Paul continues the call to walk worthy of our calling by drawing a sharp contrast between the former way of life and the new reality in Christ. The Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God through the hardness of their heart, and given over to sensuality and every kind of impurity with greediness. But those who have learned Christ did not learn Him in this way. Having heard Him and been taught in Him, they are to lay aside the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of deceit, be renewed in the spirit of their mind, and put on the new man, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

The passage then unfolds the practical outworking of this new identity: speaking truth, handling anger without sin, working so that one may share with those in need, using words that build up and give grace, refusing to grieve the Holy Spirit, and replacing bitterness, wrath, and malice with kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness just as God in Christ has forgiven us.