Incorrectly Clothed

A message on the Importance of the Christ-Controlled life

“Clothe yourselves therefore, as God's own people holy and dearly loved, with tender-heartedness, kindness, lowliness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; bearing with one another and readily forgiving each other, if any one has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also must forgive. And over all these put on love, which is the perfect bond of union; and let the peace which Christ gives settle all questionings in your hearts, to which peace indeed you were called as belonging to His one Body; and be thankful. Let the teaching concerning Christ remain as a rich treasure in your hearts. In all wisdom teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and sing with grace in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, and let it be through Him that you give thanks to God the Father.” —Colossians 3:12–17, Weymouth’s Translation

It is my thought to talk to you on the subject, “Incorrectly Clothed.” This theme may suggest to some an address on the extravagances of feminine attire, but I have no such thing in mind. I wish to stress, rather, the importance of the Christ-controlled life, and this includes everything that pertains to Christian faith and deportment. When Jesus Christ is recognized as Lord and given the pre-eminence in our lives. All other things adjust themselves accordingly, and we endeavor to keep His commandments and do those things that are please in His sight. The Christian life takes on a new aspect when we come to know that we have only one person to please, and that is a loving Heavenly Father.

Pleasing One Man

I recall a story that the late Major Whittle used to tell of a ticket collector at a turnstile gate. A great crowd was pressing for entrance. It was a cold night and the folk were impatient. Some were murmuring because the collector insisted on seeing each ticket before he allowed the bearer to pass through the gate. Finally one man said to him, “You are the most unpopular man in this crowd tonight, sir.”

“That doesn’t concern me at all,” replied the ticket agent. “I am only trying to please one man.”

“And who might that be?”

Pointing to a lighted window high up in the building, he replied: “The man up there—the president of this firm."

And so you and I as Christians have to please just one man—the Man up there. To hear His “well done” and have His approval means a great deal more to a genuine disciple than to have the applause of the crowd.

An Allegory

In dealing with the subject before us I shall attempt to speak to you allegorically. I find that the apostle Paul, elsewhere in the Scriptures, adopted this method of pressing home the truth. In his epistle to the Galatians he referred to two sons of Abraham, one born of a bond woman and representing the flesh, and the other born of a free woman, typifying a child of promise. And Paul adds, “Which things are an allegory.”

We have also before us in this narrative two men. They are both living in the same house, but they are not on friendly terms. They are more than antagonistic; they are enemies. As the apostle tells us in his epistle to the Galatians, they are “contrary one to the other.” One striveth against another. Their names are found in [Colossians 3] verses nine and ten. One is the Old Man and the other is the New Man. The first personifies our fallen nature, the second the spiritual nature. Paul is fond of this way of characterizing. You will find in Romans 6:6 and Ephesians 4:22–24 the Old Man and the New Man are pictured. Elsewhere, the Old Man is called “the body of sin” and “the flesh.”

Two Suits Of Clothes

The wearing apparel of these two men is also mentioned in the story. One suit belongs to the Old Man and the other to the New Man. It is an amazing fact, but the Old Man frequently tries to wear the clothes that belong to the New Man and in this disguise he deceives very, very many. He has great capacity for education, for refinement, for culture. He is often intensely religious. He will even go so far as to be baptized, and that by immersion, and he will come to the Lord’s table. He may join the church and be selected as a deacon or an elder, and he has been known to take the pulpit on some occasions as a preacher of righteousness. For he has a righteousness and it makes a tremendous appeal to the carnal mind, for it never gives any offense. It is not the righteousness of God, however. It is not the righteousness which we have in Christ Jesus. God calls it “self-righteousness.”

Cannot Change Him

Another noticeable feature about this Old Man is that he cannot change, any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots. In nature, he remains ever the same. Neither time, nor environment, nor refinement, nor education, nor religion can better him. If this Old Man could be changed, there would be no necessity for a New Man.

At this point, I would like you to notice another outstanding fact. The New Man sometimes wears the clothes that belong to the Old Man. These are not only unbecoming to him, but they are positively disgraceful and in them, the New Man dishonors God. It is this disaster that the apostle is trying to prevent.

These two men were not always with us. The Old Man, of course, was here at the start. He came into being when we were born, but the New Man did not take up his residence with us until we were born again.

You will observe from the first verse in this chapter [Colossians 3] that the coming of the New Man into one’s life is likened to the miracle of the resurrection. You have probably noticed in your study of the New Testament that the word “resurrection” is used in three aspects:

First, in its bearing upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, in its relation to man’s hope of immortality.

Third, as the dynamic of the spiritual life.

The resurrection is the divine testimony to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 1:4 we read that He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.”

His resurrection was also a guarantee of the believer’s resurrection. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Here you see Paul makes the resurrection a type of the spiritual life.

It is only to those who have experienced the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit that the apostle is appealing in this third chapter of Colossians. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

You see, everything in Christian life begins with the vital experience of the new birth. Without it, all is futile as far as God and eternal life are concerned. The regenerated man is the temple of the Holy Spirit and God dwells in him. This is a fact, and it is as true of one believer as another. But unfortunately, there are many who do not recognize it. This was the weakness of the church at Corinth. “Know ye not,” said the apostle, “that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost?” When the fact grips one that the Holy Spirit is in him, and when he yields his life to the control of the Holy Spirit, then God’s ideal for him is realized. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”