What does it mean to be a man or woman who has put off the old man and has put on the new? In the midst of his commands, Paul is painting a picture of the new humanity, a new way of living, a people who no longer are enslaved to give themselves over in defeat to sinful practices which separate them from God and from one another. There is a way of looking at these commands that feels like a burden; but there is a way to hear these commands as though the Spirit were saying, “you are free from these old ways now.”