WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?
Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
What are you Wearing?
In these words, from the apostle Paul to the church in Colossae, he gives the imagery of putting on God’s compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience, much like you would a piece of clothing.
How might you live differently from day to day if, just as you dress in the morning, you envision yourself putting on compassion, kindness, gentleness and patience as something you will wear throughout each and every day?
Paul indicates in Colossians 3 that these are much superior garments to wear, than the garments of our “old life”, that the Apostle invites us to remove as a sign of our “new life” in Jesus. Here is the list for removal, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. When you think about it, wouldn’t you rather be around people who put on compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience everyday rather than those who are clothed in sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language?
So, the goal is to put on the “new Life” of compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience. These are great qualities would not you agree. Then the apostle Paul says above all these put-on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Here we encounter once again that the “Most Excellent Way” is the way of love. This love holds all things together. It is what binds all these characteristics together. Without love we will fail to consistently be compassionate, kind, gentle and patient.
This love, that resembles the love of Jesus, can be a reality when we “let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts," when we let “the message of Christ dwell among us richly as we teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” Then, Paul sums things up with, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Now there is a guiding principle for life don’t you think?
