High Fashion!
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Colossians 3:12-14
I wanted to start with the positive.
The “high fashion” that God is dressing his people.
But there are really two steps-
Before we can put on the new wardrobe of Christ, we must first take off the old garments. Otherwise it would be a foolish as waking up each day and just adding another layer of clothes. Always covering up yesterday’s dirty outfit.
It just doesn’t work.
We can put on love, and hargor hate for our neighbor.
We can’t put on compassion, and declare some people are not worthy.
We can’t put on purity, and keep secretive immoral sin.
So the bible makes it clear:
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
Colossians 3:3-11
This week make it your morning beauty routine-
Go through this passage and declare, outloud even, all that you are taking off- the anger, filthy language, lies, lusts and the like.
And then put on the garments of Christ-
Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Quiet strength. Disciple. Forgiveness. And of course, love.
