Did I ever tell you I once “had my colors done”? It takes a great deal of confidence in my own masculinity to admit this openly, but it’s true. Having gone through the process herself, my wife convinced me to do the same (which was a great sales job on her part, by the way). Now, guys, “getting your colors done” entails being draped with assorted colors to see which ones make you look more like Chuck Norris and which ones make you look more like Pee Wee Herman. In the end, you get a “palette,” which is an array of colors that best suit you. This is why I get most compliments when wearing blue and, conversely, why a friend asked if I was ill one day when I wore my olive shirt. “You look more pale than usual,” he said—a Pee Wee moment, for sure. The Salvation Army gladly accepted my small clothing donation the next day, and I consoled my bruised ego with the Schedule A tax deduction.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul laid out a spiritual wardrobe for believers in Christ. “As God’s chosen people,” he wrote, “. . . clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. . . . And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:12, 14). These are the qualities that look best on us, for they reflect the characteristics of Christ in us. Moreover, this same palette suits all who live in Him.
When we put on new clothes of the Spirit, we must take off the old rags of our sinful nature. What do these old clothes look like? They probably vary among us, but I’m guessing we all have a closet full of our own version of olive shirts that make us look “ill” and, in our worst moments, “more pale than usual.” What are they for you? Pride? Indifference? Impatience? Blame? Unaccountability? Stinginess? Unbelief? Whatever our old clothes look like, ours is not to try to refashion them through our own efforts or resolve, but rather to put them aside and choose, instead, our new wardrobe in Christ. For it becomes us.
Father, send your Spirit today, that I would put off the ways of my sinful nature and clothe myself in Christ. Be glorified in and through this life. Amen.
[Click here to read today’s Scripture in Colossians 3:12-15.]
Paul Nordman—Author 