God has provided six foundational traits of His own character for believers to put on in their dealings with one another. Holiness forms the base, requiring moral purity and loyal devotion that sets one apart from surrounding ungodliness. Faithfulness demands unwavering loyalty to God, reliability toward others, and steadfast adherence to commitments. Patience calls for endurance and forbearance, allowing time for growth and overcoming in fellow believers despite human limitations. Sacrifice embodies the essence of godly love by expending time and energy to meet others' needs. Goodness requires discerning and performing what is intrinsically beneficial, even when the action appears severe, so that the outcome ultimately blesses. Forethought involves considering consequences and outcomes in advance, guided by experience and alignment with God's purpose, to avoid unintended harm. These traits are presented as essential models that connect directly to the earlier exhortation to walk as children of light. By putting them on, believers prove through practice what is acceptable to the Lord, moving beyond rote obedience to wise application of God's standards in situations without explicit commands. The process of living these characteristics produces the fruit of goodness, righteousness, and truth, yielding a growing record of conviction that God's way is superior. This exercise in sanctification enables believers to understand the will of the Lord, because His will is inseparable from His character. As the traits are internalized, decisions align with divine purpose, and the indwelling presence of the Father and the Son supplies whatever additional help is needed to meet every circumstance.

The apostle Paul urges believers to put on the armor of light and the Lord Jesus Christ so that they walk properly and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. This instruction follows his call to cast off the works of darkness because salvation is nearer than when first believed. Throughout his letters Paul expands the same metaphor by directing the putting off of the old man with its deeds of fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and lying. In their place he commands the putting on of the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. The specific qualities to be put on include tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, and forgiveness modeled after Christ's own forgiveness. Above all these the believer must put on love, which binds everything together in perfection. Such putting on is presented as the direct result of having been raised with Christ in baptism and therefore setting the mind on things above rather than on earthly things. The heavenly and the earthly cannot coexist indefinitely, so the consistent practice of these godly characteristics causes the weaknesses of the old man to fall away. Unlike the world's resolutions that are quickly abandoned, these biblical instructions are meant to become permanent habits that prepare the elect for the ultimate goal of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

God calls His people to put on godly characteristics as part of the daily living sacrifice required to qualify for offices in His Kingdom. This process begins with presenting one's body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which demands decisive commitment and the renewing of the mind to prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect in His will. The mind must be transformed through deliberate study, meditation on God's Word, and application of its principles so that the individual grows in grace and knowledge rather than conforming to the passing world. This renewal requires putting off the old man with its deeds of fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication. In their place the new man must be put on, renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator. The virtues to be cultivated include compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness, and above all godly love, which serves as the bond of perfectness. These qualities produce peace that rules the heart, gratitude that promotes harmony, and wisdom that enables teaching and admonishing one another. Such putting on of character is the very means by which God tests and prepares His servants, just as He tested Joseph, David, Abraham, and His own Son. Through consistent daily effort to exhibit these traits the individual demonstrates fitness for rulership, proves loyalty to God's government, and develops the mind of Christ necessary to serve in the coming Kingdom. Those who respond with faithful growth enter the joy of their Lord, while failure to put on these characteristics results in loss of the talent entrusted and exclusion from that joy.