Off with the Old, On with the New

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Off with the Old, On with the New
Keywords: “put on”
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Passage: Ephesians 4:22-24*

22. that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,

23. and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

24. and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Question

What do you think Paul wants us to imagine when he says, "lay aside" (v. 22) and "put on" (v. 24)?

 

Practical help

You came to Christ through faith. (If you want to know how to "come to Christ through faith" and become a Christian, click here). You moved out of purposelessness into meaning, out of alienation into relationship, out of condemnation into acceptance, out of darkness into light. You are a NEW CREATION (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

THEREFORE, given all the changes that have happened to you, you are not to live as if you were the same old person you once were! You are to lay aside the old ways like you would lay aside an old worn out set of clothes.

The way you lived before you came to faith in Jesus is pictured as a garment. There is no future for that old garment. It’s moth eaten and tattered. Ugly. It’s good for nothing but the rag heap.

Those activities we used to pursue to find meaning and satisfaction in life are no more appropriate to us now than a ripped T-shirt would have been for President Bush during his visit a couple of weeks ago with Queen Elizabeth in London!

It doesn’t make sense to act the way you used to act now that you are not the person you used to be!

But, you can’t go around naked. And God has supplied clothing for you to wear. They are the garments of righteousness and holiness.

Christian growth is the process of removing the old layers of clothing (that is, the bad habits we accumulated while we were trying to make life work without God), and putting on the new clothing God has fitted for us in keeping with who we now are.

Involvement with porn simply does not make for the person you now are in Christ. Be done with it and put on the new duds of purity. (They look a lot better on you, anyway.)

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."