What do we put off and put on And How!!

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

These words talk to those who are waiting and eager to be taught how to live, no longer like the Gentiles in the futility of their minds but like new creatures whose lives are full of meaning and hope and joy.

Putting Off the Old Person

What is the old person and what is the new person?

What does the old person comprise off? Paul says, "Therefore putting off falsehood, speak truth." So it seems like one example of putting off the old person is to put off bad practices that belong to the old way of life—like lying. Another good clue to the meaning of "the old person" is in Colossians 3:8–9. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old person with its practices. So putting off the old person is more than putting off old practices, because Colossians 3:9 says we put it off WITH its practices. And Colossians 3:8 mentions things that lie beneath and behind practices—like anger and wrath.

So the old person is the old bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices that I used to be. That's who I was before I was called out of darkness by the voice of the Lord.

Putting On the New Person

Colossians 3:12 gives the same kind of clue about the meaning of the new person that we are supposed to put on. Paul says, "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and loved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience."

So the new person is the new bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices that Jesus has called us to become in his school. We must take off the old person and put on the new person. The old person is corrupted by desires that are fueled and fired by deceit, by lies, by the absence of truth. When your mind is deceived, you can even love to drink poison. But then notice in verse 24 that the new person is created in righteousness and holiness that is fueled and fired by truth. Right attitudes and emotions and actions are born from true views of spiritual reality.

And what is the bridge that leads from between the corrupting deceit to the sanctifying truth? It is the renewing of the spirit of the mind. This is the key: "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." If your attitudes and emotions and practices come from the spirit of a renewed mind, they will be yours in one sense, but in a deeper sense they will be the creation of God in righteousness and holiness.

When your mind is filled with the love of Christ and with all the fullness of God, then the spirit of your mind is renewed and freed from the deceit of the world. And out of that renewed mind come new attitudes and emotions and practices, and they clothe you with righteousness and holiness. And this new person that you become is indeed the creation of God himself, and to him belongs all the glory forever and ever.