Overcoat of Love

 This morning I just want to reflect on some of my favorite verses from Paul's letter to the Colossians 3:12-14 NIV:

[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."

This is such a beautiful list of character attributes, of heart felt choices we can make to represent Christ to the world around us, and to each other.  Each of these words represent a choice in how we are going to see the world and people around us, and how we are going to respond.  

Paul's encouragement is to clothe ourselves in these, and to me that represents a daily choice I can make.  My clothes are often the first thing that people see, and here we are encouraged to make these character traits the first experiences of us that those around us will have.  Paul calls them virtues, and I think that is accurate, and I think they held in high esteem by all.  His final encouragement is to put on love as the overcoat, if you will, that binds them all together.  We could say that love completes the ensemble.  As Paul notes in his first letter to the Corinthians, without love our actions are actually quite empty.

I should also note that Paul gives particular attention to forgiveness, and encourages us to forgive others as Christ forgave us.  This is a very high order, and does really require soul searching and rooting out judgments, offenses, and even opinions that we hold onto, because of past hurts and grievances.  Christ in his forgiveness wipes away our sins, forgiving them completely, an casting them away from Him.  There are several illustrations and verses that describe this type of forgiveness, but my favorite is found in Psalm 103:11-12 NIV:

[11] "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; [12] as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."  

Again, love is the motivation, and forgiveness is one of the results.  Let us set our hearts to love like Christ does, and forgive as He does as well.  

Let us choose today to live clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and choose to put on our overcoat of Love!  

Amen!