as obedient children, do not put on a mask according to the former strong desires in your ignorance (1 Peter 1:14).
As we gird up the loins of the workings of our mind—protecting our thoughts—with truth, we are to act as obedient children and no longer act according to the former desires.
When a person believes the gospel for salvation—christ died on behalf of our sin and was resurrected on the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:1–4—the Holy Spirit washes and regenerates him (Titus 3:5). This regeneration is a new birth from above, by which the believer becomes a legitimate child of God (1 John 3:2). This new birth happens within the human spirit, which is the rational center of the human nature (1 Corinthians 2:11; 6:17). Because the human spirit is now connected to God, the Christian has the ability to understand Spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:13). Thus, Christians are now able to use the renewed mind they possess in Christ to know what is God’s desirous will for them in any situation (Romans 12:2).
Since we now have all things pertaining to life and godliness, we can bring every conclusion of our mind into obedience to the Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). This enables us to cast down the logical strongholds that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God so that we are ready to punish disobedience in our own lives and fulfill obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:6). As those who are obedient to Christ, we will purify our souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit (1 Peter 1:22).
The obedient child stops yielding his members to unrighteousness because, in Christ, he is free from slavery to his sin nature and alive to God to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–6). Thus, he presents himself as a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:16).
An obedient child will put off the mask that seeks to make him fit in with unbelievers. He will put off the old man—who he was in Adam—and put on Christ (Ephesians 4:22–24). Therefore, lying, sealing, corrupt words, bitterness, wrath, inner burning anger, shouting, blasphemies, and all that is wrong will be put away from him (Ephesians 4:25–31). In contrast to these old mannerisms of life, he is to be kind, have good compassion, and be gracious toward himself and others (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13).
We are no longer to be those who are ignorant as the Gentiles are. In the past, God overlooked the ignorance of men, but now commands that all come to a change of mind (Acts 17:30). Those who are ignorant walk in the way of the Gentiles, in the futility of the mind, because their thoughts are darkened, and are alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:17–18).
Let us put off the former desires and put on the new man—who we are in the Christ—because we are now part of a new creation that was created according to God in righteousness and piety of the truth (Ephesians 4:20–24).
