In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Paul was a follower of Jesus who wrote letters to early Christian communities across the Roman world. This letter was written to the church in Colossae, a city in what is now Turkey. Just before this verse, Paul listed behaviors belonging to a life apart from God — including sexual immorality, lust, and greed. Now he pauses to acknowledge something honest: "You used to walk in these ways." He is not shaming these believers — he is marking a clear before and after. They had genuinely lived differently before encountering Jesus, and Paul is acknowledging that real transformation has happened, even as he warns them not to drift back into who they were.
Lord, you know where I have been and who I used to be. Thank you that those words are past tense. When I drift back toward old ways, remind me of the distance your grace has already carried me, and keep me walking forward. Amen.
"You used to." Two words that carry the whole weight of a changed life. There is something quietly powerful about the past tense — it says: that is no longer who you are. Paul is not dragging up the past to shame these early believers. He is reminding them of the distance they have already traveled, and the reality that something in them has genuinely changed. But here is what is easy to miss: Paul says this right before calling them to keep moving forward. The "used to" is not a finish line — it is a reference point. Sometimes the most disorienting thing is not the sin itself, but the slow moment you realize you have drifted back — the cynicism that crept back in, the habit you thought you had left behind, the version of yourself you did not miss. This verse asks a quiet question: what does your "used to" look like, and are you still walking away from it?
What does the surrounding context tell us about what "these ways" refers to, and why does Paul remind the Colossians of their past behavior rather than simply moving on?
When you think about your own "used to" — patterns of thinking or acting that faith began to change — what stands out most clearly?
Is it possible to honor God's transformation in your life without either minimizing your past or being defined by it? How do you hold those two things in balance?
How does knowing someone else's "before" change the way you treat them when they are visibly struggling with old patterns?
Is there a habit or mindset you have been quietly sliding back into? What would it look like to deliberately walk away from it this week?
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Ephesians 2:2
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:11
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
1 Peter 4:3
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Titus 3:3
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Romans 6:19
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1 Peter 1:14
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Ephesians 4:22
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Colossians 2:13
and in these [sinful things] you also once walked, when you were habitually living in them [without the knowledge of Christ].
AMP
In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
ESV
and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
NASB
You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
NIV
in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
NKJV
You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.
NLT
It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better.
MSG