Put off

that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, - Ephesians 4.22-23

There is a theme of the believer putting some things off and putting things on in our Christian lives. Several times Paul goes into specifics, but here he gives the general pattern of putting off and putting on, with a little bit in between.

Paul writes here that we are too ‘put off’ the old man. That only makes sense because our old man was crucified with Christ. But too many of us carry that old dead body with us and are affected by what the old man used to do. We let the old man direct our conduct just like he used to do.

Why do we do that? Why are we led and controlled by a dead man?

Its pretty simple. We like the old man. We are comfortable there. That is the life we are accustomed to. We follow the old man's ways we don't have to face the unknown.

Being dead doesn't mean there is no influence. Hebrews speaks of Abel, who being dead, still speaks. We all can think of the impact of people who have died and still impact our lives for good or bad. Dead people still influence all of us.

It is like that with our old man. He is dead, crucified with Christ, and powerless. And yet we still choose to let him run our lives. The answer to realise that he really is dead. His impact is gone. We need to put him away with all of his deceits and lies and influence.

It does none of us any good to carry an old, dead, rotten, stinking, corrupt corpse with us. It only makes sense to put him away.