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spiritual bell bottoms

In Colossians 3:5-11, Paul talks about what it means for the Christ-follower to live under new management.  Prior to coming to faith, we wore the wardrobe of Adam and Eve (not the fig leave, thankfully) — our closet was filled with rebellion, disobedience, selfishness, and all the other fashions consistent with a life outside of God.

As part of the conversion process, we are being transformed into the image of Jesus.  What begins at baptism continues throughout the rest of our life.  At baptism, we are “clothed in Christ” as Galatians 3:27 tell us: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  Our new wardrobe consists of the virtues and values of Jesus.

As we grow and mature, our new clothing begins to fit better.  At first, the new clothes might be a bit uncomfortable — like breaking in a new pair of shoes.  We know that eventually the stiffness will give way to comfort.  Shirts of compassion and gentleness may seem awkward.  People who knew us when we wore our old clothes might think we look a little funny.

But eventually something amazing happens: we get to a point where we can hardly believe we ever wore the old clothes.  Just like looking at our senior year picture in the high school yearbook … we look at our old ways, our old habits, and it seems hard to believe we once lived that way.  Why?  Because the new clothes are fitting better and we see how “out of style” those old clothes really were.

May God bless you as you continue to grow into your new wardrobe.