“And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Colossians 3:14 CEB
An online article from Inc.com answered the question, why do successful people wear the same thing every day. A 2017 HBO series documented that Andre Young (better known as Dr. Dre) wears the same shoes every day, Barack Obama only wears black or blue suits, Mark Zuckerberg wears only gray designer t-shirts, and Steve Jobs was famous for his black turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers. In the Inc.com article they mention that these highly successful people wear the same thing every day for several reasons. First, they waste less time each day deciding what they will wear. They also spend far less time shopping for what they wear. It is reported in the article that the average person makes 35,000 decisions every day. Eliminating one is a good start. Second, they save brainpower according to the article. Former president Obama offers, “You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.” Knowing what you will wear takes away one trivial decision every day which allows you to stay focused on other decisions. Third, you will always feel good in what you are wearing. You chose the clothes for a reason and you feel good about it. You will always feel good in the clothes you chose to wear.
So how much thought and intention do you put into what you wear? I would imagine that most of us have not gone to the extreme of deciding to wear the exact same thing every day. However, have we given much thought to what we do wear each day? The third chapter of The Book of Colossians is one of my favorite New Testament passages. Verse 14 is the reason why. Paul tells the Christ-followers in Colossae to be intentional about what they wear every day. Not for the reasons outlined in the Inc.com article. Actually, Paul’s reasons are much, much better reasons that will have more far reaching implications for your life. Paul tells them to put on several things in the third chapter. He tells them to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. He writes that they should be tolerant with each other and forgiving. Then he writes, “And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Paul urges them to put on love over everything else.
Could this change the way you live each day? Do you wake up each morning and put on your outfit of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness? And before you leave the house—do you put on that overcoat of love? I do not believe that Paul was writing this rhetorically or as a metaphor. I believe Paul wanted us to be very intentional about what we wear in order to be successful Christ-followers. Paul is advocating for wearing the same spiritual outfit every day. As we do this each day it will certainly be less of a decision and more a part of our character and who we are. We will be less tempted to be concerned about the trivial things of the day because we have put on the most important things. We will absolutely feel good in what we are wearing and everyone else will feel good about what we are wearing as well. It may be helpful to wear the same clothing every day for success. It is definitely important to wear the same spiritual clothing every day to be a successful Christ-follower.
What will you wear today? I challenge all of us to choose to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness today. “And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” As we put on all these things each day, especially love, let’s see what a tremendous difference it will make in our lives. Remember the words of Paul when he wrote to the church at Corinth, “Now faith, hope, and love remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love.” Let’s go out and put on love—every day!
This Sunday we continue our message series entitled “Qualified.” We will look at the way Jesus demonstrates putting on love. We can choose to put on the same love Jesus Christ had for us every day. I hope you will join me this Sunday at 8:15|NINE45|11:15 for worship. You can also go to SAUMC.NET and join us via livestream. The best is yet to come. I love you all and can’t wait to see you in church!
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