God's Awesome Trade – (7) series by Theo Groeneveld.
Trading our “old clothes” for “new ones”!
Therefore,
as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Colossians 3:12
Paul has
been talking about taking off the "old clothes" or "old
self" of lies, greed, malice, etc. He is talking about being a
Trader. The temptation that makes trading difficult is the temptation to
focus too hard on what we are giving up.
When we
look at what we are taking on it gets easier.
The
worship song we sometimes sing puts it so well:
"Turn
your eyes upon Jesus - Look full in His wonderful face:
And
the things of the earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and
grace."
Here
Paul offers us a better wardrobe than the "emperor's clothes"
of self-obsession and self-centredness. Let's look at the garments briefly:
Compassion:
Literally "sympathetic organs" - allow yourselves to feel for others
in the guts. We allow the heartache of the world to move us. We don't insulate
or medicate compassion but allow it to move us to action.
Kindness:
The Greek word here is elsewhere often used of God and implies "undeserved
kindness." We are kind to those who have not earned or deserved it.
Humility:
From the same root that Paul uses in Philippians 2 when he urges us to imitate
Christ who gave up the glory of heaven and humbled Himself to humanity and the
cross.
Gentleness:
Is also translated meekness and even courtesy. It implies controlled strength.
It is the diametric opposite of harshness.
Patience:
Long-suffering, endurance, forbearance. It recognises that life is a marathon -
that we must persevere and take a long-term view.
Imagine
if more of us wore this five-piece outfit! As Christians, and Traders, let's
trade the me-first Emperor's clothes for this five piece work outfit!
The
world would be a much better place.
No comments:
Post a Comment