Clothed with Christ

Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…

Romans 13:14

I have older teenagers at my house, so the laundry is never done! They take things off and put things on multiple times a day for any event or change of emotion. They take the school clothes off and replace them with hanging-around-the-house clothes until friends drop by…and this necessitates yet another change. And of course, when they take something off, it must be dirty! All these changes and choices are very intentional.

So when I read, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27), my mind went to those mountains of teenager laundry. What does it mean for me to be clothed with Christ? What does that look like?  How does it happen?

Before you can put on anything, you must take off the dirties! Colossians 3:8 tells us to put to away anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language and lying. I must remove these from my life. Romans 13:14 says, Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Not only must I remove these actions, I must change my thoughts as well. Once we have taken these off, verse 10 says that we can put on a new self, and verse 12 describes this: Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:10). These are Christlike qualities. They are not natural and will not just appear. These clothes must be intentionally chosen, cultivated and put on! These qualities are beautiful, peaceful and draw others to their source – Christ.  

Jesus promised all we need to make this change. He spoke to his disciples about being clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). At His request, they waited on the promised Holy Spirit to empower them to live the lives to which He called them. As those baptized into Christ, we have His power on high to put on the very nature of Christ, to clothe ourselves in Him. What a beautiful picture.  

Lord, clothe me with the beauty of your character.

Jill Hardin

All Scriptures are from the Christian Standard Bible.