I, like most adults in the world, put on clothing everyday. And everyday I look through my closet and sift through the clothes that fill my dresser (my wife would say armoire) to decide what I will wear that day. The scene looks like a tornado of tossed trousers and hurled sweaters as I choose one outfit, quickly become unsatisfied with it and cast it off, repeat this several times, until I finally find some sort of fashion that I feel reasonably comfortable in, and I continue on my day.
This is the scene that came to my mind today as I was recollecting the words of Paul in his letter to the church at Colossae, when he writes: "If you have been raised with Christ...Put on then (that which is godly and righteous)." Or in his letter to the Romans, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14)."
I cannot help but ask a reasonable though challenging question: What/Who have I put on today? What/Who will I choose to put on tomorrow?
Then, like a plank of wood, it stuck me: If putting on Christ and His nature is akin, even metaphorically, to my morning torrent of deciding what to wear, then I need to take more time to put on the Lord and the new self that I have be given in Christ. Wow. But how does this occur in space/time?
The Word of God, applied to the believer by the indwelling illumination of the Holy Spirit is how we put on Christ and wear Him as clothing. Because of this truth, this utter and total reality in God and Christ Jesus, believers would do well spend time every morning worshiping in prayer and in study of the Word. This is as foundational to real life in Christ as getting dressed is to going out in public: not an option, a necessity. Let us then strive to make this a daily routine for the love of Christ!
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