Colossians 3:13
What does Colossians 3:13 mean?
bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
The short answer
Colossians 3:13 gives two instructions that belong together: "bearing with one another" and "forgiving each other." Bearing with someone means making room for their flaws over time—the daily patience life in community requires. Forgiving goes further. It addresses the moments when patience runs out, when someone actually has "a complaint against any," a real grievance with a name attached. The verse assumes such complaints will happen. Christian community is not pictured as friction-free; it is pictured as a place where friction gets absorbed rather than escalated.
Then comes the reason, and it carries all the weight: "even as Christ forgave you, so you also do." The logic runs backward from what we might expect. We are not told to forgive so that God will forgive us. We are told to forgive because, in Christ, we already have been. Earlier in this same letter, Paul says that in Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14). Forgiving others is not a heroic extra for advanced believers—it is simply what forgiven people do. The gift comes first; the practice follows from it.
The setting matters too. This verse sits inside a deliberate before-and-after structure. Paul has just listed the vices believers are to strip off like old clothes (3:5–9), and now he lists the virtues they are to put on: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience (3:12). Forgiveness is one of these garments—something worn, visible, part of how a community presents itself to the watching world. And in the very next verse, love is named as the layer that goes over everything, binding the rest together (3:14). Forgiveness, in this picture, is not a private transaction between two individuals. It is the shared clothing of a new humanity, and its measure is nothing less than how Christ has already treated us.
What scholars say
These two excerpts answer complementary questions: why Christians forgive—McKim traces it to the forgiveness already received in Christ, making forgiving others the natural response of forgiven people—and how the instruction is framed, with Hanson placing it inside the letter's structured lists of vices to shed and virtues to wear, bound together by love.
“Later in the New Testament, forgiveness is seen as a way of life for Christians. It is in Jesus Christ that we have “redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14; Eph. 1:7). From this forgiveness comes our response as forgiven people—to forgive others: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).”
“When the author turns to the inferences that he draws from faith in Christ for living in this world, we find the conventional ethics of a generation of believers striving to conduct their lives in a manner above reproach in the eyes of their pagan neighbors. The genre adopted is one common among the moral philosophers of the time, namely, household rules (Ger. Haustafeln ). Against the background of a list of the cardinal vices (Col. 3:5–9), a summary of the virtues with which Christians are to be clothed is given: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:12–14).”
What it means for you
Start with the grievance you are actually carrying. Colossians 3:13 does not ask whether the complaint is legitimate—it assumes it may be. The question it presses is different: how has Christ treated you? If forgiveness is something you have received rather than earned, then extending it is not losing an argument; it is living out your own story.
Practically, that might mean releasing a debt you have been quietly collecting on, or simply bearing with a person whose habits wear on you. Forgiveness here is a practice, like putting on clothes each morning—chosen, repeated, and visible to the people around you.
Colossians 3 in context
Colossians 3 pivots from doctrine to daily life. Paul opens by telling believers they have been raised with Christ and should set their minds on things above (3:1–4). What follows is a two-part wardrobe change: put off the old vices—anger, malice, lying, and more (3:5–9)—and put on the new virtues of God's chosen people: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience (3:12). Verse 13 sits in the middle of that virtue list, with love named just after it as the bond that holds everything together (3:14). The chapter then moves into peace, gratitude, worship, and household relationships.