Put On The New Manनमुना

Gentle But Not Weak 

 What should we wear? The Apostle Paul tells the Colossians, as a recommendation of what to wear, that we should clothe ourselves with humility.

 

Clothe Ourselves With Humility

To clothe ourselves with humility is the opposite of clothing ourselves with pride. We must clarify that humility is not poverty, because there are poor people who are really proud. People say, “Look at those people, they are so humble,” just because they are poor, but they are so wrong. Humility is not about how much money you have; it has to do with the lack of pride; with the right assumptions and understanding of who we are. 

 Clothe Ourselves With Gentleness 

 We need to clothe ourselves with gentleness as well, which the opposite of anger. To be gentle is not to be weak! Let’s not make a mistake here. Gentleness is not about letting other people do whatever they want and not doing anything about it. If someone comes into my home today to steal all my belongings, I grab whatever I have on hand and hit them with it; and I am still a gentle person, of course, I am! However, if someone makes a mistake at work and I hit them, then I am doing something wrong. It is the same action but in completely different circumstances. 

 Gentleness is to act guided by internal laws in the middle of situations that want to rule us from the outside. For instance, if I get angry at someone at work because of what they said or did, that is not being gentle. If instead, no matter what happens, I react to the situation with gentleness, instead of being ruled by it, I do the right thing. In the case of the burglar who comes into my home, I am not going to be angry, but I am going to hit them, and it is going to be the right thing to do. Does it make sense? There is no anger at work or with the burglar; in both cases, I control myself and react without violence in the right way, because I have clothed myself with gentleness. 

To react in a way contrary to what we have mentioned before is wrong. It is to react like Adam. To clothe myself with gentleness is to react with the character of Christ in response to the actions of the old man. 

Clothe Ourselves With Patience

 We should also clothe ourselves with patience to see the fruit and the work of God, in ourselves first and then in other people. If I have no patience with myself, I will not have patience with others. If God can work in me, He can work in others. I believe in the work of God in others because I see the work of God in myself. When someone does not believe that God can work in other people, it is because they have not allowed God to work in their own lives.