Our lesson this week reviews our obligations to God as reflected by the way we treat one another. Paul speaks specifically about our obligation to obey earthly authorities and to love one another. Then he sums up these mandates with one rule: “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a wonderful image to help us visualize the duties of Christianity.
Remember our lesson about the parable of the wedding banquet? There was a guest at the wedding banquet who wasn’t wearing wedding clothes, and he was rejected from the party. If you remember, the wedding clothes were provided by the host for each guest. This man was only expected to put on the clothes he had been provided, but he failed to comply with this simple rule. As a result, he was rejected.
Paul says all the rules of the Old Testament could be summed up in this one; namely, to put on Jesus as a wedding garment. We were invited to this party from off the streets. We were strangers to God, but because he wanted his heaven to be full, he invited even us. Through salvation, we accepted that invitation. Now we must dress appropriately, and we do that by covering our sin and shame with the attitudes and character of Jesus.
That brings us to another of Paul’s teachings, the “law of Christ.” In order to clothe ourselves in Christ, we must understand his law. Paul likes to make a distinction between the law of sin and death, which is God’s law, and the law of Christ. The law of sin is a law we obey out of fear because it leads to bondage and death.
Paul says in Romans 7: “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death” (v. 10-11).
Because the Old Testament law identifies wrong-doing, it exposes our sin without changing our sin nature. It makes us bond-servants to sin rather than freeing us from it.
The law of Christ, on the other hand, is a law of love and peace. It is a law based on faith, not works, so it can only lead to life and freedom. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).
While the law of death required strict obedience under penalty of death, the law of Christ creates a debt of love. We do not obey this law out of fear, but out of gratitude. It compels us to obey the Spirit of the law (not the letter of the law) and to imitate the one who gave us that law (not to resist him).
The debt of love
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God gave up his Son out of love for us. Jesus died on the cross out of that same love. And Jesus commands us to share his love with one another. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
Our love should express itself in carrying one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2) and simultaneously carrying our own load so we won’t be a burden to others (Galatians 6:5). We should be “kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave” us (Ephesians 4:32).
Love isn’t a word to be bandied about. It’s a commitment to one another’s well being. And it leads us to treat one another with dignity and respect, forgiving and building one another up.
This kind of love is impossible to achieve in our own strength. But when we clothe ourselves with Christ, we are able to adopt his attitudes through imitation.
Imitating the master
If you’ve ever tried imitating Jesus, you know the frustration of falling short. Part of the reason for this is our focus on behaviors rather than attitudes. Paul says we should adopt Jesus’ attitude. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:5-7).
Jesus was humble. He made himself a servant to everyone, spending long hours ministering to people and trying to meet their physical and spiritual needs. But Jesus wasn’t weak. He stood up to people who were motivated by wickedness and selfishness. And having resolved to take upon himself the sin of the world, he followed through.
Clothing ourselves in Jesus means taking on both humility and power. This is possible because Jesus, who is love, becomes a coat of armor once we begin operating in His power.
Christ as armor empowers us
In verse 12, Paul says, “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” He talks about the armor of God in Ephesians as well.
Spiritual armor strengthens us to stand against the devil’s schemes. It protects our minds from wrong thinking and our hearts from callousness. As Paul says, “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 7:17-18).
Putting on the armor of Christ essentially is the same thing as clothing ourselves in Christ. Regardless of how you say it, we must cover ourselves with the power of God made available through Jesus. By ourselves, we are too weak to fight spiritual battles. But protected by the covering of Christ and directed by the Holy Spirit, we can be holy even as Jesus is holy.
And having clothed ourselves in Christ, we also adopt his purpose, which is to lead as many people as possible to the Father. “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible” (1 Corinthians 9:19, italics mine).
The duties of Christianity shouldn’t be a checklist of things to do. It is one law—the law of Christ—that leads us to obey him out of a spirit of love. Let’s do just that. Clothe yourself in Christ, and see what a difference it can make in your world.
Discussion questions
• When you think of following Jesus, do you think about behaviors or attitudes?
• Describe how someone “clothed in Christ” might respond to difficult situations. How would that differ from someone not “clothed in Christ”?
• What difference do you think it would make in your Christian walk to be “clothed in Christ”?
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