<p>3:8 <i>But now you are to also put away</i>- See on 3:5 <em>Put to death. The commandment to &ldquo;put away&rdquo; these behaviours suggests that they were all ongoing amongst the Colossian converts. The same word is used of how Christian converts elsewhere needed to &ldquo;put off&rdquo; such carnal behaviour and immorality (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22; 1 Pet. 2:1). Clearly the early churches were full of quite serious immorality, bad language, blasphemy and even violence. The historical accounts of how some very self-sacrificial behaviour attracted the positive notice of outsiders doesn&rsquo;t take away from this; and this sad scenario is all witnessed by the New Testament itself. We need to give this internal evidence its due weight. It&rsquo;s clear that Paul preached and then baptized whoever said &lsquo;yes&rsquo; without unduly analysing their motives or morality. Inevitably with so many quick baptisms, the communities which developed would have been characterized by the same spiritual immaturities which were in their native societies.</em></p><p><em>The &ldquo;also&rdquo; connects with the list of five forms of sexual sins in :5. Paul now gives another list of five sins which are more internal than external. He may be continuing the theme developed at the end of chapter 2, of needing to focus on the internal and spiritual more than the external. </em></p><p><em>Anger</em></i><i>, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth</i>-The idea is that the five gross sexual sins of :5 are no worse than the five more common failures no<em>w </em>listed.</p>