Kill the Dead

One of Paul’s favorite metaphors for growing as a Christian pictures change like clothing: putting off the rags of our old life and putting on the robes of our new life in Christ. Verses 1-11 focus on putting off, which involves situating ourselves in God’s past-present-and-future story, agreeing on death’s address (that is, why we should put off certain behaviors and dispositions), and killing the dead: whatever belongs to our old way of life.