A Christian’s wardrobe

“Clothes make the man,” the old saying goes, and there may be a little truth to that. If clothes don’t entirely make the man, they can at least identify him to a degree. What a person chooses to put on can tell you a lot about him or her. What they value. How they see themselves. What their priorities are. When you and I “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” we are saying something. We put on the Lord, meaning we recognize His lordship over us. He is Lord of all. He controls our life. His word is the last word, and He is the one to whom we must answer. We are saying that He is supreme. He is omnipotent. He is the audience of one to whom my life is played. We put on Jesus, too—the humanity of the incarnation. To put on Jesus is to put on love. Jesus gives us the capacity to love our neighbor and love our enemies and love the unlovely. With Jesus, we put on the ability to love. And finally, we put on Christ—the Messiah or Anointed One.

When we put on Christ, we affirm the resurrection power that He gives to sustain and deliver us. It’s quite a wardrobe, is it not? We put on the Lord, and He is supreme. We put on Jesus and His capacity to love. And we put on Christ, who gives us the power to live this life. You see, when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a whole new agenda in place. We think differently. We act differently. Our old desires are replaced by a new desire to be holy and pleasing to God. That’s what His love does for us, and that is what our love, in Him, is to do for others. So, let me ask you a question. What are you wearing today?