Paul tells Christians to put something to death. He does not mean their created bodies or their neighbors. He names the desires and practices belonging to the old life, including the greed that treats created goods as a god.
The Word
νεκρόω (nekroō) means to put to death or make dead. It is a verb related to Nekros, dead. Its New Testament uses include both bodily incapacity and the putting to death of sinful conduct.
Romans 4:19 and Hebrews 11:12 use forms of the verb in describing Abraham’s advanced age. Colossians 3:5 uses an imperative in an ethical exhortation. The different settings prevent us from treating every use as a direct command about sanctification.
Range of Meaning
In the Abraham passages, the language emphasizes a condition that makes the promised child humanly impossible. The point is God’s promise and ability, not a method of self-denial.
In Colossians, the object of the command is explained by the sins listed afterward. Paul is not ordering bodily destruction. He calls believers to abandon the sexual immorality, evil desire, and greed that belong to the old way of life.
Where You’ll Meet It
Paul commands:
“So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth” (Colossians 3:5, NET)
Colossians 3 begins with believers raised with Christ and their life hidden with him in God. The command follows that gift. They are not told to kill enough sin to earn a resurrection; they are told to live as people whose life is already in Christ.
The chapter continues with putting away anger, slander, and abusive speech, and then with compassion, patience, forgiveness, and love. Mortification is not an isolated fascination with what must be removed. It belongs to a life in which the neighbor receives concrete good.
What Confessional Lutherans Hear
The Small Catechism’s fourth baptismal question explains daily contrition and repentance as the drowning of the old creature and the emergence of the new person. It cites Romans 6:4, joining this daily pattern to Christ’s death and resurrection.
That does not mean Baptism has to be repeated or that repentance is a second atonement. Christ’s gift is the foundation from which the Christian turns against sin. The believer’s struggle is a return to the baptismal promise, not a replacement for it.
Nor does the command imply that the old sinful inclination has already disappeared. Christians continue to need forgiveness and the Spirit’s help. A real battle can be fought without pretending that it has been brought to sinless completion in this life.
Where People Get It Wrong
Harsh treatment of the body can masquerade as holiness while leaving pride, greed, and contempt untouched. Paul’s list identifies what must die: sins, not God’s creation.
The opposite error treats inability to achieve sinless perfection as a reason to make no effort. Colossians joins God’s gift to an actual command. Grace gives a new direction, not an exemption from repentance.
So What
Name the particular habit that needs to stop. Remove opportunities that feed it, seek help where needed, and repair the harm you have caused.
Then receive Christ’s forgiveness when you fall. Hagiasmos follows the holy life to which this turning from sin belongs.