Dress for Success

There was a time when there were different clothes for different occasions.  I say there ‘was a time’ because today casual is accepted as the norm almost anywhere you go.  I’ve been in restaurants where the waiter was dressed very formally, but most patrons were quite informal.  We live in a casual culture.

But even now there is an understanding that certain clothes are appropriate or even required for some situations.  If you’re on a team, you wear a uniform to identify yourself as belonging.  In the military you do the same.  Ditto if you’re in prison, although involuntarily.  But when you leave those – when your playing days are over, when you’re discharged or retire from the military, certainly when you’re released from prison – you leave the uniform behind and exchange it for something appropriate to who you are now.  You may keep the team uniform in the closet or hang on to and even prize your military fatigues (I assume the prison folks want the uniform back and you’re glad to oblige) and pull them out from time to time to remind yourself of what you were but not mostly and less frequent as time passes.

The Bible teaches that God is re-creating people, people who, in the past, were identified outwardly by what how they talked and what they did.  Those outward characteristics were consistent with the inward character with which all of us are born.  Chapters one through three of Ephesians are about all that God has done to change us from the inside, and chapters four through six tell us that we must clothe ourselves in a way that is consistent with our new life:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Put Off the Old and Put on the New

You have clothes in your spiritual closet that are appropriate to both.  When you become a Christian, the old nature is not obliterated – it’s still around.  Unlike reminiscing about your playing or military days, and putting on the uniform for old time’s sake, these old clothes are to be increasingly discarded, removed from the closet that is you.  And you are to increasingly adorn and cultivate and enhance and beautify the new you, with outward characteristics appropriate for who God has made you.

The passage says the new self is ‘created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.’  So what is the righteous and holy look that God wants us to have?  How can one who is becoming increasingly righteous and holy be identified?  The next verse (25) says: “Therefore …”, connecting what follows with what precedes.  Because God has given you new life, “Therefore …” and then it says, “each of you must” followed by six things given through 5:4 that we must do in order to look like what we are.  It tells us that …

• The New You Wears Truth (4:25)
• The New You Wears Peace (4:26-27)
• The New You Wears Generosity (4:28)
• The New You Wears Grace (4:29-30)
• The New You Wears Love (4:31-5:2)
• The New You Wears Purity (5:3-4)

John Stott has helpfully identified some common features in how each of these is presented.  Each of the six qualities that we are to put on are …

Relational

Holiness is not a mystical condition experienced in relation to God but in isolation from human beings.  Stott says, “You cannot be good in a vacuum, but only in the real world of people.”

When 4:1 tells us to live lives worthy (consistent) with our calling described in chapters 1-3, it begins in vv. 4-16 by stressing that our new lives are to be lived in unity with one another.  And when 4:17-5:21 teaches that our lives are to be holy, it presents that holiness as fostered and cultivated and strengthened in community.

Positive

I have a series I call ‘Positive holiness’.  In it, I say that holiness (being set apart, separate, different) is not first what we avoid and stay away from, but what we do.  Remember that although many of the 10 commandments are stated in the negative (“Thou shalt not …”), those prohibitions are all in service to what we are to positively pursue namely “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).  Jesus said, “All the Law [including the prohibitions] and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40).  The “Replacement Principle” taught in Ephesians 4 is in keeping with our positive objective.  Stott again says, “It is not enough to put off the old rags; we have to put on new garments … it is not enough to give up lying and stealing and losing our temper, unless we also start speaking the truth, working hard and being kind to people.”

Practical

In each case a reason for the command is either given or implied.  Obedience to each accomplishes something important in our lives.  This is because God’s truth is not an end in itself but is rather intended for us to live it out.  “In the teaching of Jesus and his apostles, doctrine and ethics, belief and behavior are always dovetailed into one another” (Stott).  This is in keeping with what the Bible says about its purpose:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The words ‘so that’ indicate the reason for which Scripture has been given.  The ‘teaching’ ‘rebuking’ ‘correcting’ and ‘training’ contained in the Bible are all for the objective of ‘thoroughly equipping.’

Christ has made us new and has told us what the ‘new you’ should wear, and why.  We cannot be casual about this wardrobe, but instead must progressively replace our old clothes for far better and nicer looking threads.  We are to dress for spiritual success.

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Ken Brown is the pastor of Community Bible Church in Trenton, MI. We republish his article by permission.

Photo by Tyler Harris on Unsplash