Your hearts and minds translates what is literally “(in) the spirit of your mind” (compare Revised Standard Version); New English Bible has “in mind and spirit”; Translator’s New Testament “You must be spiritually renewed”; Barclay “a completely new attitude of mind”; Phillips “mentally and spiritually remade”; Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “the spiritual transformation of your mind.” It seems clear that intellectual and spiritual reformation is meant. See a similar thought in Romans 12.2.

From the phrase your hearts and minds one might assume that this is a reference to desire and thinking, and one could transform your hearts and minds into a phrase using verbs, “how you desire and how you think.” But since the Greek text uses a term meaning “spirit,” something other than mere desire seems to be in focus. It may therefore be more appropriate in some languages to speak of “your spirit and mind.” In some languages the equivalent of “spirit” may be “that which is within” or “our shadow which stands within us.” Or else a language may have a word or an expression that refers to the part of a person that relates to God, such as “Your way of thinking and your way of worshiping (or, serving) God must be completely new.”

The Greek verb translated be made completely new occurs only here in the New Testament (a synonymous verb is used in the parallel Col 3.10). The verb should be taken as a passive: “be renewed.” There may be some complication in speaking of “being made completely new,” since this might imply complete replacement. Sometimes the equivalent of the Greek expression may be “be made over again” or “be made to be completely different.” The focus is upon the transformation of the spirit and mind, and not a replacement or substitution.

In verse 24, and you must put on the new self is the opposite of get rid of your old self in verse 22 (see Col 3.10). It is to be noticed that the two verbs get rid of and put on are both in the aorist, indicating one decisive action; the verb “renew” in verse 23 is in the present tense, indicating a continuous process. Get rid of and put on probably reflect the rite of baptism, at which a person took off his or her old clothes before baptism and put on new, clean clothes after.

It may be impossible to reproduce the figurative expression you must put on the new self, since the combination of self with the concept of “putting on clothes” is simply unthinkable. One may possibly approximate this meaning by translating “you must become a completely new person as when you take off old clothes and put on new clothes” or “… take off old clothes and put on clean clothes.” If the figurative language is difficult or impossible to retain, a translation may say simply “You must become like a new person.”

The new self is created in God’s likeness (literally “the one created according to God”); it seems quite probable that the idea here is the same as in Colossians 3.10, “according to the image of the one who created it.” For the verb “create” see 2.10, 15.

It may be necessary to render the clause which is created in God’s likeness as active rather than passive, and this may be done by translating “which God has created to be like himself.”

In Greek the rest of the verse is a compound prepositional phrase “in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Barth takes it to modify the participle created: “in true righteousness and piety.” These are then understood as qualities of the created new self, not of the Creator (as his syntax requires). So the sense could be expressed by “created to be truly righteous and holy.” But there are many other ways in which this phrase has been translated: Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “and that reveals itself in a life that is truly righteous and pure”; Translator’s New Testament “and shown in the righteousness and holiness that comes from the truth”; similarly Barclay “and which shows itself in that justice and holiness, which are the products of the truth”; Bible en français courant “and that manifests itself in the righteous and holy life inspired by the truth.”

It seems better to take “the truth” as the source or origin of “righteousness and holiness,” as Translator’s New Testament, Barclay, Bible en français courant have done.

The Greek noun translated “righteousness” occurs often in Paul’s letters, usually in the sense of God putting people in the right relationship with himself; the noun “holiness” occurs only here and in Luke 1.75. Here “righteousness” has in view social conduct (relation with others), and “holiness” has in view religious conduct (relation with God).

The statement reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy would seem to be relatively simple, and yet it is unusually complex. In the first place, it may be difficult to speak of “life being true,” and in many languages reveals itself must be restructured as “all people can see.” There is an additional difficulty involved in the abstract terms upright and holy. In view of these difficulties it may be necessary to restructure reveals itself in the true life as “lives in such a way that all may see that this life is true” or “causes everyone to see that you are living according to God’s truth” or “… according to the true words that come from God.”

The final clause that is upright and holy must be effectively related to life, and it may be necessary to introduce some kind of explanation of the relationship to serve as a type of transition, for example, “that means that you must live right in relation to others and must be dedicated to God” or “… live right before God.” Or else holy may be represented by a verbal phrase like “as God requires” or “that pleases God.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .