Change Your Clothes
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” — Ephesians 4:22-24, NIV.
If you are a normal person, you likely have at least one item of clothing that you have kept well beyond its reasonable lifespan…the shirt that has lost its shape, the sweatshirt with a stain from 1957, or some pants being held together by sheer loyalty. Someone suggests getting rid of it, and you become shockingly defensive — It is comfortable! It is familiar! You have been wearing it for years! All valid observations. None of them mean it should still be worn in public.
We can have similar attachment to the old ways we think, react, and live. They may be damaging, but they are familiar. Defensiveness feels natural, resentment feels justified, control feels responsible. We have worn these things for so long that we being calling them facets of our personality. Then Jesus calls us into a new life, and we find out that following him requires a change of clothes.
In Ephesians 4:22-24, Paul tells believers to lay aside their former way of life, “be made new in the attitude of your minds,” and put on the new self God has created in righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24, NIV). This change reaches beneath the behavior other people can see. Colossians 3:9 describes taking off the old self “with its practices.” The surrounding verses address anger, rage, and malice alongside lying and harmful speech (Colossians 3:8-10, NIV). God address the attitudes and desires producing our actions, including the ones we have learned to conceal politely in certain situations.
We might stop saying the cutting remark out loud while continuing to replay it in our mind, where it receives several enthusiastic rounds of applause. We might behave generously while keeping careful track of who notices. We can make outward adjustments while protecting the pride, bitterness, or selfishness underneath. But Jesus calls us to surrender the old life itself. We cannot keep treating a cherished sin as something he will eventually learn to work around.
Paul places the renewal of our minds between taking off the old self and putting on the new. Our old desires deceive us. They tell us that resentment will protect us, control will secure us, and getting what we want will finally satisfy us. God’s truth exposes those promises and teaches us to think differently. As we receive his Word, we learn to recognize what we have been believing and bring it under the truth of who he is. We can ask him to change the attitude beneath the reaction we keep regretting.
And here is the grace in all of this — God creates the new self he calls us to put on.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV).
We depend on his power as we respond in obedience. We actively live out our salvation because God is working within us, shaping both our willingness and our actions (Philippians 2:12-13, NIV). Grace gives us both the reason and the help to change.
So what do these new clothes look like?
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12, NIV).
Paul reminds us that we are chosen, holy, and loved. Our obedience grows from belonging to God. We practice compassion because people matter to him. We choose humility because we no longer need to protect an image of being right about everything. We learn patience because we have received so much of it ourselves.
Are there some old clothes you need to throw out today. Are you still wearing the T-shirt of pride? The hoodie of jealousy? The hat of shame? Is there some sin from years past that you keep pulling out of the closet when it needs to go straight to the dumpster? We can become remarkably protective of things that have never done us any good. We know they need to go, but we keep them around “just in case.” Just in case we want to revisit that resentment. Just in case obedience becomes inconvenient. Just in case we need to remind ourselves of a failure God has already forgiven.
Some of us need to repent of a sin we are still practicing; others need to stop wearing a forgiven sin as our identity. Bring both honestly before Jesus. Ask him to expose what you are defending, renew what you are believing, and help you live in the grace he has given you. You belong to him. You do not have to keep dressing like the old life still owns you.
bytaylormcgee
