Colossians / Question
Colossians lists sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness as things to put to death Colossians 3:5. It says these are connected with the wrath of God and describes them as part of a former way of life Colossians 3:6–7.
In Colossians 3:5–7, Paul tells his readers to treat certain “earthbound” behaviors as things to be killed off. He names a cluster of sexual and desire-driven practices, ending with greed, which he bluntly calls idolatry. This paragraph sits in the letter’s shift from describing the readers’ new identity to spelling out how that identity should shape daily conduct.
Paul connects this paragraph to what he has just said about the believers’ new life “with Christ” (Colossians 3:1–4). The “therefore” signals that the ethical instruction grows out of that earlier claim. The main explicit claim is straightforward: certain “earth” (ordinary, lower-level) patterns are to be treated as if they must be killed off.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Colossians 3:5, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;