Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

–Parallel verses:
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬-‭13‬
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

There is a well-known fairy tale of an emperor who had an obsession with fancy clothes. Two con men tricked the emperor by posing as tailors who had developed a type of clothing that was perfect in its level of comfort and ease to move around in. It was visible to anyone who was not stupid or incompetent. So the emperor walked around his kingdom wearing no clothes, even though he could not see them, because he didn’t want to be thought a fool. And all of his subjects also pretended to see the clothes, for the same reason.

The Bible tells us to clothe ourselves with spiritual clothing. Colossians 3 mentions: “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, forgiveness, forbearance, love, peace, and thankfulness.” Ephesians 6 tells us to put on as our armor (clothe ourselves with) salvation, truth, righteousness, faith, The Word of God, the gospel of peace.

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ says this: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

If the Spirit of God is inside our hearts as believers, we want his fruit to shine out of our hearts, like fruit. In order to do this we must repent daily of our sins and be clothed with our spiritual clothes.

In our world, people like to give lots of accolades and receive credit for accomplishments. They complement people for charity, and name buildings after them. They state how wise or caring they are for doing things in the open that are thought to be kind. Some of these people are also very evil, hiding their evil intentions behind a few good deeds.

Maybe they are really cold and naked spiritually, but no one will tell them of this, out of fear of upsetting them. This approach to life has even permeated our churches. Those who volunteer for countless service projects, who say just the right churchy words, who “kiss up” to church leadership … is their spiritual clothing really non-existent? Are they like the emperor who walks around without any clothes?

We are called as Christ followers to reject this worldly posturing and climbing of the corporate ladder or pursuing of social praise as our number one pursuit. Instead we are to pursue Jesus Christ: “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬)

Let us not be caught, my friends, as “The Christians who have no spiritual clothes!” Instead, each day we must clothe ourselves with the things of Jesus Christ, the character traits he exhibited in life.

It is not enough just to “name it and claim it” either. Some in our faith do this in an attempt to short-circuit the refining process of God’s Spirit in their lives. Speaking words is not the same as living in our spiritual clothes or character traits. We must dwell with God and get to know his heart and be obedient to his call on our lives. This is a daily discipline, clothing ourselves spiritually. We must make time for this at the cost of everything else.

Lord, help me to daily, consistently clothe myself with your good gifts of Godly character traits that your Spirit gives me. Work your ways in me; cut deep to the heart to root out my sinful and selfish ways. And lead me onto victory, clothed in Jesus Christ and his attributes!