Many explanations of personal change start with the person: try harder, build better habits, learn more, think differently. Scripture starts somewhere else. It does not dismiss effort, habits, learning or thinking, but it places all of them inside a larger reality.
According to Scripture, real change happens as God works in His people by His Spirit and through His Word, and as they respond to that work: putting off what belonged to the old life, putting on what reflects Christ, and continuing in that response over time, alongside other believers. Each part of that sentence comes from the Bible, and each one matters.
God Works, and His People Work It Out
Paul brings both sides of change together in a single sentence:
“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12–13, NKJV
Notice the order. Paul is not telling believers to earn what God gives. He is telling them to work out — to live out in practice — what God is already working in. God’s work comes first and goes deeper: He works not only in what His people do, but in what they want. And because God is at work, their response is not wasted effort. It is participation in something He has begun.
That is the foundation Scripture lays for change. God transforms; His people participate. Lose the first half, and change becomes self-improvement with religious language. Lose the second, and it becomes a passive waiting that Scripture never describes.
The Shape of Change: Putting Off and Putting On
Paul describes what that participation looks like with an image of clothing:
“…you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”
Colossians 3:9–10, NKJV
Two things stand out. Paul speaks of the old self as already put off and the new self as already put on. In Christ, believers have a new identity before their behavior has fully caught up with it. And the new self “is renewed” — present and continuing — with a clear direction: the image of the One who created it. Change in Scripture is not becoming a better version of yourself on your own terms. It is being made more like Christ.
So Paul turns that identity into specific responses. In the same passage, he names things to set aside, such as anger, malice and lying, and things to clothe yourself with, such as compassion, kindness, humility, patience and forgiveness (Colossians 3:8–13). Believers are called to live from what is already true of them in Christ. The renewing of the mind Paul describes in Romans 12:2 happens here, as thinking is increasingly shaped by Christ rather than by the old life.
Why Knowing This Is Not the Same as Living It
I know this distinction from the inside. When God called me to write Renewing Your Mind, I did not simply begin. For about seven months I asked Him instead for the provision I believed I would need in order to do it. I was not consciously refusing. I had my own picture of what doing what He asked would require, and it looked quite different from what He was actually asking of me. Only later did I recognize that delayed obedience is still disobedience. The calling was clear; my response had not yet caught up with it.
Many sincere believers recognize the same thing in quieter ways. They know Scripture, believe it and want to live it, and still find that familiar ways of thinking and reacting continue long after they have learned something better. That is not because Scripture is insufficient or because the knowledge was wasted. It is because Scripture never describes change as something that happens the moment truth is understood. Putting off and putting on are continuing actions: old ways are set aside again and again, and new responses are practiced until they become familiar. Understanding truth is essential. Living from it takes intentional, repeated response.
Change Takes Time, and God Finishes What He Starts
Paul writes with confidence “that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, NKJV). That sentence holds two truths together. The work is real, and God will complete it. And it is not complete yet.
Biblical change is progressive. It includes growth that is hard to see from week to week, seasons of struggle, and old patterns that return before they loosen their hold. None of that means God has stopped working. Perseverance — continuing to respond when change feels slow — is part of how Scripture expects believers to grow, not a sign that something has failed.
Change Happens Together
Paul’s picture of growth in Colossians does not end with the individual:
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Colossians 3:16, NKJV
The word of Christ is to live in believers richly, and it does so as they teach and encourage one another. Scripture and community work together. Other believers help us see what we cannot see in ourselves, bring us back to the truth, and walk with us when growth is slow. Sanctification is personal, but it was never designed to happen in isolation.
Where This Leaves You
Put together, Scripture’s account of change looks like this: God works in His people by His Spirit and His Word; they respond by putting off the old and putting on what reflects Christ; that response continues over time; and it happens alongside other believers. A method does not transform anyone. God does.
When I did begin to study and write, this is what I found. The principles were not new, and they were not mine; they were already there. What the work of studying and writing showed me was how those truths connect, and how they could be organized to help believers move from understanding to intentional response. The Process explains how Renewing Your Mind Discipleship Ministry organizes that kind of intentional, repeated engagement with what Scripture teaches.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
