Colossians 3:5

The apostle exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin, the great hindrance to seeking the things which are above. Since it is our duty to set our affections upon heavenly things, it is our duty to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and which naturally incline us to the things of the world: "Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them, suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you." - Your members which are upon the earth; either the members of the body, which are the earthly part of us, and were curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth (Psa 139:15), or the corrupt affections of the mind, which lead us to earthly things, the members of the body of death, Rom 7:24. He specifies, I. The lusts of the flesh, for which they were before so very remarkable: Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence - the various workings of the carnal appetites and fleshly impurities, which they indulged in their former course of life, and which were so contrary to the Christian state and the heavenly hope. II.

— Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary (public domain)

Mortify--Greek, "make a corpse of"; "make dead"; "put to death." therefore--(See on Col 3:3). Follow out to its necessary consequence the fact of your having once for all died with Christ spiritually at your regeneration, by daily "deadening your members," of which united "the body of the sins of the flesh" consists (compare Col 2:11). "The members" to be mortified are the fleshly instruments of lust, in so far as the members of the body are abused to such purposes. Habitually repress and do violence to corrupt desires of which the members are the instruments (compare Rom 6:19; Rom 8:13; Gal 5:24-25). upon the earth--where they find their support [BENGEL] (Compare Col 3:2, "things on earth"). See Eph 5:3-4. inordinate affection--"lustful passion." evil concupiscence--more general than the last [ALFORD], the disorder of the external senses; "lustful passion," lust within [BENGEL]. covetousness--marked off by the Greek article as forming a whole genus by itself, distinct from the genus containing the various species just enumerated. It implies a self-idolizing, grasping spirit; far worse than another Greek term translated "the love of money" (Ti1 6:10). which is--that is, inasmuch as it is "idolatry." Compare Note, see on Eph 4:19, on its connection with sins of impurity. Self and mammon are deified in the heart instead of God (Mat 6:24; see on Eph 5:5).

— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (public domain)