I don’t think that a single one of us would deny the fact that we get dressed on purpose. Putting on clothes is an intentional, purposeful, and daily thing. We dress on purpose, and whether our motivation is to please ourselves or to impress someone else, the choice to get dressed is purposeful. It’s no accident or mistake how we look when we walk out the door to face our day.
With such an emphasis on outer beauty today, the importance of inner beauty can so easily be dismissed. Just think about your daily, morning routine. How much time is spent looking in the mirror, trying to perfect the outward, physical appearance each day? How much energy and emotion is poured into that? And in contrast, how much time, energy, and emotion are spent on this?
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Colossians 3:12
The best way that we can represent Jesus Christ is to embody the characteristics that He had: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. When we clothe ourselves with these things, we become a tangible expression of His love to this world. Every time we are insensitive, mean, proud, harsh, and impatient, we misrepresent the God that we claim to know, love, and follow.
The conviction within this verse is that we have a choice. We can choose to clothe ourselves in the characteristics of God, or we can choose not to. And the lack of the former automatically results in the latter. We won’t coincidentally or accidentally become compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, or patient. We choose to pursue these things. Today, we can choose to put these things on. Just as we intentionally dress ourselves each day with physical clothing, we must also intentionally clothe ourselves spiritually. As God’s chosen people who, in Christ, are holy and dearly loved, what other choice do we have but to showcase the grace and love of Jesus Christ through our lives lived for Him?
Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience aren’t easy, but they are possible in Christ Jesus. What are you wearing today? Have you emphasized the inner as much, if not more than the outer beauty? It would benefit God’s children tremendously if we looked in the mirror a bit less and looked into His Word far more.
What are you wearing today?
Love this!!
There are times I fail in these areas….help me Lord to be more like you.
Cherie, thank you for helping us to remember to intentionally clothe ourselves, – spiritually, – each morning.
gentleness compassion kindness patience humility
5 to focus on each morning…as a visual reminder as we get dressed we can focus on these words of beauty, so that we are more focused on our inward beauty as opposed to how we plan to look on the outside. Patience as we try to figure out what to wear. Smile Gentleness as we put on our undergarments. Compassion as the outer garments get put on. Kindness as we place on our jewelry, and finally, – humilty as our shoes go on. May our feet remind us to walk in the righteous path of Jesus! Oh, how we need Him every hour!