy” here (G40). Yet at 1:22 he says Christ will “present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight,” and Part Four found that where one person presents another before God, the hour is always ahead. Both stand. So the word can be said of them now, while the presenting is still to come.

The order is one Paul keeps, and Peter keeps it, too. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), and then, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts” (1 Peter 2:11). Chosen, holy, and beloved come first, and the command follows. Paul does the same with the third name to Ephesus: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (Ephesians 5:1–2). The name comes first, and the walk answers to it.

The verse speaks of the Colossians and says nothing of anyone else. What it does give is their standing, and it gives it as the footing for the command, not as the reward for keeping it. They do not put on compassion to become chosen and loved. They put it on as those who already are.

Now the clothing itself.

The Clothing

The first garment is “bowels of mercies.” That sounds like the stomach, but the plain sense is deep compassion, felt from within. The Greek word is splagchna (G4698), and the evidence is in how Scripture uses it. Each “bowels” below is that same word. Paul writes to the Philippians, “how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:8). To Philemon he says, “the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother” (Philemon 7), and of Onesimus, “mine own bowels” (Philemon 12). John asks of the man who sees his brother in need and “shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,” “how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17). And the KJV itself prints the word as “tender” in “Through the tender (G4698) mercy of our God” (Luke 1:78).

The word has a literal use once, and that is the contrary case: “all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18). That is the body, but it is the only one of the eleven uses that speaks of the body. The other ten speak of feeling, a man’s or God’s. So the first garment is compassion that moves a man from within. “Mercies” (G3628) is pity, and Paul sets it beside “bowels” in “if any bowels and mercies” (Philippians 2:1). God himself is “the Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3). The Greek copies differ on whether this word is plural or singular, “mercies” or “compassion,” and the study rests on the word itself.

Kindness comes next, and Paul uses the word of God himself: “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7), and “the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared” (Titus 3:4). So this is a garment God showed to them first.

“Humbleness of mind (G5012)” is lowliness that puts others first: “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3). Peter uses the clothing picture itself: “be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5). The KJV prints the one word as “humbleness of mind,” “lowliness,” and “humility.” Part Eleven weighed all seven uses of the word. Paul and Peter ask for it, and Christ is its pattern. Only at 2:18 and 2:23 is it attached to something wrong, where a man chose it for himself and bound it on others. Here Paul commands it plainly.

Meekness and longsuffering are Christ’s before they are theirs. Paul begs “by the meekness and gentleness (G1932) of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:1), and says, “that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him” (1 Timothy 1:16). Together with kindness they also stand in the list of the spirit’s fruit: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23). In Galatians the KJV prints “gentleness” for the word it prints “kindness” here (G5544). That fits what the last study found: the renewing of the new man is the spirit’s work, and three of his five garments are listed as its fruit.

These five are worn toward other people. The next words are about two people, one of whom has something against the other.

Forbearing One Another, and Forgiving One Another

Verse 13 puts the clothing to work. The first duty is “forbearing one another,” which means bearing with what is hard in a brother. The second is “forgiving one another,” and the occasion is named: “if any man have a quarrel against any.” The KJV’s “quarrel” can sound like a fight between two men. The Greek word, momphē (G3437), is nearer a complaint, a ground of blame that one man holds against another. It stands only here, and Thayer’s lexicon gives it that sense. Nothing more is built on it. The verse speaks to the man who holds the complaint, and it tells him to forgive.

Now the verb. Plain sense first: “forgiving” here means giving freely. The Greek verb is charizomai (G5483), and Scripture uses it for free giving of any kind. Each verse below uses that same verb. “How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). “God hath given thee all them that sail with thee” (Acts 27:24). “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29). Where a debt or a wrong is in view, the word is forgiving: “he frankly forgave them both” (Luke 7:42), and “ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him” (2 Corinthians 2:7). So to forgive, in this word, is to give the debt away freely.

Now see how verse 13 is built: “forgiving (G5483) one another… even as Christ forgave (G5483) you, so also do ye.” The same verb stands on both sides of “even as.” What they are to give is what was given to them. Ephesians builds the sentence the same way: “forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). The KJV prints “do” in italics, because Paul’s words are only “so also ye.” The verb to be understood is the one just used.

The Greek copies differ on the name here, reading, among others, “the Lord,” “Christ,” or “God,” but whichever is taken, the verb is the same, so the study rests on that: they were forgiven. And that was already told to them. At 2:13 Paul used this same verb: they were made alive together with Christ, “having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13), and the next verse speaks of “the handwriting of ordinances that was against us… nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). An earlier study followed that forgiveness to the cross. So the forgiveness verse 13 sets before them as the pattern is the one the letter has already said they received. His forgiving is done, and theirs is set beside it as the likeness.

One thing must be said plainly. In another place the Lord ties forgiving to repentance: “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive (G863) him” (Luke 17:3). Luke uses a different Greek word for forgive. Verse 13 names no repentance, and it does not say that none is needed, but the forgiveness it sets beside theirs found them “dead in your sins” (Colossians 2:13). How that sits beside Luke 17:3 is a question for the whole of Scripture, and this verse does not decide it. What it does say is plain: their forgiving is measured by the forgiving done for them.

Verse 14 says what goes on over all of this.

Above All These Things Put on Charity

Two things can mislead, so take them first. “Charity” (G26) is the word the KJV prints “love” in “the love which ye have to all the saints” (Colossians 1:4) and “your love in the Spirit” (Colossians 1:8). Today “charity” means giving to the poor. Here it means love.

The other is “above all.” It can sound like “most important.” However, a different Greek phrase stands behind “above all things” in “above all things have fervent charity among yourselves” (1 Peter 4:8) and “But above all things, my brethren, swear not” (James 5:12), so the English echo is false. The phrase here can mean “in addition to,” as in “Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison” (Luke 3:20). So verse 14 can be read: on top of all these, put on love. The verse does not say whether love also ranks first. The KJV prints “put on” in italics here, because Paul’s words stop at “above all these things charity.” The verb is carried over from verse 12.

Now the bond. Plain sense first: a “bond” is something that holds things together. The Greek word is syndesmos (G4886), and it stands four times in the New Testament, so each use can be set beside the others. Peter says to Simon, “thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23). There the bond holds a man fast to something bad. So the word alone does not say whether the holding is good; what does the binding decides that. In Ephesians it is good: “with all lowliness (G5012) and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:2–3). Notice the order: lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing, love, and a bond. Colossians 3:12–14 has nearly the same list in nearly the same order. And at 2:19 the same word is used of a body: “all the body by joints and bands (G4886) having nourishment ministered” (Colossians 2:19).

The verse does not say what love binds. Two pictures are near. One is the garments of verse 12, held together by love. The other is the people. The letter leans to the people. Two places put love in the holding together of the people: “knit together in love” (Colossians 2:2) and “the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). A third puts a bond of peace around the unity of the Spirit. None puts a bond around garments, though verse 14 alone would allow it. Love and the garments are not strangers either: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4), related words to “longsuffering” and “kindness,” not the same ones. So this study reads the bond as love holding the people together, as the nearer pattern, and says plainly that the verse itself does not choose.

This can look as if it clashes with 2:19, where the whole body is supplied from the Head. Part Ten found that the knitting Paul strives for at 2:2 is the knitting the body has from the Head at 2:19. Paul does not say that the bands of 2:19 and the love of 3:14 are one thing. Ephesians 4:16 keeps both in one sentence: “From whom the whole body fitly joined together,” and it builds itself up “in love.” So the supply is the Head’s, and the love is what the members put on. That is the pattern an earlier study met in the putting off: God works, and they are told to do it.

Last, “perfectness.” The word is teleiotēs (G5047), and it is not the word the KJV prints “perfect” at 1:28 (G5046), so nothing from that verse is carried over. It stands only twice, here and at Hebrews 6:1: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” There it means full growth, set against first lessons. So here it can mean full growth, or completeness. Whether love is the bond that makes them complete or the bond that holds the complete body together, the phrase does not choose. Both come to the same place: where love is put on, the people are held together whole.

What These Verses Establish

Read whole, the three verses give a name, a clothing, a pattern, and a bond. The name is chosen, holy, and beloved, and it comes before any command. The clothing is deep compassion, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering, put on by those already wearing the new man. The pattern is bearing with one another and forgiving, measured by the forgiving already done for them. Love goes on over all of it, the bond that, on the letter’s own pattern, holds the people together whole.

What these verses add is a use for the standing. The last study found that the commands rest on what is already done. Here the ones commanded are named before the command is given, and the first two duties after the list both have “one another” in them. These are the garments of a body. Paul puts them on people who have to live with each other, and we are those people.

Verse 15 turns from what they put on to what rules among them. An earlier study pointed to the verb used there, and the next study takes it up.

Next study: (Colossians 3:15–17)

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”