Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 
Colossians 3:5-8 (ESV)
 
     These would be cruel instructions were it not for the preceding proclamation regarding what Christ has done. Since we are united with him in his death, burial, and resurrection, and since our lives are hidden with him in God, there are things we can do that would have been impossible before. Two things jump out of this text that are of utmost importance. First there is the seriousness of sin, and then there is the hope of victory.

     Notice that Paul does not understate the threat of sin. He does not take the approach that sin is tolerable and permissible in our lives. It is dangerous to our existence and destructive to all our pursuits of true pleasure. Sin is not a viable option for us. It must not be coddled or petted. It must be KILLED. We are reminded of the story of Cain and Able. When Cain's countenance fell because God had accepted Abel's offering and not his, God told him that sin was crouching at the door and would devour him if he did not confront it. Of course we know that Cain did not confront the crouching tiger and was destroyed because of it.

     The evil desires that are mentioned in this text, if left alone, will pervert life as God intended it to be. The base pleasures they offer will rob us of the high-level pleasures God has in store. We remember how Paul describes wrath in his letter to the Roman church (Romans 1:18-32). It consists of being abandoned by God's restraints and allowed to be controlled by selfish desires and deceptive perspectives. And that is while we are still on earth. There is also coming a final accountability. God will not allow perversion in his heaven, and those who choose to live like that would not want to be there anyway. To be given over to selfish desires forever is truly the core of hell. Who would want to live forever (or for any time, for that matter) controlled by desires for sexual fulfillment that ignores the dignity God gave us? Who wants to be controlled by a spirit of uncleanness or unrestrained passion or covetousness? These are enemies. They disfigure life and strip it of its beauty. They won't be tamed to work for us only when we decide. They push and demand that we satisfy them continually. We gave in because they promised pleasure, but they became our masters and we their slaves. Death is the only solution, and until we decide we want them dead we will tolerate them.

     There is hope. Jesus has seen our predicament and provided the execution power for our sins. The very fact that Paul commands us to put them to death means it can be done. Of course we can testify that it can't be accomplished in our own willpower, but the gospel provides us with a power to enforce our choices to put sin to death. It is the same power that enabled Jesus to die and be raised from the grave. His Spirit lives in us to slay the sin in us and to free us to live as liberated servants. There is no excuse for us to plead weakness. It is our weakness that allows his strength to come forth. We must cry out in desperate faith for his enabling to confront the crouching enemy. That is our privilege and responsibility. Sure it is hard. Actually it is impossible without the cross. But because of the cross-event, it is not only possible, but mandatory.

     Paul in this letter doesn't get much into modern therapy where we spend years trying to discover what scarred us. He gets right to the point and exhorts us to act in faith based on the truth of the gospel.  Just do it!