Of Putting Off and Putting On

In order to highlight the point of this essay, I must return to some previous writings to lay a foundation. John the Revelator records in part of his the vision he received that there was a one point a great noise in heaven. A great host is shouting praise to God with these words,

"Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
Rev 19:6-8 NIV

It has been and continually needing to be stressed that this bride made her ready. She prepared herself for her wedding. For more on this, please read “A Prepared Bride”.

Below is a list of verses containing the words “put off” or a similar translation all of the same Greek word - apotithemi, "to put off, lay aside," denotes, in the middle voice, "to put off from oneself, cast off."*

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness Rom 13:12 NIV

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; Eph 4:21-24 NIV

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Eph 4:25-26 NIV

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Col 3:7-8 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Heb 12:1 NIV

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. James 1:21 NIV

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 1 Peter 2:1-2 NIV

The action here in the Greek is the middle voice or reflexive which simply means that in each of the verses above, we are to do these actions ourselves. Just as we dress ourselves when we are changing clothes after working hard so we put of these works of our flesh. We “pit off” the dirty smelly clothes before we shower. We are to put off the deeds of darkness, the old self and falsehood. We are to rid ourselves of anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language. We are to get rid of moral filth and deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil.

These are things that we must do, decisions that we must make, choices that are ours. The Holy Spirit is not going to make us. There is no prayer that will mystically cause these things to fall off. Nor is there any ritual of exorcism that can cast these things out of us.

We choose not to speak falsely or slander. We decide not to have sex before marriage or with another’s spouse. We hold our tongue rather than say something we would regret.

But it is more than just putting off. We must also “put on”. Let’s look at some of the above verses in context as well as a few others.

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Rom 13:12-13 NIV

Put off darkness but put on light. You cannot create darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Therefore if you put on light, you automatically put off darkness.

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; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Eph 4:22-24 NIV

Again, we decide to not give in to our own desires while at the same time we choose to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This is a choice!

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
Eph 6:11 NIV

Just as a soldier would vest himself with the armaments of battle, we are to put on, dress ourselves in the vestments of spiritual war.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Gal 3:27 NKJV

When we are water baptized, we put on Christ. We are clothes, covered in Christ so that the Father no longer sees our sinful old self but He chooses to only see us as He looks through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.

It is time to make some choices – to put the old and put on the new! You decide!

*(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers