Ephesians 4:20-32 & Colossians 3:1-17 · Featured Study
BSBPut Off, Put On
Two letters, written to two different churches, describe holy living with the same picture: clothing. Take off the old man like a worn garment, and put on the new one, because the old man is already gone and the new one is already given. This page reads Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 side by side, names the specific wardrobe each letter lists, and traces the same grammar into Romans 13.
Summary
Ephesians 4:20-32 and Colossians 3:1-17 describe holiness as changing clothes: put off the old man, be renewed, put on the new. Both letters name a specific wardrobe, and both ground the command in something already true: because the reader has already put off the old man in Christ, the command is to live like it.
- The command ("put off... put on") rests on an indicative already true: "ye HAVE put off... have put on" (Col 3:9-10)
- Both letters name a specific wardrobe: lying to truth, wrath to no room for the devil, theft to labor and giving, in Ephesians; compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love, in Colossians
- Colossians grounds the whole command in union with Christ: risen with Him, seated with Him, life hidden with Him (Col 3:1-4)
- Romans 13:12-14 states the same grammar in one line: "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ"
- The Greek verbs behind the two halves, apekdyomai and enduo, are ordinary clothing words used deliberately for a spiritual change
The Clothing Grammar
two letters, the same picture for holy living
to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.Put off the old man, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, put on the new man.
Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.The same three moves, stated as something already accomplished.
Paul reaches for clothing twice, in two letters written to two different cities, to describe the same change. Take off a garment, put on another: the old man is not repaired or improved, he is removed, the way a person removes a worn coat rather than patching it. The new man is not built from scratch by the reader’s own effort, he is put on, the way a person puts on a garment already made and given.
You Have Already Put It Off
the indicative underneath the imperative: an accomplished fact, then a command
Colossians 3:9-10 does not command the reader to put off the old man; it states that he already has. “Ye HAVE put off the old man… and have put on the new man” is a completed fact, grammatically past, before any command follows. The imperative form in Ephesians 4:22-24 rests on exactly this fact: the reader is told to live out a change that has already happened, not to manufacture one that has not.
“put off--Greek, ‘wholly put off’; utterly renounced [TITTMANN]. (Eph 4:22). the old man--the unregenerate nature which ye had before conversion. his deeds--habits of acting.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Colossians 3:9
“It was the honour of man in innocence that he was made after the image of God; but that image was defaced and lost by sin, and is renewed by sanctifying grace: so that a renewed soul is something like what Adam was in the day he was created. In the privilege and duty of sanctification there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Colossians 3:10
JFB reads “put off” at its full strength: not a partial loosening but a complete renunciation. Henry ties the renewed image back to Genesis, a soul now “something like what Adam was in the day he was created,” before sin had anything to deface. Ephesians 4:22-24 states the same event in the same three moves, put off, be renewed, put on, and the Ephesian wardrobe below is what living that out looks like in practice.
“That ye put off - And this has been one especial part of our teaching, that ye should abandon all these, and live a life totally opposite to what it was before. The old man - See the note on Rom 6:6, and especially see the notes on Rom 13:13, Rom 13:14 (note). Which is corrupt - The whole of your former life was corrupt and abominable; ye lived in the pursuit of pleasure and happiness; ye sought this in the gratification of the lusts of the flesh; and were ever deceived by these lusts, and disappointed in your expectations.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Ephesians 4:22
The Specific Wardrobe
the actual clothes each letter names, not an abstraction
Neither letter leaves “put off, put on” as a slogan. Each names specific behavior, replaced with its specific opposite, one pair at a time.
Ephesians 4:25-30
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.Lying, put off. Truth, put on: "we are members one of another."
“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, and do not give the devil a foothold.Wrath allowed to fester overnight, put off. "Neither give place to the devil."
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.Theft, put off. Labor and giving to the needy, put on.
Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.Corrupt speech, put off. Speech that ministers grace, put on; do not grieve the Spirit.
“Wherefore putting away lying - It may seem strange that the apostle should seriously exhort Christians to put away ‘lying,’ implying that they were in the habit of indulging in falsehood. But we are to remember: (1) That lying is the universal vice of the pagan world. Among the ancient pagans, as among the moderns, it was almost universally practiced. It has been remarked by a distinguished jurist who had spent much time in India, that he would not believe a Hindu on his oath.”
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869
Ephesians 4:25
“Those who persevere in sinful anger and in wrath let the devil into their hearts, and suffer him to gain upon them, till he bring them to malice, mischievous machinations, &c. ‘ Neither give place to the calumniator, or the false accuser’ (so some read the words); that is, ‘let your ears be deaf to whisperers, talebearers, and slanderers.’ 3.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710
Ephesians 4:27
“Let him that stole steal no more - It is supposed that, among the rabbins, stealing was not entirely discountenanced, provided a portion was given to the poor. The apostle here teaches them a different doctrine: as they should speak truth every man with his neighbor, so they should in every respect act honestly, for nothing contrary to truth and righteousness could be tolerated under the Christian system.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible, 1832
Ephesians 4:28
“THERE IS SOMETHING very touching in this admonition, ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.’ It does not say, ‘Do not make him angry.’ A more delicate and tender term is used—‘Grieve him not.’”
Charles Spurgeon · The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 278, 1859Reformed Baptist
Ephesians 4:30
Colossians 3:5, 8-9, 12-14
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."As the elect of God, holy and beloved": compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, put on.
Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.Forbearance and forgiveness, then love, "the bond of perfectness," over all of it.
Colossians 3:5 and 3:8-9 name the same kind of put-off list as Ephesians (fornication, uncleanness, evil desire, and covetousness; anger, wrath, malice, slander, and lying), then 3:12-14 gives the put-on side its own full wardrobe.
“Put on - as the elect of God - As the principal design of the apostle was to show that God had chosen the Gentiles, and called them to the same privileges as the Jews, and intended to make them as truly his people as the Jews ever were, he calls them the elect or chosen of God; and as the Jews, who were formerly the elect, were still beloved, and called to be holy, so he calls the Colossians beloved, and shows them that they are called with the same holy calling.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible, 1832
Colossians 3:12
“And the reason is: Even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. The consideration that we are forgiven by Christ so many offences is a good reason why we should forgive others. It is an argument of the divinity of Christ that he had power on earth to forgive sins; and it is a branch of his example which we are obliged to follow, if we ourselves would be forgiven.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710
Colossians 3:13
“And above all these things - Επι πασι δε τουτοις· Upon all, over all; as the outer garment envelopes all the clothing, so let charity or love invest and encompass all the rest. Even bowels of mercy are to be set in motion by love; from love they derive all their feeling, and all their power and promptitude to action. Let this, therefore, be as the upper garment; the surtout that invests the whole man.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible, 1832
Colossians 3:14
Clarke calls love the “upper garment,” the outer coat that gathers every other piece of clothing under one cover. The metaphor Paul opens the passage with in Ephesians 4 is the same one Colossians closes with in 3:14.
Set Your Affection Above
the engine underneath the command: union with a risen Christ
Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.Risen with Christ, seated with Him, and a life already hidden with Him: the reason the command can be given at all.
Colossians 3 does not open with a command to change; it opens with a fact about union. The reader has already died with Christ and already risen with Him, so the command to set the mind above is not a demand for self-improvement, it is an instruction to live consistently with a location the reader is already in.
“If ye are risen with Christ. Ascension follows resurrection: hence, if we are the members of Christ we must ascend into heaven, because he, on being raised up from the dead, was received up into heaven, (Mark 16:19,) that he might draw us up with him.”
John Calvin · Commentaries, 1554Reformed
Colossians 3:1
“If ye then be risen with Christ - The apostle in this place evidently founds the argument on what he had said in Col 2:12; see the notes at that passage. The argument is, that there was such an union between Christ and his people, that in virtue of his death they become dead to sin; that in virtue of his resurrection they rise to spiritual life, and that, therefore, as Christ now lives in heaven, they should live for heaven, and fix their affections there.”
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Evangelical
Colossians 3:1
This is the same engine the wardrobe sections run on: put off and put on are not the cause of the union, they are what the union looks like lived out. The fuller study of this already-being-made- must pattern belongs to Made Holy, not repeated here.
Put On the Lord Jesus Christ
the same grammar, stated in one line, in a third letter
The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.Cast off the works of darkness; put on the armor of light; put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 13 was written to Rome, a different city from either Ephesus or Colossae, and Paul reaches for the identical picture a third time: cast off, put on. Here the object being put on is not a list of virtues but a person. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is the same move Colossians and Ephesians describe in pieces, named all at once, in one clause.
The Words Underneath
the Greek both letters share
Two Greek verbs carry the whole pattern: one for taking a garment off completely, one for putting a garment on.
The words underneath
apekdyomai: to take off
Greek · G554Strong's entry: to divest wholly oneself, or (for oneself) despoil
Colossians 3:9's own word: apekdyomai, to strip off wholly. An intensive compound, stacking two prefixes that both mean "off," for a complete removal rather than a loosening.
2 times in the New Testament · apekdyomai, in full →
endyo: to put on
Greek · G1746Strong's entry: to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively)
The word behind every "put on" in this pattern: enduo, to clothe, to sink into a garment. Used in Colossians 3:10 and 3:12, Ephesians 4:24, and Romans 13:14.
27 times in the New Testament · endyo, in full →
The Voices
with the work named
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · public domain
Grounds the whole grammar in union with Christ: because His people rose with Him, they now live for heaven rather than earth.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) · public domain
Renders "put off" at its full strength, "wholly put off, utterly renounced," not a partial loosening of the old nature.
Commentary on the Bible (1832) · public domain
Names love "the upper garment, the surtout that invests the whole man," the clothing metaphor stated as plainly as the text allows.
Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710) · public domain
Reads the renewed image as a return to what Adam was "in the day he was created," tying the new man back to Genesis itself.
Commentaries (1554) · public domain
States the engine underneath the whole passage: ascension follows resurrection, and Christ's people are drawn up with Him.
The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 278 (1859) · CCEL edition
Preaches the tenderness of "grieve not," a gentler word than anger, over the specific charge of Ephesians 4:30.
Marcus Brown's own commentary leads above all; within a tier, all voices are equal. No modern in-copyright voice met the relevance gate with a specific work in hand from the two authorized quote dumps; none is named.
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