The Old Man and the New Man

Colossians 3:9-11

We have in Colossians 3:1-17 a treasure house of practical instruction for Christian living. We will look at verses 9 through11 today. Before we do so, let's review verses 4 through 8:

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth."

In the previous verses, God tells his children to "mortify" (kill) and to "put off" (dispose of) sins which are in opposition to the life that they have in Christ. In the following verse he adds one more sin and introduces a new term: "old man":

9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

It seems significant that God has set the sin of lying in a sentence by itself rather than including it with the sins in the previous sentence. Perhaps the following sheds light on why God has done so:

I know a man who is a habitual liar. It seems as if his conscience is no longer capable of warning him of this sin. Perhaps the following verses explain this:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"

I Timothy 4:1-2