Claiming our Riches in Christ: The Book of Colossians
03/23/2003 - Dress for Success
When I was a student in seminary wearing coats and ties to class every day, John Molloy came out with his best selling book called Dress for Success. For over two decades he had been America's leading image consultant and claimed to have done research on over 60,000 executives to find out what it takes to look your best.
Molloy passionately believes that the clothes we wear have a remarkable impact on the people we meet both professionally and socially and greatly affect how they treat us. And in his book he talks about power shirts and power suits and the most important status symbol of all for a man, the power tie. That leaves me out!
He suggests outfits that will make you look more powerful or more friendly or more competent and that will get you the results you really want. He even tells men how to dress so they can get the pretty girl. At one point he says, "It is possible, through skillful manipulation of dress in any particular situation, to evoke a favorable response to your personality and your needs."
And I'm sure there's truth to the impact our clothes have on other people. But don't be fooled, the image we project on the outside is not nearly as powerful or as long lasting as the character we project on the inside. Are you dressing for success in God's eyes?
This morning we continue our series in Colossians called Claiming our Riches in Christ. And today we're going to look at the dress code that God has for those who are in his family. Turn in your Bible to Colossians 3:12-17. Look at verse 12, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. Stop right there.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ this morning you need to know something about yourself. You are chosen. You are holy. You are dearly loved by God. When your name comes up in a conversation among the three persons of the Trinity, when they're hanging out in the throne room of heaven talking about you, God gets this big smile on his face because he loves you and thinks you're something really special.
It's very significant that every one of these three words, chosen, holy and dearly loved was originally used to describe the Jewish people. They were God's chosen people. They were a holy nation. They were the beloved of God.
Later on, these three words were used to describe Israel's Messiah, Jesus Christ. He was God's chosen one. He was God's holy one. He was the Father's dearly beloved Son. But now Paul takes these three precious words and applies them to us. And God can do that because as believers we are now "in Christ." We are inseparably linked with Christ so that when God sees us he sees Jesus.
If you are "in Christ" this morning you are chosen. Hand picked by God to be in his family. You thought you chose God, right? Well, you did. But God chose you first to be one of his. You don't have to try to get God to notice you or to pick you to be his "American Idol." God's already singled you out to be one of his sons or daughters because of his grace toward you. It's the same kind of grace that determines why parents will adopt one child and not another child. The baby has no say in the adoption process. It's strictly the choice of the parents. You were chosen to be in God's family by his grace.
You are holy. That word holy means "different or special." You may not feel special to anyone very often, but to God you are always special. You don't have to prove yourself or show yourself to be significant. You are God's favorite son or daughter in the whole world. He carries your picture in his wallet and loves to brag about you to everybody he knows.
You are dearly loved. God is head over heels, hopelessly in love with you. You may not feel like anybody in this world loves you. But God loves you just the way you are, unconditionally, warts and all. And he doesn't play the kind of love games that we play. Like "I'll love you if you act a certain way." Or "I'll love when you start doing this for me." Or "I'll love you as long as you treat me this or that way." Those are the love games we play. God doesn't play those games. He loves us the same whether we're sitting in church behaving ourselves and having a good day or out blowing it somewhere and having a really bad day. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing! And we need to embrace that love at the deepest level of our soul so we can be free to love others.
In our Wednesday night Walk with Jesus we've been looking at an article written by Henri Nouwen on the spiritual disciplines. Henri Nouwen is with the Lord now but for years he was a very insightful priest and professor at Harvard University. The article is called "Moving from solitude to community to ministry." It's one of the most significant articles I've ever read. Since I first read it eight yeas ago it's been vibrating in my soul.
And in it he writes, "Solitude is being with God and God alone ... To pray is to listen to the One who calls you 'my beloved daughter,' 'my beloved son,' 'my beloved child.' To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being ... You have to listen to the voice who calls you the beloved, because otherwise you will run around begging for affirmation, for praise, for success (from other people). And then you're not free ... Your freedom is anchored in claiming your belovedness. That allows you to go into this world and touch people, heal them, speak with them, and make them aware that they are beloved, chosen, and blessed."
In a moment the apostle Paul is going to move into a list of ways we're to relate to people and just reading it can exhaust us, let alone pulling it off. And we'll never be able to pull it off unless we first realize how much we're loved and blessed by God. Otherwise we give people way too much power to define our identity.
Nouwen goes on to say, "If you keep that in mind, you can deal with an enormous amount of success as well as an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity, because your identity is that you are the beloved."
Do you really believe that about yourself or do you hear other voices from your past telling you things like, "You're no good. You're not special. You'll never amount to anything. Nobody will ever love you." Don't believe them. That's not the truth about you. The truth is God loves you, you are chosen by him and are special to him. And no one can take that away from us. No one.
Now how do people who really believe that about themselves relate to others? It will affect all our relationships, because how we treat others flows out of our understanding of who we really are.
Look again at verse 12, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
In verses 12-14, Paul is going to tell us to put on the love of Christ. Dress for success! He uses the metaphor of clothing ourselves with certain attitudes and behaviors that look good on a person whose chosen, holy and loved by God. Sometimes when we're out shopping and try on a new shirt or outfit right away we can tell whether it's a good fit for us. In fact, some one might even say, "That's you. Buy it. That looks great on you." Well, these are the attitudes and behaviors that look great on a child of God. Last week, in verses 8-9, Paul told us the things to take off like anger and rage. Now he tells us the things to put on.
And like clothing they have to be put on every single day. You don't wear one outfit everyday the rest of your life. Although, I'd love to do that. If it was up to me I'd wear the same shirt and pants every single day. It would be one less decision to make everyday. Cut down on laundry. I'd change my underwear, but that's all!
But every day we have to decide what clothes we're going to wear. And every day we have to decide if we're going put on the virtues of Christ and act like who we really are. It's a daily decision.
And just like clothes we put them on one piece at a time and each piece is important. So in this list there are a bunch of garments and they're all important. Some we put on well and some we may not put on at all. But all of them are a perfect fit for a Christ follower.
The first piece in the closet is compassion. Compassion literally means "bowels of sympathy." It's a feeling word. The Greeks viewed the center of our emotions as not residing in the heart, but in our bowels, in our guts. Even today we still use the expression, "I've got a gut felling." Compassion is that ability to see a need, feel the hurt and respond to it. It's the first one on the list.
Sue Gilmore told us about a compassion ministry today. She has a burden and a vision to mobilize the church to better help those in need. We're calling it the Helping Hands Ministry and I urge all of you to step up in some small way to serve others. Bob and Linda Noble of Open Doors Ministry have deep compassion, as do we, for the persecuted church and they're here today and available to help us understand how we can better pray for our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. Compassion is not an option for us. It's part of the outfit that Christ followers wear.
The second piece of clothing is kindness. Kindness means you put the needs of others above your own. Kindness comes out in all kinds of little ways. We live in a driven, fast paced, harsh world and when we show kindness we stand out in the crowd. Kindness can mean holding the door for someone, letting someone go first in a line of traffic or in a line at the store. It can mean a smile, a warm greeting, a compliment, saying "please" and "thank you." It can mean listening to a child tell a long story. Sometimes kindness means not interrupting a person. Kindness, the second garment on this list, shows that God understands that the little things count in big ways. God wants his kids to be kind.
The next piece on the hanger is humility. This one is really tied into our identity in Christ because when we really understand who God is and who we are and what he's done for us it's hard to be proud. Someone has said, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less." Humility is not saying, "I'm no good. I'm nothing. I'll never amount to anything." That's false modesty. Instead, humility means saying to ourselves, "I am chosen. I am holy. And I am loved all because of the grace of God in my life. And I need to show that same grace to other people." We keep our humble perspective not by comparing ourselves to other people, but by focusing on what the grace of God has done in our lives. That's why humble people can often serve without notice. They're not looking to others for their worth and value.
Gentleness is the next virtue. And it doesn't mean weakness. Instead, gentleness means strength under control. Paul said in his letter to the Thessalonians, We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. This week, Jen and I had the privilege of holding little Luke Dittman, just one day old. And we tried to be so gentle with him, so careful with him in our arms. We didn't want hurt him or even wake him up. Gentleness with people looks a lot like that. It's being careful with people and not wanting to intentionally hurt anyone.
Patience is next on the rack. That's a challenge, isn't it? How much flex do you have in your rope? How patient are you with people who rub you the wrong way? The Chinese have a proverb that says, "If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." There's a lot of truth in that. A little patience pays big dividends.
Verse 13 goes on to say, Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Bearing with others and forgiving them as the Lord has forgiven us. That's a lot, but when know you're chosen and you're special and you're dearly loved and how much you've been forgiven, then you can release people, parents or significant others, who have failed to love you or treat you as special or pick you as their favorite. Forgiveness means to release people from the need to get back at them for the pain they've brought into your life.
A few months ago Mike did an excellent teaching on the value of forgiveness and reminded all of us that life resolves around relationships, but the problem is relationships don't work. They're filled with disappointment, loss, hurt and conflict. And the only solution to the pain is to live a life of forgiveness, which means releasing people all the time from the need to even the score and then blessing them in return. That doesn't mean forgetting what they did or even trusting them again but actually wanting good to come into their lives.
And how do we know if we've really forgiven somebody? The test is not whether we've forgotten the offense. We may never forget the hurt that they've caused us. Forgive and forget is not in the Bible. The memory of the hurt will certainly fade with time after we've released them, but may never completely disappear.
Instead, we know we've forgiven some one if we don't bring up the offense ever again, not to that person, not to someone else, not even to ourselves. Instead, we resist the temptation to mull over the hurt because that's how the Lord has forgiven us. He won't bring our sin up ever again, he won't tell others about it, and he won't mull it over and hold it against us. It's gone.
Someone has said that, "When God forgives our sin he throws it into the deep end of the ocean and then puts a sign on the beach that reads, 'No fishing!'"
And over all these virtues, put on love, unconditional, agape love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. The last piece of clothing the Greeks would put on was their belt. Wrapping the belt around their waist would hold the whole outfit together. The belt is love. If we love others we'll be compassionate and kind and humble and gentle and patient and forgiving. Love ties it all together. The greatest of these is love.
So in verses 12-14, Paul says, "Put on the love of Christ." Now in verse 15 he says, "Be ruled by the peace of Christ." Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
The love that we're to have for others should lead to peace in the body of Christ. Peace should rule in our relationships. The word "rule" is an athletic term. It actually means, "to umpire." In the game of life the peace of Christ is to be our umpire.
When a baseball player slides into home plate and the catcher has the ball and it's a close play who's the most important person in the stadium at that moment. It's not the runner. It's not the catcher. It's the umpire. All eyes are on the umpire because he's the one whose going to make the call, "Safe!" or "Out!" He's the judge. He has the final say.
And in the home plate collisions of our relational world, the peace of Christ is to be the umpire, to make the call and rule over relationships. Which means relational conflict is not to rule in the church. Our anger and hurt feelings are not to rule our relationships. Our emotions are not to make the call. Peace is to make the call. And so we do whatever it takes to maintain peace in all our relationships. Sometimes that means absorbing some blows without saying anything. And at other times that means going to the person who hurt us and making things right. And we can usually tell when that's necessary. Let the peace of Christ rule at Valley View Community Church and be thankful. It's hard to stay angry when you're thankful.
Put on the love of Christ. Be ruled by the peace of Christ. Be indwelt by the Word of Christ. Look at verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
This is what's happening right now. We're being taught and admonished by the wisdom of the Word of God. We've sung psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts to God. We've affirmed together the truth of God's Word in song and in teaching. What we do here each week is exactly what God commands, which is why it's a party and a joy to be here. Worship is what we were created for and it makes us come alive.
But we don't have to wait till Sunday comes. We can get into the Word during the week on our own or with our small group. On Wednesday night a few weeks ago we talked about five ways to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. We can hear it. We can read it. We can study it. We can memorize it. We can meditate on it. Let it richly dwell in you.
We can worship anytime too, even without Tim and the worship team. We can sing to worship CD's at home, in the car, alone or with others. We don't sing to perform. We sing with gratitude in our hearts to God. We, who are chosen and special and dearly loved, of all people, have something worth singing about!
Put on the love of Christ. Be ruled by the peace of Christ. Be indwelt by the Word of Christ. And finally do everything in the name of Christ. Look at verse 17, And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Whatever you do, whatever you say, do and say it in the name of Christ. Which means WWJD. What would Jesus do? What would Jesus say? It's more than about wearing a bracelet. It's even more than about our outward behavior. WWJD has to flow out of a clear understanding that we, like Jesus, are chosen, are special and are dearly loved by God. And because we are it's possible to live this way and relate to people this way and do it all with a heart overflowing with thankfulness.
Dressing for success is where the rubber meets the road in our Christian life. Have you noticed that most of life is lived in the routine? Getting out of bed, taking a shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing our teeth, making our bed, going to school, going to work, doing laundry, cleaning up spills, making dinner, doing homework, watching TV, talking on the phone, answering e-mails. Most of life is spent in the routine. Yet it's in the routine where we show off Christ.
For many years, Billy Graham's wife, Ruth, had a little sign hanging over her kitchen sink that said, "Divine services held here three times a day." While her husband, the great evangelist, was traveling the world over speaking to millions, she was living out her faith at the kitchen sink, washing dishes in the name of Christ, changing diapers, raising a family. Our life and our faith and our families are built on the mundane, routine tasks of everyday living. Yet that is the area where God wants us to live out who were are in Jesus Christ. And when we do, we discover what life was meant to be!