The God Of Your StorySample

Let’s imagine that we have two closets. Each of them are filled with options. Hanging in closet A, we have the following:

Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, idolatry, anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language, and lying. 

Hanging in closet B, we have:

Tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, peace, and love.

These closets are so different that they in no way complement each other. In fact, they are so dissimilar that they appear to belong to totally different people—which was Paul’s point throughout his ministry.

Paul’s conviction was that Jesus transforms us into a completely different person with a completely different wardrobe. The old clothes are dead people’s clothes.

Which closet holds your favorite outfits? Which one holds the combinations you most wear? Is it possible to grab pants from one and a shirt from another? Could you wear rage and patience together? Or do they clash? Or how about slander and forgiveness?

For the new life in Christ that Paul described, we need to be selecting our combinations from closet B. And Paul even included a fashion tip: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14).

If we clothe ourselves in love first, everything else will look great together. Nothing will clash, and we won’t be wearing the wardrobe of the dead—which is probably a good thing.

Lastly, Paul gave us a simple posture to tie everything together: “Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” (Colossians 3:17).

If we’re ever confused about which wardrobe we’re choosing, we can quickly look in the mirror that Paul gave us today. We can simply ask ourselves, “Can I represent Jesus in this?” “Can I say this in the name of Jesus?” If we’ll look back at the two closets, it becomes crystal clear which clothing represents Jesus and which doesn’t. What are you going to wear today?