Colossians 3:1-17 begins the exhortatory section of the letter. The section actually goes on until 4:7 but the liturgical selection for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C limits the reading until verse 111. In our discussion of the liturgical selection we will assume a section that ends in verse 17 because the verses following it are exhortations to particular groups.
Below is a diagram that illustrates how the main parts of the section relate to one another and to the rest of the letter. Click the thumbnail for a much bigger version of the picture.
Verses 1-4 set the tone and direction of this exhortatory section. The phrase "raised with Christ" continues the thread of argument in Col. 2:12-14. It is also a phrase that describes the new status of the Colossian Christians before God: raised up with Christ, their life is now hidden with Christ in God. This "raised" -- upgraded -- status of the Christian's life is the basis for the moral exhortation that follows: the Christian already participates in the new life of Christ, hidden and yet to be manifested; therefore he/she is to live in accordance with the new creature that he/she has become.2
The intentionality of a Christian's existence is described in two parallel phrases: "seek what is above... think of what is above". "To seek" is existential; it characterizes a person's raison d'etré. The verb is paired with fronew phroneo which translates three Hebrew wisdom-related verbs: bin, chakam and hiskil (
skl) and connotes a grasp of reality, intellectual in nature, that is the basis for one's moral decisions. Both verbs have the object "ta anw", "those which are above", where Christ already sits.
The contrasting ideas employed in these first four verses are already present in the other letters of Paul. Below is a diagram of these contrasts; those which are implied are formatted in italic.
Though the words "spirit" and "flesh" are not employed in these verses, the virtues and vices that are listed in vv. 5-9 and 12-15 are similar to the ones Paul calls "fruits of the spirit" and "works of the flesh" in Galatians 5. These virtues and vices are like clothes that one either puts on or takes off, an allussion to the rites of the baptismal bath where the candidate takes off the ordinary clothing, gets into the water and baptized, ascends from the waters and takes on the garment of the newly baptized before proceeding to his/her place before the altar. The "old man" had been taken off before the baptism; the "new man" has been put on after baptism. With "the old man", what was characteristic of the unredeemed Gentile has also been discarded. Instead, the "new man" has been put into place -- still a baby perhaps, but already growing with the quickening of Christ's resurrection -- humanity recreated in the image of Christ, icon of the invisible God (cf. Col. 1:15)
you have taken off the old man with its practices and have put on the new man, which is being renewed, by knowledge, according to the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freedman; but Christ is all and in all.
The "new man" is in continuous renewal (ton anakainoumenon) "for knowledge." "Knowledge" in this last prase is the noun epignwsiV which translates the Hebrew word 
da'at and is used three other times in the letter outside of Col. 3:10. In Col. 1:9-10, the word appears in the phrase "knowledge of (God's) will" and "knowledge of God". In Col. 2:2, the noun appears in the phrase "knowledge of the mystery of God (who is) Christ". Here, knowledge is not informative knowledge but knowledge that derives from experiencing God; an intimate knowledge comparable to that of friends who have grown together and have no secrets between them. It is through this knowledge that the new man is being renewed.
The construction eis epignosin is literally translated unto knowledge. The preposition eis has a directional nuance like the Latin "in". However, it is also the Greek equivalent of a number of Hebrew prepositions including b. Here, a translation that is equivalent to tedb is also possible as can be gleaned from the New Living Translation rendering of Col. 3:10: "In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you." In other words, the new man that has been planted in baptism is in the process of becoming what it is meant to be, perfect in Christ (cf. Col. 1:28). And this process is carried through the knowledge which Paul's gospel contains, Christ Himself, the mystery of God (Col. 2:2), the Word (cf. Col. 1:16; John 1:1ff), God's Wisdom (cf. 1 Cor.1:24 ) .
By putting on the new man, then, the Colossians can no longer be like the persons they were before baptism. There is no longer anything that divides everyone from each other, whether by ethnicity, or physical marks, or status in society. Rather, everyone has been united in just one reality: Christ in whose Body all have been baptized. Here, Paul is applying some of the ideas behind his opening hymn:
For in Him the Fullness was pleased to dwell
and through him to reconcile all things to Himself
making peace by the blood of his cross
whether those on earth
or those in heaven. (1:19-20)
Christ is the Head of the Body which is the Church (1:18) and in Him all things hold together (1:17). What He is to the whole of the recreated universe, he is also to the Church. Thus in putting on the new man, the Colossians are actually transforming themselves into the microcosm of the new and changed cosmic order brought about by the cross of Christ. This "moral-putting-on" of the new man (subjective) as opposed to the "sacramental-putting-on" of the new man in baptism (objective) is the expression of their commitment. The exhortations of Paul whose mission is to "admonish everyone in all wisdom so as to present them perfect in Christ" (Col. 1:28) point the Colossians to that direction.
1The selection is limited to verses 1-5 and 9-11 with verses 6-8 omitted. Verse 6 is actually an aside and verses 7-8 though integral to the argument begun in verse 6 is skipped because verses 9-11 actually re-expresses it in a more positive note
2The theme of the new creation is alluded to in verses 9-11. The theme is well pronounced in Galatians. See the article "The Cross and the New Creation".
