Paul, in describing the spiritual activities of God’s people, uses the illustration of undressing and dressing. In the previous passage, he has listed several characteristics that they are to discard (he does not mean that they should be then stored in a spiritual wardrobe in order to be worn at a subsequent occasion; instead they are to thrown out with the rubbish). Now he mentions several features that they are to put on.
These items are not clothes for our body, rather they are designed for our souls. We know that clothes for our bodies are often designed to hide our defects, so that others who observe us don’t see the real us. In contrast, the items mentioned by Paul are intended to reveal that we are new creatures, that our souls are in the process of being renewed by God.
Who can put on the new clothes? Paul tells who they are in verse 12 – they are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. We can see that Paul refers to the doctrine of election, and his usage reminds us that election has implications for daily Christian living. Often we tend to discuss election in the context of salvation. Yet there is more to the use of the doctrine than its connection to the onset of the Christian life.
Where can they get these items? We are familiar with sales that offer free items to the first hundred (or whatever figure) customers on a given day. I suppose we could describe the attitude of the owners as gracious and the fortunate recipients as privileged. Yet we know that such offers can only be made occasionally. Nevertheless we can use such an event to illustrate what Paul has in mind here when he tells us to obtain a spiritual wardrobe.
The Lord is the owner of the location where all the features mentioned by Paul can be obtained. Furthermore, the location is always open and all the features are free and can be obtained simultaneously. The owner, in the person of the Holy Spirit, delights to point out to his privileged customers the beautiful range of clothing he has for each of them to wear.
Sometimes, the owners of the earthly store arrange a special day when their privileged guests can observe a model wearing the clothes and so give them an example of how to wear the attire. And if they need to consider the presentation in more detail, the owners will provide them with a DVD that they can watch at home in order to know how to best put on the new wardrobe. Similarly, there is a model in the heavenly location and he is the Owner’s Son and he wears the attire all the time. In the heavenly store, one will not find new fashions, but neither will one find dated items either. And the Owner provides an equivalent of the DVD, and that is the records of Jesus in the Gospels and we can go through each of them and discover how best to wear the heavenly wardrobe.
We will think tomorrow about some ways in which Jesus showed what life should be like.
