“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” – Colossians 3:12
I came across this scripture recently and it stuck with me. Ironically, around the same time a friend of mine posted it on social media with the caption:
“Girl, I’m dressed!”
I was so confused.
I went back to the scripture and realized I had totally skipped over the word ‘clothe’ (not sure how I did that). My friend’s clever commentary put it in a whole new light for me.
Possessing these qualities is one thing and certainly admirable in and of itself. Wearing these qualities is another level altogether to which to aspire.
The imagery of this being a sort of ‘uniform’ that makes a disciple of Jesus quickly identifiable is something personally attractive to me. Especially since the word ‘love’ seems to be stuck in a cultural and religious quagmire from which there seems to be no rescue.
I saw a different friend share a post on social media saying the world would know us by our love. In between the words “our” and “love” were various political stances with a red line through them. As you can imagine in the comment section his family, friends, enemies, and associates began to give him a proper beating (in love, I suppose) as they tussled around what the actual definition of “love” is.
But think of the idea of wearing kindness everyday…like clothes. You can’t take it off or you’d have nothing on. The same thing with humility, gentleness, compassion, and patience. It’s not something you have to drum up inside of you and exert situation by situation. It’s something you intentionally drape yourself in so that’s there’s nothing else accessible but those qualities or you’re naked.
I also love the idea that if this is the identifiable ‘uniform’ of disciples of Jesus, then we would all kind of look alike, right? Regardless of ethnicity or gender or race this ‘uniform’ would immediately make people say: “Hey…look how kind he was to that person when he had every right to completely go off. I think he’s one of ‘them’.”
Can we join together and ask God to help us dress up in this outfit everyday?
I think it’s a very becoming outfit.
I think the world will love it when they see it and one way or another beg for us to wear it more often.
Sherri Lynn
Midday Show Host, STAR 99.1
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Amen amen!
And it never goes out of style and fits perfectly all the time.