9-11Don'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.
12-14So, 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.
12-14So, 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.
With a house full of teenaged girls, the magazines that are often seen around our house are fashion magazines. Put together with the fact that I love to sew, fashion is a big deal at our house.
It's not that we overemphasize it, it's just that we thoroughly enjoy it. We shop at thrift stores, and we refashion all sorts of things. Sometimes we buy new -- if it's cheap. And all of us look pretty decent.
I once heard a missionary speak about a tribe he'd gone to live with in some middle-of-a-wild-continent. He said that he tried to find some way to relate to the people. When he read them the scripture about Jesus spitting into some dirt and making a mud to put on the eyes of a blind man (in order to heal him), the people exclaimed "He's a Spitter! This Saviour of yours was a Spitter!" Apparently that was a big deal to these people, and suddenly they had found a way to relate to this God-Man of the missionary.
I feel the same way when I read this passage from Colossians 3. Putting on new clothing? I get that. Putting on the clothing of compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength -- even better.
Designer clothing indeed.
xoxoxox
2 Comments:
I love that! How fun that they grabbed onto the spitting part.
great post. sometimes we need to be reminded of even the things we already know.
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