Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
And that ye put on the new man - The new man refers to the renovated nature. This is called in other places, the "new creature, or the new creation" (see the notes on II Corinthians 5:17), and refers to the condition after the heart is changed. The change is so great, that there is no impropriety in speaking of one who has experienced it as "a new man." He has new feelings, principles, and desires. He has laid aside his old principles and practices, and, in everything that pertains to moral character, he is new. His body is indeed the same; the intellectual structure of his mind the same; but there has been a change in his principles and feelings which malco him, in all the great purposes of life, a new being. Learn, that regeneration is not a trifling change. It is not a mere change of relations, or of the outward condition. It is not merely being brought from the world into the church, and being baptized, though by the most holy hands; it is much more. None of these things would make proper the declaration, "he is a new man." Regeneration by the Spirit of God does.
After God - ̀ ̀ kata Theon . In respect to God. The idea is, evidently, that man is so renewed as to become "like" God, or the divine image is restored to the soul. In the parallel passage in Colossians Colossians 3:9, the idea is expressed more fully, "renewed in knowledge after "the image" of him that created him." Man, by regeneration, is restored to the lost image of God; compare Genesis 1:26.
Is created - A word that is often used to denote the new birth, from its strong resemblance to the first act of creation; see it explained in the notes on II Corinthians 5:17.
In righteousness - That is, the renewed man is made to resemble God in righteousness. This proves that man, when he was made, was righteous; or that righteousness constituted a part of the image of God in which lie was created. The object of the work of redemption is to restore to man the lost image of God, or to bring him back to the condition in which he was before he fell.
And true holiness - Margin, as in Greek, "holinese of truth" - standing in contrast with "lusts of deceit" (Greek), in Ephesians 4:22. "Holiness" properly refers to purity toward God, and "righteousness" to integrity toward people; but it is not cerrain that this distinction is observed here. The general idea is, that the renovated man is made an upright and a pious man; and that, therefore, he should avoid the vices which are practiced by the pagan, and which the apostle proceeds to specify. This phrase also proves that, when man was created, he was a holy being.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Ephesians 4:24:
Zephaniah 1:8
Romans 7:22
Romans 8:19
Romans 12:2
Romans 14:17
1 Corinthians 1:30
2 Corinthians 5:17
Colossians 3:10
Colossians 3:10
Titus 3:5
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