I used to love watching the TLC show “What Not to Wear”. When people brought their clothes closet to the show, Stacy and Clinton, without hesitation, would throw the participants clothes away into a large garbage can. (I’m sure to be donated somewhere.) What great symbolism for our old life and new life with Christ.
When I read Colossians 3:10 this morning, that show came to mind. I googled their website and found this saying about the show: “What Not to Wear draws on the personality and talent of fashion experts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly to convert participants from dowdy to dashing.” I thought, “Yep, I don’t want to be drab and dull in my walk with Christ. I want to be elegant and suave in my daily life with God.”
I thought about when we accept Jesus as our Savior we “stripped off” the old self and are “dressed in a new wardrobe” that was “custom-made by the Creator”.
If you’ve seen the TLC show, you know the agony some of the participants have with “letting go” of their old clothes. Is that really that much different from a lot of us when we become a Christian? We want to hold on to something from our old life. It may be a habit, a friend, anything that isn’t really good and godly for us, but it just “felt so good”. Probably a lot like the lady that had to rid herself from her comfy teary-clothe hoodie that she had since she was in college.
But, later…those same participants learned about how to dress themselves properly and enhance their assets tastefully. They learned to appreciate the new look and were grateful that the old look was gone.
I want to encourage you to read the “What Not to Do” list in Colossians 3:1-10. If you have any of those characteristics in your life, throw them into a large garbage can (just don’t donate them anywhere), and put on the new God-made characteristics He has for you. It is a wardrobe that won’t go out of style and will always make you feel loved and beautiful.
“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
5-8 And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
9-11 Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete.” Colossians 3:1-10
Get serious about your life with Christ. Act like a Christian. Dress yourself (inside and out) like the Child of God you are.
Blessings to you.
October 16, “Walking in the Word”
