One of the typical New Year’s themes is “out with the old and in with the new.” It’s been interesting to see all the stuff that people have been trying to get rid of on Facebook over the last couple of weeks, trying to make room for their new stuff.

But what about you? Is there some old you that needs to be tossed out so that the new you might shine forth? Listen to what God says in Ephesians 4:20–24, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

What is that old self that you and I are to take off? Well, it’s any part of you that is given to sin. Any part of you that is corrupt through sinful desires. That’s what has to be taken off, like that old, faded, dirty, nasty, shrunk up, stained up, ripped up shirt. Throw it out! It’s no longer befitting of you. Those sinful things if you are in Christ should no longer characterize you. Put it off.

But in its place, put on the new self, the self that is adorned in true righteousness and holiness. The self that loves God and pursues God. The self that thinks how God thinks, loves what God loves, and hates what God hates. Like that new shirt or outfit you got for Christmas that makes you look so good, put it on. Beloved, out with the old and in with the new!

Change begins in you!