The Old Way Has to Go

¹⁷And so I insist--and God backs me up on this--that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. ¹⁸They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. ¹⁹They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

²⁰But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! ²¹My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. ²²Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything--and I do mean everything--connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life--a God-fashioned life, ²³a life renewed from the inside ²⁴and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

²⁵What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

Ephesians 4:17-25