Clothes say a lot about us.
At my high school, the clothes people wore were a giveaway for whether they were a band kid, theater kid, athlete, class officer, and so on. Grownups are no different. The clothes we wear are cues for the jobs we work, the events we attend, or the teams we cheer for.
In the ancient world, when Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians, we can assume they didn’t have quite the fashion diversity we have today, but they certainly wore different things according to their social class, families, and crafts. Paul, though, told the Christians to put on the same clothes:
“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12-14).
Did Paul expect the Colossian Christians to wear an actual uniform? No, but the point is that anyone who has experienced new life in Christ should be so drenched in his love that it’s the first thing people notice about us. For Paul, this expectation was for everyone: “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us” (Colossians 3:11). Whether you were a band kid, theater kid, athlete, or class officer, the same goes for us today because whether we want them to or not, people notice what we’re wearing.
Again, when I was in high school, I had a phase in which I wore white basketball shorts every single day. Then, I heard someone describing me as, “The guy who wears white basketball shorts.” Christians, we’re called to wear the love of Jesus so much that the Church would be known as, “The people who wear love.” That’s what God wants us to be noticed for, and that’s what God wants to give the world through Christ in us: tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Questions for reflection:
- How do you think the world views Christians today based on the metaphorical clothes we wear?
- How can we cultivate a heart of Christ’s love and extend it to others, even when it’s difficult? How would this influence the world?