Putting on the clothes of patience
Colossians 3:12-17
12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The passage invites us to clothe ourselves with – among other things – patience.
Clothing oneself is a multi-step process. First, we need to have the clothing we are going to wear readily at hand. It is hard to put on clothing that is not in our closet or drawers. But God in great grace makes available to us the clothing of compassion, humility, and patience to name only a few. These traits, characteristics of the Jesus way are available to us.
That leads to the next step – clothing is not very helpful to us if we never wear it – if all it does is hang in our closet. We need to put it on. To dress ourselves in the clothing Jesus provides – the fruit of the Spriit – including patience. This means that we have a role to play – yes, the ability to be patient comes from the Spriit, but we have a role to play in letting our lives be shaped by what God is doing. We cannot actively resist putting on the clothing the Spriit has for us and expect our lives to show evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.
One more thing about clothing ourselves with the patterns of kindness, humility and patience and the other clothing the Spirit has available for us. We have to get dressed everyday, it is not as though we get up on Monday morning and put on our clothes for the whole week that we never take off. No, each morning we need to put on the clothing Jesus has for us, each morning we dress to be ready for the Spirit to live the Jesus way through us.
One final comment on this passage – vs. 13 feels like Paul is explaining the heart of patience – to bear with each other, to forgive each other – following the example of Jesus Christ who forgave and showed forbearance to his followers.
PRAYER:
We rejoice, O Lord, in the clothing that the Holy Spirit has ready for us to wear, clothing that can change our lives for the better, clothing that leads us to live the Jesus way. Teach us to clothe ourselves in the clothing you have for us, make us humble enough to put on what you have chosen for us to wear. Make us patient, O Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.