<p>4:22 <i>Those things belonged to your former manner of life, which was corrupt through deceitful desires</i>- We must &quot;put off the old man&quot; (Eph. 4:22 AV); and yet &quot;you have (already) put off the old man&quot; (Col. 3:9), it was crucified with Christ at baptism (Rom. 6:6). Have we, or haven't we? In God's eyes we have, in that the new man has been created, and the old man died in the waters of baptism. But of course we are still in the flesh; and the old man must yet be put off. What happened at our baptism must be an ongoing process; of laying the old man to rest in death, and rising again in the newness of life. The Gospel 'instructs us to the intent that, having once and for all put away ungodliness (i.e. in baptism) and worldly lusts, we should live in a holy manner' (Tit. 2:12 Gk.). Having put these things off in baptism, we must live a life of putting them off. We are to live in practice what we are counted to be by status in Christ.</p><p>Our lusts are deceitful (Eph. 4:22), and so the Devil or &lsquo;deceiver&rsquo; is an appropriate way of describing them. They are personified, and as such they can be spoken of as &lsquo;the Devil&rsquo; &ndash; our enemy, a slanderer of the truth. This is what our natural &lsquo;man&rsquo; is like &ndash; the &lsquo;very Devil&rsquo;.</p>