SCRIPTURE 📖
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
13 Be tolerant of one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive.
14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which ties everything together in unity.
15 Let the peace of the Messiah also rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be thankful.
16 Let the word of the Messiah inhabit you richly with wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and singing to God with thankfulness in your hearts.
17 And whatever you do, whether by speech or action, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
BACKGROUND ✝
Everyone expects to look good, new, and refreshed. When we receive good compliments from others for our appearance; our dresses, shoes, make-ups, and others, we rejoice deep from our hearts.
Similarly, when we realize that our dresses do not look good on us, we mourn and the entire day or program is marred. When we realize this before our departure from the program, some may immediately abandon the program simply because the dress they intend to wear does not fit or match.
When we were a bit younger, our colleague teenage girls who experienced menarche may often soil their school uniforms with blood due to inexperience in handling menstruation. Abnormally heavy flows and menstrual disorders could equally cause stains during menses. Some of the bad boys and sometimes their own colleague girls would join in the incessant act of mocking girls who, unfortunately, ‘dye’ their uniforms with blood. These girls feel extremely ashamed and may never be able to learn anything throughout the day, and sometimes the entire week. Reports have it that some girls stopped school perpetually because they were mocked for staining their uniforms with blood during menses. Not until one’s menstrual pad is changed and the dress changed as well, one becomes forever uneasy.
Similarly, spiritually, certain acts of the believer soil their well-being and they must be equally ashamed and hence avoid such behaviors. They must change such behaviors and clothe themselves in new dresses. Like the clothes that look very good on people, we should endeavor to be spiritually relevant by our attitude.
Paul admonishes the Colossian church to put off old sinful habits as they would put off dirty (and unfitting, stained) clothes.
They should put on new good habits as they would put on fresh clean clothes. They should have a new attitude, which thinks of others before thinking of themselves.
It is as if the new ‘clothes’ they have just put on are bound together by love so that their appearance is genuine beauty and completeness (verses 12-14).
In verse 12, five of such new clothes are mentioned; compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. To be compassionate means to care very much about other people. Christians should feel pity when other people are sad. The compassion will make them sympathize and show kindness to people who are sad or troubled.
Humble people do not think that they are better than someone else. Humble people know that every person is of equal value to God. Humble people want other people to be successful.
Sometimes people think that a gentle person is weak. In fact, gentle people know how to control their strength. Patient people know how to control their temper. They stay calm when someone annoys them. Patient people can wait a long time for someone to do something.
Within the Colossian church were people of various personalities and social backgrounds, but they could all live together in harmony by allowing the peace-loving spirit of Christ to guide their actions. Through teaching and singing, they can build one another up in the faith. At all times and places, they should live and act as new people in Christ (verses 15-17).
LESSONS✍🏽
🔷 We must make friends with the word of God to make it dwell in us
🔷 We must make friends with those who can encourage and support us in ways that are in line with our faith as Christians
🔷 We must think about others first before ourselves and show them love and care
🔷 We must wait for the Lord in thanksgiving and comport ourselves that we do not act ultra vires
PRAYER POINTS🙏🏽
💥 Pray that you will live as God’s chosen one
💥 Pray to be able to serve others
CONCLUSION📙
Believers must act on what they claim and believe. We must learn when to talk back, unfriend people, embrace them, and walk away without begrudging anyone and paying them back. We must rather be kind, and compassionate to all people. Do not allow the attitude of the people around you to unmake you. Let your new clothes always show you as a true believer.
AMEN
