"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and he will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."Other references to this phrase "natural man" can be found in the Bible in 1Corinthians 2:14 and again in the Book of Mormon in Alma 26:21.
Essentially, the natural man is, simply put, our carnal instincts. It's what someone would do if they were to only do anything purely out of instinct, without thinking about consequences or possible outcomes. I would also say that putting of the natural man includes not following the "norms" of the world or falling into the peer pressures of the world. An example for us would be our ideas on modesty. We believe that we are to respect ourselves and show respect to Heavenly Father by being modest in dress and also in thought. Also, I would also include our dietary guide, known as the Word of Wisdom (WoW).
However, putting off the natural man isn't as easy as one may think. It is a constant struggle for most. I fail at this constantly by trying to justify doing (or not doing) something and that is also a form of NOT putting off the natural man. And, I think that is the biggest way in which most members of the Church lack in being able to put off the natural man. We can easily justify to ourselves that we can go to the next service project, or go to the temple later in the week, or read my scriptures for an extra hour tomorrow. I know I am guilty of all of those listed above. I am not perfect and neither are any of the other human beings in the Church. We are all imperfect, but we are all trying to do better.
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