Romans 6:16

6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves ¹  as obedient slaves, ²  you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ³ 

Romans 6:19

6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ⁴  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Romans 7:5

7:5 For when we were in the flesh, ⁵  the sinful desires, ⁶  aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body ⁷  to bear fruit for death.

Romans 7:23

7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

Romans 7:1

The Believer’s Relationship to the Law

7:1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters ⁸  (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person ⁹  as long as he lives?

Colossians 1:15

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ¹⁰ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ¹¹  over all creation, ¹² 

Colossians 3:5

3:5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: ¹³  sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, ¹⁴  evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.

James 3:5-6

3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ¹⁵  yet it has great pretensions. ¹⁶  Think ¹⁷  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ¹⁸  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ¹⁹  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ²⁰ 

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ²¹  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ²²  from your passions that battle inside you? ²³ 

[6:16]  ¹ tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”

[6:16]  ² tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.

[6:16]  ³ tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”

[6:19]  ⁴ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

[7:5]  ⁵ tn That is, before we were in Christ.

[7:5]  ⁶ tn Or “sinful passions.”

[7:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “our members”; the words “of our body” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[7:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[7:1]  ⁹ sn Here person refers to a human being.

[1:15]  ¹⁰ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ¹¹ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ¹² tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.

[3:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”

[3:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “lust.”

[3:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “a small member.”

[3:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “boasts of great things.”

[3:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:6]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ¹⁹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ²⁰ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[4:1]  ²¹ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ²² tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ²³ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”