Bible Strands
Colossians 3:7
When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Colossian believers, positioning this statement between a warning about coming wrath and a command to discard specific sins. He marks a clear chronological boundary between their former pagan existence and their present call to holiness.
The words — The verb περιεπατήσατε (periepatēsathe) literally means “you walked around,” paired with ὅτε ἐζῆτε (hote ezēte), “when you were living.” These terms frame the past lifestyle as a continuous, directional pattern of conduct.
The thread — The text records this same past-tense pattern of former conduct in Ephesians 2:2, 1 Peter 4:3, and Romans 6:19. These passages collectively document a definitive break from a prior mode of life to a new obedience.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that the reader’s former existence was defined by a specific, now-abandoned pattern. It requires a conscious shift from that past orientation to the present command to discard listed sins.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Cross-references
- Ephesians 2:2 in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
- 1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
- Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
- Titus 3:3 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- Romans 7:5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
- Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,