Clothed in Christ

There are times when the choices we have to make are just too hard. We call on our life experience, on the voices of our parents as they spin around in our heads; we weigh the impact of the decision on who it will impact; what will people think of me? Knowing that critical eyes are on us exacerbates the feeling that the way we make our choices is somehow faulty or less than adequate.

If your teenage and early adult years were to be re-run before you, I wonder whether you would cringe at the way you spoke to your parents, spoke about your teachers, perhaps you were the master of putdowns, maybe you excluded people from your group of friends. Did alcohol or drugs affect your relationships, your behaviour, your attitude? Were there things you said or did that have irreparably damaged you or your options for your future?

About 56 AD Paul wrote from Corinth to the Roman community. He reminded them that the ten commandments were summed up in the one, great commandment, You shall love your neighbour as yourself (13:9). Paul exhorted to choose good and to avoid harming their neighbours, to walk in the light and throw off ‘the works of darkness’.

And to do this, Paul’s advice is: Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This really does mean that when you are struggling to make important decisions and weighing up your choices you can put on the mind of the Christ and be clothed in him, so that your decisions will be opportunities for growth. And even after all these years of fearing our pasts, being clothed in Christ is a step towards self-forgiveness and acceptance. That really was then, and this is now.