Must Have Clothes for Fall for Christian Women
This weekend we spent some time in New York City with our two oldest girls, my niece and my mother. Our hotel was smack dab in the middle of Times Square.
One thing I love to look at in the city is the vast array of clothing from casual to ultra dressy. When we walked up Fifth Avenue, the clothing was so upscale that I felt out of place. We were bombarded with advertisements about was in for fall. We were in the fashion capital of the northeast and the clothes were beautiful!
We went to see the Phantom of the Opera with the girls, and we all “dressed up.” We didn’t just wear our casual clothes or things we’d be embarrassed to be seen in. We dressed appropriately in something nice. (or as nice as it gets for us. lol)
As followers of Jesus Christ, Ephesians 4 talks about our heart clothes–our MUST HAVE FASHIONS.
It says that we should put on certain heart attitudes and take off sinful ones.
Just like a dead person wears grave clothes that are decayed and corrupt, we should be embarrassed to be “dressed” like we are still dead in our sins as we represent Christ. In Christ, we have new clothes because we have a new nature and Christ’s righteousness belongs to us.
We need to put off our “dead life” and put on the clothes of our new life. Anything short of this is grieving the Holy Spirit and walking unworthy of the Lord.
Below are excerpts from Ephesians 4 with my comments in parenthesis:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity…
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. {Satan is the father of lies. Jesus is the truth. When you lie to someone, you are breaking down truth in the body of Christ and harming it.}
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. {Burning, residing anger is called murder in the NT. Satan is a murderer from the beginning and allowing anger to “settle” in you against another person gives Satan an open door in your life. Anger may come to us all momentarily, but “anger rests/settles in the bosom of fools.”}
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. {Work to give to the needs of others}
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. {Corrupt communication tears down. God needs us to edify other believers and bring health and healing. Nothing good comes of corrupt talk.}
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. {Anger leads to bitterness which is a lingering animosity towards someone. Wrath are heated emotional bouts and clamour is a heated, emotional verbal attack. Malice is a desire to do ill or see ill come to another person. }
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. {All of these heart attitudes are the exact opposite of the sins listed. You can’t be angry when you have a tender heart toward someone. You can’t be malicious when you have a kind heart. You won’t participate in evil speaking about another if you have a forgiving heart. The heart pretty much settles the course of your life.}
The “dead life clothes” look like the unbelieving world, yet many Christians spend YEARS walking around in them: lying, stealing, anger, bitterness, wrath, angry outbursts, slander, etc…
This is NOT how we have learned Christ. Christ’s ways are not THIS way.
PUT ON what looks like Christ: truth, kindness, tender hearts, forgiving spirits.
The heart determines the course of your life. If we choose to sin by holding on to attitudes that God forbids, then we shouldn’t be surprised when life doesn’t go well for us. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, so humble yourself (by repenting of wrong actions and feelings) under the mighty hand of God, and He will help you. He is gracious like that and promises to do so.
Isn’t Christ worth it? Isn’t it better to put off the things that offend Him because they are the opposite of His nature, and to please Him? It’s not like He doesn’t have a claim on our lives–we are not our own, we are bought with a price–The precious blood of Jesus Christ.
AND, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and follow fashion at all, THIS is the style that is IN and a MUST HAVE for fall 2012. 🙂
That is a great post …and I still want to know what is “in” for Christian Women’s fashions for the fall?
This was really really good! Thank you for this blog post! 🙂
Thank you, Kim. It is a convicting passage.
Thanks Mum! <3