Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Colossians 3:12-15

We don’t really have a good way to indicate the plural “you” in modern English without resorting to colloquialisms, so just know that in the above passage, Paul was talking to the Colossian church in the plural. This was him saying something to y’all Christians, not to one person.

In that light, we begin to realize what he was really saying. If we are, together, the body of Christ, then clothing that body with these holy virtues is not merely the responsibility of each individual but a task we undertake together as a Church.

We don’t just clothe ourselves for warmth and for protection from bugs and scratches while we work, we also clothe ourselves for our own dignity and decency. How do we treat the body of Christ? Has the Church been content with sweatpants and sloppy T-shirts, Spiritually speaking? Sure, that will do the job, but is it really what we want to present?

Let’s clothe the body of Christ in a better quality of garment and hold our conduct to the highest standard we can manage.

Ethan Kirl