That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Paul, the author of Ephesians, wrote this letter to a community of early Christians in Ephesus — a major city in what is now western Turkey. He's describing the inner transformation that comes with following Christ, specifically the need to actively shed who you used to be. The "old self" isn't just bad habits; it's a whole orientation of life shaped by desires that ultimately deceive and destroy. The Greek verb for "being corrupted" is continuous tense, suggesting the old self doesn't just decay once — it keeps decaying over time. This verse is part of a larger instruction about exchanging the old life for a new one, like taking off worn, ruined clothing and putting on something entirely different.
Lord, I know my old self too well — its patterns, its pull, its familiar voice. Teach me to take it off and leave it behind, not by willpower alone, but by the transformation only you can work from the inside out. Help me to see who you're making me into, and to live like I believe it. Amen.
There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from being someone you've outgrown. Maybe you've felt it — showing up somewhere and slipping back into an old version of yourself, saying things you no longer believe, laughing at things that stopped being funny years ago. The old self doesn't die quietly. Paul doesn't pretend it does. He says you were *taught* to put it off — meaning it takes intention, instruction, and probably more than a few failed attempts. The old self clings because its desires are "deceitful" — they still look attractive. They lie about what they'll give you. The word "put off" in Greek pictures removing a garment — which means at some point you have to decide to take it off and leave it. Not wish it away, not just feel bad about it, not resolve to do better next January. What's the piece of your old self you keep meaning to shed but keep putting back on? A way of speaking, a pattern of thinking, a habit that pulls you backward. This verse doesn't shame you for having an old self — it simply reminds you that you don't have to keep wearing it.
What do you think Paul means by desires that are "deceitful" — can you think of something that seemed like it would satisfy you but ended up doing the opposite?
Is there a specific pattern, habit, or way of thinking from your former life that you still struggle to fully let go of? What makes it so hard to put down?
Paul says believers were *taught* to put off the old self — implying transformation doesn't happen automatically. What does it actually look like to be taught to change, rather than just deciding to on your own?
How do the people around you make it easier or harder to shed your old self? Are there specific relationships that pull you back into who you used to be?
What is one concrete, named action you could take this week to "put off" something from your old way of life — not a vague intention, but an actual step you could describe to someone?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
James 1:21
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:18
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalms 51:10
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2
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
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:1
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Romans 6:6
that, regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self [completely discard your former nature], which is being corrupted through deceitful desires,
AMP
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
ESV
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,
NASB
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;
NIV
that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
NKJV
throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.
NLT
Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life,
MSG