and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
Parallel translations
- WEB You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
- KJV In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
- BSB When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
- NKJV in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
- NLT You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They once lived in these very sins before coming to Christ. Their past makes the call to change personal.
Overview
Paul acknowledges 'you also once walked in those, when you lived in them'—these sins were their former pattern of life. The reminder is not to shame but to mark the contrast between past and present. Conversion means a real break with the old way of living.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Eph 2:2in 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 Pet 4:3–4For 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.
- Rom 6:19–20I 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.
- Titus 3:3For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- 1 Cor 6:11Such were some of you, 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.
- Rom 7:5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
- Col 2:13You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The image of the invisible God, firstborn over creation, in whom all things hold together and all the fullness of God dwells bodily — supreme over every power.
How Colossians 3:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.