Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must
clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and
patience. Make allowance for each
other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must
forgive others. Above all, clothe
yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to
live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its
richness, fill your lives. Teach and
counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to
God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say,
do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God
the Father. Colossians 3:12-17 (NLT)
This week we are going to take a
close look at what a well-dressed follower of Jesus Christ wears to church,
work, school, on errands, and most importantly…at home, the place where you
can’t fake it because your family already knows you.
When our girls were little they
had “Dressy Bessy” dolls. Besides the
fact that your children considered it a legal right under the Constitution to
have a Dressy Bessy, they were good teaching tools. Little ones learned how to put an arm in a
sleeve, or button a shirt. You dressed
Bessy and in the doing you learned how to dress yourself.
Paul was writing to some Christians who had a reputation of being strong believers, well-clothed you might say, but they had a little problem understanding why they were to act differently than the world. Don’t we all have that little problem?
In his letter Paul suggests that the Christian’s attitude wardrobe should reflect being chosen, which means being different from the world. These attitudes and actions are what make us clothed as followers of Jesus. In short that means two things:
They were changed.
The early Christians were baptized as a sign of their
willingness to change, be different. Men
and women were baptized in different rooms, because the ceremony included
stripping-off all clothing, and entering the pool naked. It was a signal that the old life had been
stripped-away like a ragged garment.
They were changed.
A story is told of a denomination that believed in
baptismal sanctification (the moment you are baptized, you are sanctified, and
therefore perfect -- you won't ever sin again).
An older man got convicted, and decided to join the group. It was winter time and he wanted to be
baptized right away; but the creek was frozen over. However, he had a great desire to be pure, so
he convinced the deacons to baptize him.
They cut a hole in the ice, took the old fellow out and dunked him in
the hole, all the way – twice for good measure.
As he came out the old man exclaimed, Oh, it's so wonderful. I'm sanctified. It's so wonderful; I don't even feel the cold. The head deacon said, Let's dunk him again,boys; he's
still lyin'![2] The new believers were really changed, and…
They were clothed.
Once baptized the new convert was given a new robe to
put on; it was a white robe, symbolizing the new relationship of purity in
Christ, and it was a new robe, which made a stark comparison with the old which
had been discarded.
There
is a connection here that is hard to miss unless you’re living on another
planet. Every day each and every one of
us puts on our clothing. And we all have
something in common about the way we do it.
Without fail we put on our undergarments first, then our outer clothing…
(except Madonna, of
course, who is goofy enough to wear her “unmentionables” where they get
mentioned).
They call ‘em “foundational” garments, because they
are the first things to go on the bare ground.
For You Today
As we study the foundational
garments of Christian living this week we need to keep in mind that Paul used
the putting-on-your-clothes
object lesson to teach some very important principles about living the
Christian life. And we must remember
that important
principles never come cheaply!
Think about that out on your
rocky road today, and have a great day!
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