Friday, August 06, 2010

Church Dress Code / What Not To Wear

What a stunning
picture of me!
“12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14 NIV

Have you ever been to a church that had a dress code? Suits for men, dresses for ladies, fru fru one piece outfits for baby boys (mom why did you do that to me?). Paul says here in Colossians 3:12 that as God’s people, we have a dress code.

When it’s cold, I wear a coat, when I go on a date with Stacy I brush my teeth and put on a clean shirt for a change, when it is hot I wear lighter and thinner clothes. When I run I wear running shoes and shorts. We must dress appropriately for the conditions.
God wants His people to dress accordingly, appropriate to the conditions of this world. That is why Paul said that we are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Our world needs people who are dressed with the spirit of Jesus. The world is full of poorly dressed people. I’m not talking about men who still wear parachute pants, I’m not talking about the man who saw wearing a shirt that said “Baby on Board” with arrow pointing to his stomach, and I’m not even talking about mullets. The world is poorly dressed in that many people put on the clothing of anger, selfishness, greed, lust, and rudeness.
Paul said those things are out of style. You know that show “What not wear”? Paul gives us a list of things that we should never wear in verses 5-8, they are not fashionable to God. He does not want us to dress like the world, He wants us to dress like Jesus.
When we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience we are simply acting the way Jesus would act if he was us in our daily lives. We do these things because we have been forgiven, we do these things because we have been transformed by the love of God. May you be blessed each day by His love and grace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have found love to be an action word. If I put principles before personalities. I can love anyone even the people who may bug me. Sometimes I focus on an outward appearance of others. However, if I look through the exterior to whats in their heart I see a human being, a creation of God who deserves love and forgiveness. What better way way to lead a nonbeliever to a life of christs love than to love someone you may not even like. When people see that they want to know more about forgivness and humility and what better example than christ himself.

Vic said...

Well said! People fight and seperate all the time. It is an amazing witness to the world when we allow Jesus to unite us no matter what our differences were in the past.