September 11, 2024
This is not a call to become a fashion trendsetter and get rid of all your old clothes! It is not a call to build bigger barns and homes. It is not a call to redecorate your yard or your house! It is not a call to change your old vacation habits. It is not a call to sell your older vehicles and buy newer ones. It is not a call to a midlife crisis. The apostle Paul had something else in mind.
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24. Emphasis added.
This Ephesian passage is very much like the following passage from the Book of Colossians.
“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Colossians 3:9-10, emphasis added.
In both passages, the apostle Paul talks about removing sin from our lives (the old man) and filling our lives with righteousness (the new man). Could it be any clearer?
In chapter three of Colossians, Paul says that since you have been raised to new life in Christ, you are to set your affections on things above and not on things of this world. Paul tells them to mortify these sins:
- fornication,
- uncleanness,
- inordinate affection (vile affection in Romans 1- such as the sin of homosexuality),
- evil concupiscence (lustful, usually sensuous and evil desires, licentious), and,
- covetousness, which is idolatry, verse 5.
Those who practice these things will experience the wrath of God because they are children of disobedience, verse 6. “In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.” Colossians 3:7. But now they no longer live in these sins and have also put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication, verse 8. As new creatures in Jesus Christ, they have ‘put off the old and put on the new’.
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. Old things are sinful indulgences and new things are righteousness. “Put off the old and put on the new.”
Paul’s message to the church in Galatia says this. “Now the works of the flesh (old man) are manifest, which are these;
- Adultery,
- fornication,
- uncleanness,
- lasciviousness,
- idolatry,
- witchcraft,
- hatred,
- variance,
- emulations, (desire to equal or excel others)
- wrath,
- strife,
- seditions,
- heresies,
- envyings,
- murders,
- drunkenness,
- revellings, (merrymaking, boisterous festivities, partying)
- and such like,
of which I told you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19- 21.
If you look up 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, you will read a very familiar message to the church of Corinth. In this passage, which I quote often, Paul tells those Christians that if they live in unrighteousness and sin, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul goes on to say, after he lists many evil practices, that “such were some of you.” Paul did not say, Such are some of you. Those Christians, who will inherit the kingdom of God, have in fact and truth, “put off the old and put on the new”.
Jesus said we must be born again. The old man or woman must die, and the new man or woman must come to life. The message from Jesus and Paul are the same gospel message. Jesus made a way for all this to be possible, if we will only repent of our sins and believe on Him. His grace and power are more than able to bring the dead to life and to “put off the old and put on the new.”
