What does the apostle mean when he says, “[you] have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:10)?

The answer

Putting on the new man, renewed in knowledge, is a sign of life, for there is no life in Christ without growth, and there is no growth without illumination by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the inner man can be formed in the image of his Creator and become a living icon of the Lord Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom.

St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “This is the word of the mystery whereby through the new birth from above our nature is transformed from the corruptible to the incorruptible, being renewed from the old man (2 Cor. 5:17), according to the image of Him who created at the beginning the likeness to the Godhead.”³⁵¹

St. Cyril of Alexandria says, “So then this rational creature upon earth, I mean man, was made from the beginning after the image of Him that created him (Col. 3:10), according to the Scriptures; and the meaning of image is various. For an image may be, not after one sort, but after many; howbeit the element of the likeness to God that made him, which is far the most manifest of all, was his incorruptibility and indestructibility [cf. 1 Cor. 15:54].”³⁵²

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty