Colossians 3:9-11

9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.


The previous verses dealt with what you “put off” as a believer. These verses are the bridge to the section of what you “put on” as a believer.

There is no question that as believers we are fully in Christ. We are not partially redeemed – some sort of old man/new man hybrid. Paul writes “seeing that you have put off the old self” – the assumption is that the old man is stripped off and tossed to the side. We are a new creation, and the deeper our knowledge, the more closely we resemble the image of our creator. We need no “special revelation” or communion with angels as some in Colossae believed. Each day we gain greater knowledge as we put into practice the spiritual knowledge we have already gained. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17).

Although we are new creations, we can tend to fall into old patterns. Lying is often a manifestation of other sins. We lie to cover up wrongs we have committed, to avoid uncomfortable situations, or to receive and protect monetary gain. The more we lie, the more we must lie to cover up our sins. The only way to stop the downward spiral is to get off the staircase of deceit! As Matthew Henry said, “It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us.”

This time of the year you will find sports on our television most evenings. Unlike my husband, I do not know many individual players. However, I can easily watch a game and know which players belong to which team. How? They wear the same uniforms! As believers our thoughts and actions are our uniforms. Although we have different nationalities, cultural beliefs, and life experiences, our uniform is the image of Christ. People should look at our lives and see the glory of Christ, not the filthy rags of our former existence. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. Romans 6:5-7