Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
What should I wear? Ever heard that question before? We have clothes for all sorts of occasions. We have grungy clothing for working out or working in the garden. We have a reliable pair of sweats or yoga pants for lounging. We have formal clothing for weddings or fancy parties. We have clothes for all aspects of life.
God gave us something to wear for every moment of our life: it’s our new life in Christ. Paul teaches us to clothe ourselves not with attitudes and actions of the sinful world, but our new self. We have been gifted the attitudes, heart, and mind of Christ Jesus.
The world loves to put on impatience, grudges, revenge, hate, harshness, and pride. When people wear those things in their life, what happens? Relationships are destroyed and never repaired. People are divided and polarized. Unity is lost and disunity reigns. People become lone wolves, in it for themselves and no one else. We can think of times we have seen that happen and maybe even “worn” that type of clothing in our own lives. In short, life isn’t fun or good anymore when that’s what people wear.
We don’t have to wear that anymore. We are people of God now. Christ created us to be new. He has thrown out our old wardrobe given by the sinful world and fit us with new attitudes. He’s given us kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and humility. He’s given us his attitudes and heart to wear for all occasions. Jesus has gifted us attitudes for any and every situation of life.
Go ahead and stress and worry about what clothing you’re going to wear for different occasions of life. Don’t stress when comes to how you will live your life in this world. Jesus has given you the attitudes and actions you can display for all to see. And quite frankly, they’re very beautiful.