As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
Recently, a visiting pastor, Craig Darling, spoke about the above verse. One thing he said really stuck with me. He said, "There are gaping holes in the garments of our sanctification." I thought, yes indeed. If you look at what Paul is urging of us you can see where those holes might be. He is asking for, not just some humility and gentleness, but complete humility and gentleness! All the time humble and gentle? Patience, putting up with people, love, unity. Those are all the hard ones. Those are the ones you want to read quickly and go on, the ones you want to make excuses for.
Yet we are supposed to wear these things like a garment:
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. Colossians 3:12-14
Why a garment? So that when people look at us, they see Jesus.
Sanctification and justification are two different things. Justification takes a moment; the moment we receive, believe that Jesus took our sins when he died on the cross and gave us in return His righteousness before God. Sanctification, however, takes a long time it seems, as the Spirit puts his finger on sin, and we yield to Him, things like self-righteousness, self-justification, self-pity, fearfulness and doubt, unforgiveness, uncontrolled anger and tongue - and an entitled attitude to hang on to all those things. Some of it needs deep heart-healing, even becoming aware that we need healing. Some of it needs death to self and pride. A lot of it needs letting go of the hurt, the expectations and demands, the desire to control, to inflict vengeance and our own brand of justice. It takes committing it all to God.
"So my decision to receive Him, although made only once, I must affirm in thousands of ways, through thousands of choices, for the rest of my life--my will or His, my life (the old one) or His (the new one). It is no to myself and yes to Him." -- Elisabeth Elliot, A Path Through Suffering
And right there, that is the key. Our garments have holes in them because they are our own old garments, not the ones God wants to clothe us with. The garment God wants to clothe us with is woven by the Spirit of God. It cannot come from us; it is the fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22
A recent excellent blog by Beholding Him Ministries confirmed what the Lord was saying to me.
"… sometimes when we are discussing the fruit of the Spirit, it comes more about if we can list all nine from memory rather than "am I allowing God to have His way in my life?" Sometimes we spend all our attention on the first couple: love, joy, peace, patience and none on "kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Perhaps that is needed by the body of Christ, for our "kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" will prove out our love, joy, peace and patience." -- One Who is Faithful (emphasis mine) https://beholdinghimministries.org/2022/06/24/text-51/
Lord, I want the world to see You. Take off my holey garment and replace it with your holy garment. Only you can make me complete or completely anything – especially completely humble and gentle.
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. 2 Timothy 1:9
Still wrestling ...
Image from Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Debbie_Reynolds_Auction_-_Charlton_Heston_%22Col_George_Taylor%22_primitive_robe_of_rags_from_%22Planet_of_the_Apes%22_%285852145450%29.jpg#metadata
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