7, 14, “I am carnal,” “In me there dwelleth no good thing,” v. 18; or, “law in the members,” v. 23; or “the flesh” as opposed to the spirit, as in Gal. 5, 16. 17. This evil principle or nature is called old because it precedes what is new, and because it is corrupt. And it is called ‘‘ man,” because it is ourselves. We are to be changed—and not merely our acts. We are to crucify ourselves. This original principle of evil is not destroyed in regeneration, but is to be daily mortified, in the conflicts of a whole life.
The connection, as intimated above, is with the former clause of v. 21, ἐδιδάχθητε---ἀποθέσθαι ὑμᾶς. When the subject of the infinitive in such construction is the same with that of the governing verb, it is usually not expressed. The presence of ὑμᾶς therefore in the text is urged as a fatal objection to this construc- tion. <A reference, however, to Luke 20, 20, Rom. 2, 19, Phil. 3, 13, will show that this rule has its excep- tions.
The intervening clause, κατὰ τὴν προτέραν ava- στροφήν, concerning the former conversation, belongs to the verb and not to the following noun. The meaning is not, ‘the old man as to the former conversation,’ (which would require tov κατὰ τὴν προτ. KTr.); but, ‘put away as concerns the former conversation the old man.’ It is not the old nature as to its former mani- festations only that is to be put away, but the old prin- ciple entirely. And as that was formerly dominant, the apostle says, as to your former manner of life, put off the old man.