Away then with sinful, earthly things; deaden any evil desires lurking within you; having nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust and shameful desires; don’t worship the good things of life, for that is idolatry.  God’s terrible anger is upon those who do such things.  You used to do them when your life was still part of this world; but now is the time to cast off and throw away all these rotten garments of anger, hatred, cursing, and dirty language.

Don’t tell lies to each other; it was your old life with all its wickedness that did that sort of thing; now is dead and gone.  You are living a brand new kind of life that is continually learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who created this new life within you.

In this life one’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant; such things mean nothing.  Whether a person has Christ is what matters, and He is equally available to all. Colossians