[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 one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. [14] And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
[15] "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. [16] Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. [17] And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
I was thinking about kindness yesterday, and was reminded of verse 12 during my meditation. Paul has such a great ability to put down rich concepts in a few words. Here he bundles compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love all together, using the imagery of clothes. If you look closely, it is as if the first character traits are undergarments, and love is the garment that binds them all together. As the outer garment, love should be the first thing that people notice about us. Love is that which binds all the other traits together in unity, and is the thus the most important.
Secondly, on the inside, in our hearts, Paul encourages us to let Christ's peace rule. This is really critical, for His peace is undisturbable. He has defeated sin and death (1 Cor 15:53-57), He is over every authority and power (Col 2:10), and He is now seated in glory next to the Father (Eph 1:20). The peace of Christ, which is beyond our understanding (Phil 4:7) is available to us, to guard our hearts and minds. If we allow our perspective to be His, allow Him to show us what He sees, and trust His guidance and direction, our hearts can be at peace.
What a great picture, unshakeable peace on the inside, and love on the outside!
Finally Paul encourages us to do all things in His name. I like to think of this as me representing Him, and showing that by what I wear (love, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness), and by how I act (full of peace). Paul encourages us to do everything, whether word or deed as His representatives. This means we never should be taking off these clothes, but always (every moment of every day) be mindful and deliberate in our re-presenting of Him. There is no room here for the "Sunday Christian", someone who goes to church on Sunday and acts like their fellow Christians on that day, but on every other day acts like someone who doesn't know Christ. We are called to represent Him, to do everything in His name.
Lord, I pray that You will help me to walk in this way, clothed in Your character traits, and filled with Your peace.
I am reminded of a scene from a movie called The Last Remake of Beau Geste. In this scene there are a bunch of boys having a huge mud fight, and out of the middle of them steps one young man, clothed completely in white, untouched and unmarked by any of the mud flying all around him, and the light shines on him making him stand out that much more. This is what I think Paul is encouraging us to be like, in the midst of all the swirl around us, being at peace and untouched and unaffected by those things flying around us. Our clothes (verse 12) setting us apart from all those around us.
Amen Lord! Please help us represent You in our every day.
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