GodReflection: Power Word Wednesday

Clothes are a big deal. Charities attempt to clothe the poor for weather and dignity. In addition to the utility of seeking warmth from the cold and coolness from the heat, the resourced often clothe themselves for comfort, power, and or acceptance.

More often than not, I find clothing tied to my identity and to my value system.

A necktie was an essential item in my wardrobe during most of my life. Life’s cultural paths and occupational demands pushed suits and ties near the top of my most prized gifts.

However, most good traditions run their course and my daughter’s confiscation of my precious necktie collection became a beautiful quilt. 

Jesus spoke of clothes in terms of trust, “why do you worry about clothes?”

He also spoke of clothes in the vocabulary of eternal transfiguration.

On another the occasion of his own transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 

He told his disciples to expect to be “clothed with power from on high.” 

His anointed apostles, Paul and Peter—humble yet powerful leaders of the first century church—continued the same imagery introduced by the Master.

Paul reminds me that my wardrobe begins with Christ, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27). 

Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:14).

I am to live in an active-waiting mode.

I am active in my attempt to submit myself more to Jesus so that I morph more into his likeness.

To complete my metamorphosis as a member of the family of God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, I am to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12). 

I await the time God will clothe the perishable with the imperishable and my own mortality with immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53). 

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (2 Corinthians 15:54). 

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:2-4). 

I like Apostle Peter’s summery, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble”  (1 Peter 5:5). 

So here I am in my own feeble attempt to discard neckties of acceptance and clothing traditions placed upon me by others rather than God. I find myself attempting to clothe myself in the values of Jesus rather than in the values of society.

Jesus turns clothed into a work of power to guide my walk.

As I clothe myself from God’s closet, I remember some of Jesus final words:

“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed” (Revelation 16:15). 

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on Clothed as a Word of Power.

Gary@Godreflection.org     www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com