StudyGrowKnow

Putting Off and Putting On

May 7, 2026 at 2:27 PM Leave a comment

Jay Adams asks in his book, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, when is a thief not a thief? Most people would answer, “When the thief stops stealing.” 

We think that’s the obvious and correct answer, but it really isn’t. Adams goes onto explain that just because the thief is not at that particular moment stealing does not mean he/she has given up theft for a living. In a moment of need or laziness, that thief could easily fall back into that pattern of life and once again become active in theft.

The only correct answer to the question posed by Adams is that the thief stops being a thief when he/she gets a job, earns money and starts buying the things needed to live. This is an important distinction to make.

In reality, the habit of stealing must be replaced with something else, usually the opposite until a new habit is formed and lived out. This truth is something that more Christians need to understand and observe or we are destined to live in failure instead of victory.

The Bible is filled with what are known as “put offs” and “put ons” in order to help believers understand that imitating Jesus and living a life that is pleasing to Him is done by creating new habits that replace the old patterns of our sinful flesh. There’s actually a very long list in Scripture of these put offs and put ons, but let’s take a few moments to look at just a few of them.

By way of example, what if you’re a person who has always used off color language or swear words and as a Christian, you want to move away from that? You have several choices. You can try to stop yourself from using filthy language by sheer willpower, you can pray about it or you can pray about it, while attempting to put in place a practice that is the opposite of filthy language, creating a new habit to replace the old one. The new habit would be using language that edify others.

I notice how many people claim to be Christians on social media websites and yet use some of the most atrociously bad language as a norm. In that way, they are no different from unbelievers. I’m not saying that because they do, they aren’t really Christians. What I am saying is that their love for holiness and God Himself is clearly not what it should be. They place value in using the “F” bomb to describe the things in society they find appalling as opposed to using language that explains the same thing but in an edifying way. It can be done because Jesus and the apostles did it. Unfortunately, in our culture and world today, so many things have been jettisoned and replaced with appallingly sinful practices, but accepted as “normal.”

Well how would this process within the believer look as he/she is facing a decision to to use foul language? Usually, the person is already well practiced in using foul language so that they don’t even really think about it anymore. It just comes out especially if they feel charged up about something. Before they know it, they’ve let out a long litany of swear words to describe the way they feel about something.

So for that believer, what should/can they do to change their behavior? By way of example, let’s consider Ephesians 4:29 say?

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

There, Paul lays it out very clearly. No corrupt words should come out of our mouths. Instead, believers should speak only words that edify others because in doing so, grace is imparted to those listening (or reading, as on social media). So how does a believer go about changing the unhealthy and sinful pattern of using filthy language? It involves replacing the bad habit with a completely new one. I would suggest the following steps to this change.

First, memorize Ephesians 4:29 until you don’t even have to consciously think about saying it. You arrive to a point where you can say it in your sleep. Do you not believe that storing this Scripture in your heart will allow the Holy Spirit to use it to convict/encourage you the next time you are tempted to use foul language? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that it is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12)? What this actually means is that the Bible is “effective, powerful, producing or capable of producing an intended result.“[1]

In other words, God’s Word gets the job done in changing us. While it may take a bit for the believer to start seeing a new habit replacing an old bad habit, God will do the work in us if we will simply cooperate with Him.

The second step might be in repeating this verse to yourself often throughout the day. Contemplating the ramifications of this verse and coming to the point of wanting to fulfill it in our lives. The more we do that, the sooner a new habit will come into existence replacing the old one that does nothing but bring dishonor to God and causes us to lose ground in our relationship with Him.

Third, prayer is involved her as well. We learn His Words, repeat them to ourselves often and ask in prayer for Him to work in and through us to create a new pattern where we do not use foul language but only language that edifies those who hear us speaking. It will likely take time for this new pattern to solidly emerge, but if we do our part, God will do His and the new pattern will emerge. Memorize, pray, expect.

Let’s look at another example. What about those who have an unhealthy interest in pornography? This could affect both men and women, but mainly affects men. This often “secret” sin is something that is easier to keep secret these day since the Internet came into existence. But what do you do if you are a person who succumbs to the temptation to view pornographic material, but as a Christian you want to leave it behind?

First, you have to admit that doing so is morally wrong. That’s clearly not God’s best for us. If I lust after my wife, that’s one thing because I am married to her. If I lust after other women that is wrong and sinful. The person involved in viewing pornographic material must come to a place of realizing that doing so is outside of God’s will for us.

After concluding that viewing pornography is not what God wants for us, the process of moving away from it is the same as the process for replacing foul language with words that edify. What does the Bible say about pornography, anything?

I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. (Psalm 101:3)

Another verse states it this way.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor…(1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, ESV)

Can we agree that “sexual immorality” in the above text would include pornography? It has to because viewing nude images of other human beings (either on the printed page or in movies), is a form of sexual immorality simply because it gives rise to lust. King David’s lust for Bathsheba created a huge problem (2 Samuel 11). He was looking at a nude Bathsheba that directly impacted the way he viewed things and resulted in numerous sinful failures.

Again, memorizing passages like the ones above help to create a foundation that helps build a new habit to replace the old habit of enjoying porn. Depending on how deeply rooted the pornography habit is within a person and how badly they want to leave it behind depends on how quickly that old habit can be overcome and replaced with the new one.

Once a passage of Scripture is memorized, it can be used in prayer to God asking Him to help replace the old bad habit with a new one, one that honors Him in obedience. Doing so helps the believer turn his/her back on that old habit and replace it with the new pattern. In this case, the person moves onto abstaining from looking at and enjoying pornography because the goal of holiness is more sought after.

This is walking in the Spirit, which Paul highlights in Galatians 5:16.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Paul is talking about our action here. As we look to and depend on God (through His Word), He will provide the strength and ability to walk by the power of the Holy Spirit and will nullify the desires within us that want us to seek out pornography. This turns our backs on sin and to God.

Philippians 4:8 sums up this reality.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Here, Paul tells us that if we occupy our minds with things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise, we go a long way in creating new habits for our minds. If we stop to consider it, viewing and enjoying pornography fills our minds with things that cause us to sin and we know that sin brings about death (or broken fellowship with God; James 1:15). While we do not lose our salvation, we have disengaged from fellowship with the Creator of the Universe. Our focus has become directed onto the prurient things that God wants us to avoid. Replacing those thoughts with Scripture, the many blessings we have in life from God’s own hand and a desire to live in a way that brings glory and honor to Him, is the only way that I’m aware of in creating new habits to replace bad old ones.

What I’ve been noticing about “put off/put on” is that you cannot have one without the other. You cannot simply put off a bad habit and think you’ll be fine anymore than a thief is no longer a thief if he/she is not stealing. The put off/put on go hand in hand. You leave one behind by actively replacing it with something else. If you simply try to leave one bad habit without replacing it with something else, you will quickly find your way back to that old habit because that is what you know, what you are used to and how you have lived.

I believe it is the put off/put on principle that truly transforms the life of the Christian. While many choose not to put in the effort to create new habits and patterns (and some want to but aren’t clear on how), it is incumbent upon us to understand that this is absolutely part of our sanctification process. We must take it seriously and while we do not do this to “earn” our salvation (since salvation cannot be earned, but it is a completely free gift), this process is a must in order to grow in Christ our Redeemer.

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/Word-of-God-living-and-active.html

Entry filed under: christianity, Cultural Marxism, Emotional virtue, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, sanctification. Tags: put on put off.