A heart patient visited his cardiologist for his two-week follow-up appointment. He informed the doctor that he was having trouble with one of his medications. "Which one?" asked the doctor? "The patch," the man replied, "the nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours, and I've run out of places to put it!"

The doctor was flabbergasted. He had the patient quickly undress. The man had over fifty patches on his body! He didn't understand that each time he put on a new patch, he needed to remove the old one.

St. Paul in our lesson from the Epistle speaks of those who are alive to their sinful nature and those who are alive to God. And he makes it clear: we can live in one camp or the other, but we can't live in both. We must take off the old patch of worldliness before we can put on …