Christian uniforms
This week's verses are Colossians 3:8-14:
These verses are comparing the behaviour that springs from human nature with the behaviour expected of Christians. The apostle Paul, who wrote this letter to the Colossian church, compares the two sets of behaviour to clothing, like uniforms. When you surrender from one army to join another, you take off the old uniform and put on the new uniform. In the same way, when you become a Christian, you should take off the old uniform of being an American, or a woman, or a doctor, or a mechanic, or a Republican, or a Millennial, or whatever, and replace it with the new uniform of being a Christian. This was a pretty revolutionary statement in Paul's day, because being a Roman or being a Jew was a Big Deal, like being Irish on St Patrick's Day.
But Paul's analogy goes deeper than just a uniform. He describes the old behaviour and identity not just as clothing but as a whole person. We're asked to stop clothing ourselves with the old person, and start clothing ourselves with the new person we become in Christ. That means not just our identity in the sense of ethnicity, race, political affiliation, profession, and the usual things people describe themselves with, but also our way of coping with the world around us.
Human nature trains us to react to people in anger, to lie and cheat and defend ourselves to try to get ahead. We hold grudges against people, gossip about their faults, and lie about our own. Kids learn to do it before they can even read and write, without their parents even needing to teach them. The law, and the court system, and the security industry all exist because of our sinful human nature. It's a set of coping mechanisms wired into us to protect us in a broken world without love, the world Satan would have us living in, a world without redemption after the fall of man. But that's not the life God offers us.
God offers us a new start as though mankind never fell from grace. Imagine the clock rolled back to the Garden of Eden, only instead of eyeing the forbidden fruit and letting the serpent deceive us into betraying God, we continue in perfect fellowship with Him. How different might our behaviour towards one another have been?
Paul gives us a hint. He describes us (truthfully) as being chosen by God, holy and dearly loved, clothed with a mindset of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, putting up with each other, and forgiving whatever mistakes people make. He describes us as being renewed in the image of our creator, in other words becoming Christlike, not followers of the serpent, i.e. a brood of vipers. It's a huge contrast, like being healthy after having been sick all of your life.
Paul says we should clothe ourselves with that new person, and their behaviours. That means reminding ourselves of our new identity, and forgiving each other. To seal the deal, we should cultivate love for one another, which Paul describes as the perfect bond. And he's right; what group of people have you seen who truly love one another who have the sorts of drama in their lives like you see on daytime TV? If we love one another, our differences and our mistakes don't mean what they used to. If we're wearing the identity of a Christian, we're not in attack mode, self-promotion mode, condemnation mode, or any mode but love and mercy mode. Like Adam and Eve were originally tasked to do, our focus is to help the world around us to flourish.
As we become Christians, or maybe after being Christians for awhile and letting God's transformation start to affect us, we begin to see the difference between our old self and the new self we are being transformed into. We see the results of choosing the old success-focused flesh monster as our identity versus the new love-focused pure creation of God. In seeing the contrast, we can see the urgency of putting on the new self and getting rid of the old.
Asking yourself the question "Who am i?" you may find yourself with two different sets of answers depending on which self you're describing. In having free will, we have the choice of which we will choose to wear. In wearing the Christian "uniform" we not only celebrate our acceptance into God's kingdom, but we also make the world around us a better place.
But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. And to all these virtues add love, which is the perfect bond.
These verses are comparing the behaviour that springs from human nature with the behaviour expected of Christians. The apostle Paul, who wrote this letter to the Colossian church, compares the two sets of behaviour to clothing, like uniforms. When you surrender from one army to join another, you take off the old uniform and put on the new uniform. In the same way, when you become a Christian, you should take off the old uniform of being an American, or a woman, or a doctor, or a mechanic, or a Republican, or a Millennial, or whatever, and replace it with the new uniform of being a Christian. This was a pretty revolutionary statement in Paul's day, because being a Roman or being a Jew was a Big Deal, like being Irish on St Patrick's Day.
But Paul's analogy goes deeper than just a uniform. He describes the old behaviour and identity not just as clothing but as a whole person. We're asked to stop clothing ourselves with the old person, and start clothing ourselves with the new person we become in Christ. That means not just our identity in the sense of ethnicity, race, political affiliation, profession, and the usual things people describe themselves with, but also our way of coping with the world around us.
Human nature trains us to react to people in anger, to lie and cheat and defend ourselves to try to get ahead. We hold grudges against people, gossip about their faults, and lie about our own. Kids learn to do it before they can even read and write, without their parents even needing to teach them. The law, and the court system, and the security industry all exist because of our sinful human nature. It's a set of coping mechanisms wired into us to protect us in a broken world without love, the world Satan would have us living in, a world without redemption after the fall of man. But that's not the life God offers us.
God offers us a new start as though mankind never fell from grace. Imagine the clock rolled back to the Garden of Eden, only instead of eyeing the forbidden fruit and letting the serpent deceive us into betraying God, we continue in perfect fellowship with Him. How different might our behaviour towards one another have been?
Paul gives us a hint. He describes us (truthfully) as being chosen by God, holy and dearly loved, clothed with a mindset of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, putting up with each other, and forgiving whatever mistakes people make. He describes us as being renewed in the image of our creator, in other words becoming Christlike, not followers of the serpent, i.e. a brood of vipers. It's a huge contrast, like being healthy after having been sick all of your life.
Paul says we should clothe ourselves with that new person, and their behaviours. That means reminding ourselves of our new identity, and forgiving each other. To seal the deal, we should cultivate love for one another, which Paul describes as the perfect bond. And he's right; what group of people have you seen who truly love one another who have the sorts of drama in their lives like you see on daytime TV? If we love one another, our differences and our mistakes don't mean what they used to. If we're wearing the identity of a Christian, we're not in attack mode, self-promotion mode, condemnation mode, or any mode but love and mercy mode. Like Adam and Eve were originally tasked to do, our focus is to help the world around us to flourish.
As we become Christians, or maybe after being Christians for awhile and letting God's transformation start to affect us, we begin to see the difference between our old self and the new self we are being transformed into. We see the results of choosing the old success-focused flesh monster as our identity versus the new love-focused pure creation of God. In seeing the contrast, we can see the urgency of putting on the new self and getting rid of the old.
Asking yourself the question "Who am i?" you may find yourself with two different sets of answers depending on which self you're describing. In having free will, we have the choice of which we will choose to wear. In wearing the Christian "uniform" we not only celebrate our acceptance into God's kingdom, but we also make the world around us a better place.
Comments
Post a Comment