Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

— 1 Peter 3:3, 4

Peter is trying to take the focus of the Christians off the natural and onto the real person–-the spirit!  He is not saying that it is wrong to style your hair, or wear make-up, or have gold jewelry or nice clothes – he is saying do not make them your priority.  Concentrate on the real you–-the hidden man of the heart.  Build him up, make him strong, adorn yourself with righteousness and holiness and a meek and quiet spirit.  There is not enough make-up in the world to cover up a weak and confused spirit.  Spend your time putting on the new you, the powerful you, the Christ-like you.  In the sight of God, this is of great price!  Natural things like gold and make-up and good clothing come with a great price.  We men and women alike spend a lot of time and money to look our best.  To look good spiritually will also cost you something:  time.  Time in prayer, time in the Word, time in the presence of God, time to put on the new you.  Gold is corruptible and will pass away!  Makeup is corruptible and will wash away.  Even the clothes we are so proud of today will be out-of-date soon.  But the real you-–the hidden man of the heart-–can be clothed daily, can be renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).  Spend some time putting on, and being transformed by, the Word.

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,

— Romans 13:14a

Here, in this verse, is a summary of your spiritual wardrobe.  In a nutshell, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ.  In the natural, the only thing you can choose to wear and put on is what you have in your closet and dresser.  You cannot wear what is not available to you, what you do not have in your possession.  In the Spirit, your wardrobe is limitless.  It is the nature and traits of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Put on the new man, put on the Lord, put on the Spirit, put on the Word.  You can clothe yourself with the new man, with the Lord, with the Spirit, and with the Word.  The devil is always trying to dress you.  He tells you your faults instead of the promises, your inabilities rather than Christ’s abilities.  He desires to clothe you with sin, guilt, and condemnation.  He whispers to you of your weaknesses and continually tries to get you to wear the old you.  He tells you that’s who you are-–unworthy, just a failure, you will never make it.  You have to recognize that these are not part of your new wardrobe!  You must cast off the works of darkness (v. 12) or, as one translation puts it, “fling off the dirty clothes.”  They are not part of you, they are no longer in style, they are stained and torn.  It is your choice what you wear each day, physically and spiritually.  No one would knowingly wear two different colors of shoes or an outfit that does not match.  People would say “What’s wrong with you?  Got dressed in the dark?”  You must also wear in the Spirit what matches the Lord Jesus Christ!  Do not stay in a half-sinner and half-righteous mind-set!  Put on the righteous man and fling away the sinner once and for all.  Start to clean out your spiritual closet today!

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

— Galatians 3:27

The day you received Jesus as Lord and Savior, you were given the ability to put on Christ.  Christ in you, the hope of glory, can be allowed to shine through you to a place where you are hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).  People will be able to see what (and who) you are wearing and will be interested in where you got it!  “Are those new shoes?  Where did you buy them?”  “You are always in peace and always joyful-–why are you that way?”  You can then tell them, “It’s because I have learned to put on Christ!  I received Him at the new birth and now I am wearing Him.”  You no longer should identify with your heritage–-Greek, Jewish, Italian, Irish–-and no longer identify with your sex-–male or female (Galatians 3:28)–-but you are now Christ’s, Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29)!  The real you has been transformed after God into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  You have become one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).  The more you identify with His nature in you, His power in you, His knowledge in you, His wisdom in you, Him in you, the more you will put on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Soon the storms will listen to you.  The waves will stop roaring and the winds will stop blowing.  Demons will respond to you as they responded to Christ, and sickness and disease will go.  You have now “put on Christ”!  You have put on the new man.  You are now obeying the Word.  The Word has called you righteous, holy, redeemed, healed, blessed, filled, and victorious.  You are choosing to be that way, to talk that way, to think that way.  You have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is being seen in you.

...put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

— Colossians 3:8, 9

The Bible tells us to put off once and for all the old man we used to be.  Consider him dead and gone, crucified with Christ.  Then we are not only to put him off, but his deeds also.  Notice the list of his deeds:  anger, wrath, bad talk, lying–-all are deeds or actions of the old man, the dead man.  Anger is not part of you.  Lying is not part of you; filthy communication is not who you are.  These things are now foreign to you.  You are the new man, the righteous man, the holy man.  No longer identify or associate in your thought-life with the sins of the old sinner.  How do you do this?  By seeing!  See your old man dying on the cross.  See him dead and buried!  See yourself a new creation, a spiritual creation, free from sin, free from anger, free from sickness and disease and the curse.  See yourself made alive with Christ.  See yourself raised and seated in heavenly places.  No longer see yourself as you were; do not associate with the old life in thought or speech.  Cast down thoughts and replace them with your new identity in Christ.  What you “see” is what you’ll have!