Throughout Scripture, we see that God is very invested in our growth in godliness. Passage after passage talks about how to live as followers of Christ. Because we are sinners, that instruction includes a lot of emphasis on our need to change – change our behaviors, words, thoughts, and ultimately our mindsets.

If you are a Christian, you should be deeply interested in learning how we can have lasting change in our lives – not so we can just look better or behave better, but because how we live is a demonstration of what we believe about God and his kindness to us in the gospel.

When we approach a text like this one, with commands to do this and don’t do that, it can be easy to fall into a works-based mindset. Just to try harder.

However, the gospel gives us a different paradigm. We are changed, therefore we can change. This passage walks us through who we are in Christ, and then it outlines how this identity informs and empowers our ability to put off those things that are un-Christlike and put on the behaviors and mindsets that reflect Christ.