When Paul tells believers to put off the old man and put on the new, he is addressing people God has already made alive in Christ. He calls them to leave conduct that belonged to their former life and practice the holiness that fits their new one. Obedience cannot purchase salvation, and the life God gives should become visible in how we think, speak, and treat others.
New Life Comes Before Obedience
Paul’s commands concern more than a disciplined person improving his habits. God has redeemed the believer and made him new in Christ. By the new birth, I mean that God has genuinely given someone spiritual life, rather than that he has adopted a Christian label or learned religious behavior.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The sinless Son willingly offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, enduring the suffering and crucifixion wicked men inflicted. He shed His blood for sinners and completed His saving work through His death. He was then buried and rose bodily from the dead. A sinner needs that Savior; reforming his conduct cannot accomplish what Christ has done.
Ephesians 2:8–10 joins salvation by grace through faith with the good works for which believers were created in Christ Jesus. The works follow God’s saving action. We do not become His new creation by behaving well enough, but being made new gives us a reason and a responsibility to obey Him.
Religious discipline can conceal an unchanged heart. A person may learn to appear respectable while continuing to love what God condemns. Paul calls for conduct that expresses the new life God has given, so holiness must reach further than the impression we make on others.
The Old Man and the New Man
Earlier in Ephesians 4, Paul calls the church to humility, patience, and love. He describes the body growing as its members do their part, then tells believers to leave the former unbelieving way of life. The commands are personal, but their consequences reach the whole church. Our conduct can strengthen fellow believers or harm the fellowship we share.
That former life was alienated from God, darkened in understanding, and governed by corrupt desires. Paul ties the old man to the believer’s former conduct:
That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
The desires are deceitful because sin promises something it does not deliver. A lie may seem to protect me from embarrassment while destroying the trust another person had in me. Greed promises security but teaches me to serve what I possess. Paul is exposing a way of life that keeps deteriorating even while it offers satisfaction.
The Greek word anthropos, translated “man,” can mean a human person and includes both men and women here. Paul is speaking about the person, not merely an isolated habit. The old man belongs to the former life under sin; the new man is the person God has created for life in Christ. We need to understand that change before treating the passage as a list of things to stop doing.
Colossians 3:9–10 makes the connection especially plain. Paul tells believers not to lie to one another because they have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new. Because God has made them new in Christ, they must leave behind the conduct that belonged to their former life. At the beginning of the chapter, he likewise tells those raised with Christ to seek the things above.
A Renewed Mind Produces a Changed Life
Between putting off the old man and putting on the new, Ephesians 4 describes the renewal of the mind:
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
God changes the believer’s thinking through His Word and Spirit. Romans 12 connects transformation with the renewing of the mind, while 2 Corinthians 3 describes the Spirit transforming believers into the Lord’s image. Colossians 3 also speaks of the new man being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator. The inward change God produces should become visible in their conduct.
If I continue feeding my mind the same excuses for sin, those excuses will shape my choices. Scripture exposes their deception and teaches me to recognize what pleases Christ. I need more than a determination to seem better behaved; I need to receive the truth, allow it to correct my judgment, and act on what God says. As I learn to value Christ and His ways, I can recognize holiness as freedom from the sin that was deceiving me.
Paul then describes the new man we are to put on:
And that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
God is the One who created this new life, and its righteousness and holiness reflect Him. The person forgiven in Christ is called to forgive others, and the person who belongs to the truth should speak truthfully. Paul’s clothing image helps us understand the connection: our conduct should fit what God has made us.
This continuing growth in holiness is sanctification. We depend on God to renew us while responding to the commands He gives. The result should be more than an outward imitation of Christian behavior. We need to submit our desires and judgments to His truth along with our actions.
What Must Be Put Away and Put On
Paul makes the change concrete in Ephesians 4:25–32. The person putting away falsehood must speak truth to his neighbor because believers are members of one another. If I deceive someone in the church, I damage a relationship God calls me to honor. I need to tell the truth even when honesty exposes a fault I would rather conceal.
Paul also warns against allowing anger to become sin and giving the devil an opportunity through it. Feeling anger does not authorize vindictiveness or a refusal to deal with what has happened. We should address our anger promptly instead of nursing resentment until it shapes every conversation. Bitterness, malicious speech, and the desire to hurt another person belong to the conduct we are told to put away.
The person who stole must stop stealing and work honestly so that he has something to give to someone in need. Paul’s instruction reaches beyond refusing to take another person’s property. The hands once used to take are now put to work that can benefit others. His generosity shows how his attitude toward possessions has changed.
Our speech must change in a similar way. Stopping corrupt talk is necessary, and we should learn to speak words that build up the hearer. That includes truthful correction offered for someone’s good, as well as encouragement. Kindness and tenderness should replace harshness and malice. We are to forgive others because God has forgiven us in Christ.
Colossians 3 reaches our desires as well as our words and actions. Paul names sexual immorality, moral impurity, evil desire, and covetousness, which he calls idolatry. Greed directs the heart toward something it serves in God’s place. He also confronts anger, lying, and filthy speech, then calls believers to mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. We are to abandon the sin and practice the conduct that agrees with Christ.
Union with Christ Guards Against Two Errors
Romans 6 explains the believer’s freedom to leave the old life. Those who belong to Christ are united with Him in His death and resurrection:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Sin no longer has rightful dominion over the believer. Temptation still comes, but he is not trying to escape his former master through unaided effort. Paul calls him to count on what God has done and present himself to God for righteousness. The commands in Ephesians and Colossians rest on that new relationship with Christ.
If I turn those commands into a means of earning God’s acceptance, I have made obedience into legalism. I begin measuring my standing before God by my performance, becoming proud when I think I am doing well and despairing when my failures expose me. God’s acceptance in Christ comes by grace, and the obedience He calls for grows from the life He has given.
The opposite error uses grace to justify doing nothing. Someone may say, “Since God saves by grace, I do not need to put anything away.” Paul rejects that reasoning. The grace that saves also teaches God’s people to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Belonging to Christ gives us reason to confess sin, flee temptation, speak truth, and forgive.
Dependence on the Spirit therefore calls for action. I should pray for help and obey what God has already made clear, rather than use prayer to postpone a decision. The Spirit supplies the help we need as we put away what He condemns and practice what He commands.
Practicing the New Life Together
Honesty about sin is part of that response. We can excuse sin by calling lust a weakness, bitterness a personality trait, or greed ambition. I need to name the wrong accurately and consider what obedience requires. Being tempted is not the same as deliberately indulging the temptation, but once I choose to entertain it I cannot excuse that choice as something harmless.
Paul also expects believers to teach one another, offering warning and correction as needed:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another.
Colossians joins that teaching and admonition with worship, gratitude, and acting in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Word of Christ is to dwell richly among His people. Our growth is personal, but we should not isolate ourselves from the believers who can remind us of Scripture and help us put it into practice.
If another Christian lovingly identifies conduct I need to put away, I should consider the correction rather than defend myself simply because it is uncomfortable. Whether we give or receive correction, the aim is to help one another return to obedience. We should speak honestly about sin, explain grace clearly, and welcome repentance without humiliating the person we are correcting. Religious appearances must not become a shelter for conduct we refuse to address.
The fruit of the Spirit describes the character He produces as we depend on Him. Galatians 5 names love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Human pride cannot manufacture that fruit. These qualities develop as believers yield to the Spirit, and they should become evident in our life together as a church.
A church should therefore expect genuine change without demanding instant perfection. Someone who has lied needs to become trustworthy, and a selfish person needs to learn generosity. A harsh believer needs to practice tenderness, while someone holding bitterness needs to forgive. Those changes take patient obedience and help from the Lord, rather than merely an appearance of discipline.
Returning temptation can make that growth difficult. Its presence does not cancel the new birth, and grieving over sin while seeking holiness is different from making peace with it. If I have sinned, I should confess it, practice repentance, and return to obedience instead of defending my failure. I can bring the struggle to Christ and receive mercy without treating the struggle itself as proof that He has not changed me.
Eternal security belongs to those genuinely born again. It gives no permission for sin, and a Christian profession cannot make rebellion acceptable. Our confidence rests in Christ, not in how easy obedience feels or how flawless our progress appears. The new life He gives has a new direction, and the Spirit works in His people to desire and do what pleases God.
My Final Thoughts
Putting off the old man and putting on the new means living in agreement with what God has done in Christ. I cannot earn that life through obedience, but I should not use grace to excuse conduct Christ calls me to leave. As His Word renews my thinking, I need to put the truth into practice in my desires, speech, work, and relationships. We depend on the Spirit to live the life God has given, with confidence in the Savior who has freed us from sin’s rule.