Colossians 3:1-17: Changing Your Spiritual Clothes

Colossians 3:9-10 "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."

When's the last time you changed your clothes? I sure hope it was at least less than a day ago. There's something about changing our clothes that presents great imagery for us in our Christian walk. Just as we take off dirty clothes to put on clean clothes each morning, we must put off our old sinful self and put on our new renewed self each day as well. This is what Paul speaks of in Colossians 3:1-17. Let us examine the text this morning to find out what it looks like to put off the old and put on the new.

In the context of Colossians 3, Paul has just taught us how we have died to this world and are now living in Christ. In light of this, he encourages us to act. But how do we act? you say. Good question. We put off the old and we put on the new. If we truly have died to the world, that means that there is something that was once a part of us that ought to no longer be a part of us, that is, our old, sinful self. Therefore, we ought to daily be taking this off. Our old self includes all of our sin, such as sexual impurity, idolatry, anger, unforgiveness, lying, and things alike. But you ask: what do we replace those things with? Another good question! You're really on it today. Paul provides us with the solution: the new self, which is being renewed by its Creator, that is, Christ, the All in All. Paul is stating here that we ought to replace the old stuff with the new stuff that is manifested in Christ. Thus, intead of being angry we ought to be forgiving. Instead of being idolatrous we must be at peace. Instead of seeking sexual impurity, we must pursue Christ's teachings of purity. Thus, we must take off every sin of the old self and put on every righteousness of the new self in Chirst.

So, when's the last time you changed your spiritual clothes? I hope it has been less than a day as well. Let me encourage you, brother or sister, to take off whatever is old and sinful within you, for if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. The old has gone, and the new has come. So, live in the new self, and don't go back to the dead corpse of your old self. Amen.