Colossians 3:12-17 (NIV): 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.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
OFTEN our clothes, expensive or not, reflect our personalities, our interests, our hobbies, our styles, our jobs, our schools, our heritage, our cultures, our communities, our statuses, and our affiliations, and we dress as we do for a purpose—to promote ourselves, others, or worthy causes. So, basically in life, we clothe ourselves for IDENTITY: to be sociable, comfortable, silly, casual, formal, fashionable, professional, or elegant because in our society a picture is worth a thousand words, and presentation means something—sometimes, everything—and the image—the package—does matter. So, we often clothe ourselves in the way we want others to see or perceive us.
But our lives and our identities are not all about visible and tangible clothes. In the spirit, what we wear or clothe ourselves in—our SPIRITUAL attire—also matters and identfies us, especially to GOD. And He's not interested in the cost, the quality, or the man-made BRAND—that designer's name on the earthly label; GOD's looking for HIS SON CHRIST JESUS IN US, and He's searching for HIS NAME and HIS APPAREL on and within us who are MADE IN HIS IMAGE, ACCORDING to HIS LIKENESS, and these are the DESIGNER CLOTHES GOD wants us to wear: COMPASSION, KINDNESS, HUMILITY, GENTLENESS, PATIENCE, FORGIVENESS, LOVE, PEACE, GRATITUDE, WISDOM, and SERVICE. And these are GOD's ACCESSORIES for HIS CREATIONS, the FRUIT of HIS SPIRIT: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, GOODNESS, GENTLENESS, FAITHFULNESS, KINDNESS, and SELF-CONTROL.
Therefore, the questions we have to ask ourselves are these: Do we possess any of these virtues that matter most to GOD? Do we wear them in public and keep them on in private? Is GOD's NAME stamped, sewn, or imprinted on anything we own, possess, or steward? If not, have we WALKED IN FAITH and VISITED OUR PRAYER CLOSETS recently to SEEK GOD's face, to be in His presence, to HEAR His still small voice, and ASK for more than the material things—for NAME-BRAND CLOTHES such as these: GOD's APPAREL?
