8-9. How does Stephen’s experience show the need to keep putting away the old personality?

⁸ A brother named Stephen had a problem with controlling his anger. “Even after I was baptized,” he says, “I had to keep working on my temper. For example, on one occasion while going from house to house in the Christian ministry, I chased after a thief who had just stolen the radio from my car. As I got closer to him, he dropped the radio and ran away. When I related to the others with me how I got my radio back, an elder in the group asked me, ‘Stephen, what would you have done if you had caught up with him?’ That question made me think and motivated me to keep working at being peaceable.”b

12. How did Stephen experience the transforming power of the Bible?

¹² Stephen, mentioned earlier, found that he was gradually able to put on the new personality. He says: “Since baptism, I have faced a number of potentially explosive situations. I’ve learned either to walk away from people who are trying to provoke me or to defuse the situation in other ways. Many people, including my wife, have commended me on how I have handled these situations. I’ve even surprised myself! I do not take credit for these changes in my personality. Rather, I believe that they are testimony to the transforming power of the Bible.”