The Clothes We Wear

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” - Colossians 3:12

Did you put any thought into what you are wearing today? Some days, I look in the closet and try to pick out the perfect thing to wear to match my mood or match what I am going to be doing to be doing that day. Some days I just grab the first I see and put it on. Some people put a lot of thought into what they wear each day-- they have to have the latest fashion or the hottest designer name. Some people could care less they are just cloths. But, as I was thinking about the passage from Colossians I realized that no matter what the day or what type of people we are, we dress to fit the occasion. For the most part, we don't wear suits to work out or dig in the garden and we don't wear our "nice" clothes to play in the dirt. We dress to fit what we are doing. We understand that we need to clothe ourselves properly each day. Or at least, most of us, understand that we need to clothe ourselves each day.

The writer of Colossians tells us that there are also characteristics, virtues, and attitudes that we need to put on each day. Interestingly, the writer tells us we are to clothes ourselves in these qualities. What we wear should fit whose we are. That is not a typo. Whose we are. God's people should clothe themselves with the qualities of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

The other thing that interest me about the use of the word clothe is that it suggest that this is not something these are not just internal qualities. Our kindness, gentleness, compassion, humility and patience should be visible to others. They should be noticeable to everyone as much as the other stuff that we wear.

I just had a vision of the Emperor in "The Emperors New Clothes" The story of the Emperor running around naked but he thinks he has on the best clothes. He is convinced that he is wearing clothes but he is not. What everyone sees is that he has not clothed himself in anything.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” - Colossians 3:12

What are you wearing? Does it fit whose you are?

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug