Many people deal with habits or addictions that they can’t seem to shake. This is often a source of frustration for Christians who know that they should be living at a different level. For those who find themselves there, the Bible does offer a strategy, but that strategy begins with a particular set of commands. Unfortunately, a lot of believers are not aware of these commands, and if we are, we’re not sure what to do with them.
A Division of Tasks
As I study Scripture, I notice a clear distinction between what God promises to do and what He commands us to do. God has assigned responsibilities to His people, and we cannot neglect those responsibilities while expecting Him to do everything for us.
I have heard people say, “You don’t need to do anything; God has already done everything for you.” My response is simple: If that is true, why are there so many imperatives in the New Testament?
God certainly works within us, giving us both the desire and the ability to obey Him (Philippians 2:12–13). While His work in us makes our obedience possible, that does not absolve us of our responsibility to act.
This brings us to a particular set of commands that many believers have overlooked. The Bible describes sanctification as God’s work of making His people holy. It is His will for us (1 Thessalonians 4:3), but we are not passive spectators in the process. We have an essential role to play.
This is what I call responsible discipleship: actively obeying the commands God has given us, while relying on His power to accomplish what we cannot accomplish on our own.
A Specific Type of Command
The commands I have in mind involve putting off certain vices and putting on corresponding virtues. Paul frequently uses the imagery of removing one garment and putting on another.
For example, Ephesians 4:31 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” Similarly, Hebrews 12:1 instructs us to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.”
Notice what these passages require. We are not merely told to regret our sins or ask God to remove them. We are commanded to take action.
Now consider the corresponding commands to put something on:
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Romans 13:14).
“Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
These commands call for deliberate obedience. The garment imagery is particularly instructive. We do not merely hope that an old garment will somehow disappear. We take it off and deliberately put on something different.
There are moments when we must decisively reject our old patterns and embrace new ones.
Consider Paul’s instructions concerning the armor of God. We often hear that Christians must put on the full armor every day. But Scripture never commands this.
In Ephesians 6:11–14, Paul commands believers to put on the armor to stand against the devil’s schemes and resist “in the evil day.” His emphasis is on being equipped and standing firm when we come under attack, not on a daily ritual of putting the armor on again.
Certainly, reminding ourselves of God’s provision each morning can be beneficial. But we must not turn a helpful practice into a biblical command.
The central lesson is clear: God has given us commands that require intentional, decisive obedience. We must actually do what He tells us to do.
Our Present Condition
The need for decisive obedience becomes painfully clear when we consider the struggles of believers who genuinely want to honor God. Barna Research reveals that 54% of practicing Christians acknowledge viewing pornography, with 22% doing so weekly or daily.
But the problem extends far beyond our screens. An analysis of the General Social Survey found that 13% of Christians who attend church weekly and have been married reported having been sexually unfaithful during marriage.
And the problem is not limited to sexual sin. According to the American Bible Society’s 2026 research, 24% of practicing Christians acknowledge continuing to think badly of people who have mistreated them. Even among committed believers, resentment can be difficult to release. We are struggling with sexual temptation, marital unfaithfulness, bitterness, and unforgiveness. And these are only a few examples!
But here is something particularly revealing. Lifeway Research found that 80% of Protestant churchgoers say they readily confess their sins to God when convicted.
Think about that. Overall, we are not indifferent to sin. We recognize it. We confess it. We want to change. Yet many of us continue struggling with the same patterns year after year.
Could it be that the problem is not simply that we don’t want to obey God, but that we don’t fully understand how to obey Him?
Perhaps we have been asking Him to remove what He has commanded us to put away.
Fleshing This Command Out
So, what does obedience to these commands actually look like?
In Ephesians 4:22–24, Paul instructs believers to “put off your old self” and “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” I suggest setting aside a specific time to act on these commands. You might begin by praying:
“In the name of Jesus, I put off the works of the flesh. I renounce the sinful patterns that have held me captive. I am done making provision for them.”
Get specific. Name the anger, bitterness, lust, dishonesty, or jealousy you are putting away.
But here is something we dare not overlook: Putting off is only half the command!
We confess our sins, renounce them, and ask God to remove them. But what about what He has commanded us to put on? Perhaps we have struggled to experience consistent victory because we have focused on rejecting the negative without embracing the positive!
So don’t stop with putting off. Continue:
“In the name of Jesus, I put on the Lord Jesus Christ. I put on the new self. In place of anger, I put on patience. In place of bitterness, forgiveness. In place of lust, purity and self-control.”
We are deliberately replacing vices with corresponding virtues, not merely abandoning old habits. These are not magic words, nor does Scripture prescribe a particular formula. They simply express a decisive act of obedience.
We are doing what God has commanded us to do—all of it.
But remember, this is not merely an exercise in willpower. As Paul explains in Romans 8:13, we put sinful practices to death by the Spirit. Our responsibility is to obey; His power enables our obedience.
Handling Setbacks
Here is where many of us get stuck. We genuinely want to obey God. We confess our sins, renounce them, and resolve to do better. But when temptation returns, we find ourselves fighting the same battles all over again.
What are we missing? Perhaps it isn’t a lack of sincerity or determination. Perhaps we simply haven’t understood what God commands us to do when temptation returns. Suppose we have deliberately put off anger and put on patience. But tomorrow someone provokes us, and that familiar anger begins to rise. Was our earlier obedience for nothing? Must we start all over again? No! There is another crucial part of the biblical strategy.
Paul commands us in Romans 6:11: “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The word translated consider is an accounting term. Accountants are accustomed to placing figures in distinct categories—assets in one column, liabilities in another. Paul is exhorting us to do something similar: Put sin in the “dead” column and our new life in Christ in the “alive” column. This is how we are to reckon our identity in Christ.
But here is something crucial: In the Greek, Paul uses a present imperative, calling us to “consider” this truth continually!
Notice the distinction. Putting off the old and putting on the new involve decisive acts of obedience. But considering ourselves dead to sin is not something we do merely on one significant occasion. It is something we must keep doing.
Why? Because temptation keeps returning!
When anger rises again, we don’t need to assume that our earlier obedience was meaningless or that we must start the entire process over. Instead, we remind ourselves:
“I am dead to that. I have put it off. That is no longer who I am. I belong to Christ, and I have put on the new self.”
Here is the strategy:
We decisively put off the old and put on the new.
When temptation returns, we continually reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.
We are not trying to create a new identity each time temptation strikes. We are rehearsing the identity Christ has already given us.
Rehearsing our identity is key to standing firm.
Reaching Out
What if, after putting these principles into practice, we still struggle? Don’t give up! Reach out to a trusted fellow believer and ask them to stand with you in prayer.
But let’s be specific about what we’re asking. Rather than simply saying, “Pray for me,” we might say, “Pray that I will remember who I am in Christ and stand firm.” That is victory: Instead of repeatedly falling to temptation, we are standing firm!
There is another dimension to this that we dare not overlook. In Colossians 3, after commanding believers to put away sinful practices and put on godly virtues, Paul instructs them to teach and admonish one another (v. 16). Evidently, God intends for believers to help one another grow in holiness. Sometimes we need someone who will encourage us, remind us of biblical truth, or lovingly confront us when we begin drifting back into old patterns.
We see another aspect of community life where James exhorts believers to confess their sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16). Viewing these passages together, it appears that teaching and admonishing, combined with confession and prayer in response, can provide powerful support in overcoming habitual sin. In many cases, victories that have long eluded us may become attainable when biblical community functions as designed.
That is God’s ultimate goal for us—to make us holy, together!
The Consequence
Consider what could happen if more believers began practicing this biblical strategy. How many longstanding struggles might finally begin to lose their grip? Without a doubt, counseling, medication, and support groups all have their place. We cannot assume that seeking these means of help indicates spiritual failure. However, we cannot neglect the commands we have been given for our own benefit.
When we act on what God has directed us to do, we will likely discover that some of the victories we have long sought begin with an act of obedience we have long overlooked, or have never fully understood.
A Final Exhortation
If these principles are new to you, I encourage you to revisit this article until they become familiar. But don’t stop with understanding them. Put them into practice!
Identify the sinful patterns you need to put away. Deliberately put on the corresponding virtues. Then, whenever temptation returns, remind yourself of who you are in Christ and stand firm.
Remember, even though we have emphasized what we are to do in this article, we are not attempting this in our own strength. The Holy Spirit empowers us to do what God commands.
And imagine the consequences! Lives transformed. Relationships restored. Believers finally experiencing victories that have eluded them for years.
And that is priceless.
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Amen and thank you for sharing this profound message.
One thing I’m especially curious about: Have you ever noticed the difference between the commands that call us to decisively “put off” and “put on,” and the ongoing command to consider ourselves dead to sin? What do you make of that distinction?