As the father of four children I have spent plenty of time over the last few years helping people get dressed. Getting dressed for school. Getting dressed for bed. Getting dressed for football matches and ballet dancing and birthday parties. As the seasons change, so do the outfits. When summer turns into autumn, there begins the desperate hunt around the house for hats and scarves and gloves. Likewise, in late spring, when summer threatens to return, the mad dash for shorts, T-shirts and swimming costumes starts all over again. Don’t even get me started on shoes…

Wearing clothes and getting dressed are an everyday part of the human condition. Chances are almost certain, I’d say, that you’re reading this article while dressed. (And if not, maybe you should attend to that before you read any further.) The Bible considers having clothes a basic necessity, something we can all expect God to provide us with. For instance, when Jesus teaches His disciples about the importance of seeking first the Kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, it is our concern with food and clothing that He deals with. Twice, in fact, Jesus tells his followers not to worry about what they are going to eat, drink and wear (see Matthew 6:25, 31). God knows what you need, Jesus says; seek first His Kingdom and He will provide for you. Later on in the New Testament, Paul comes to a similar conclusion, telling Timothy: 

we brought nothing into this world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. (1Timothy 6:8)

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Bible would use something as universal and everyday – wearing clothes – to describe a vital aspect of the Christian life. The Christian life, to paraphrase Watchman Nee, is not so much a changed life as an exchanged life. We are told, most specifically by Paul in Romans, that our conversion experience was a death experience. In particular, the act of being baptised in water signified that we had died to our old way of living, just as Jesus Christ had died on the cross. The good news is that things don’t stop there: just as the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, so were we. That moment when we are lifted up out of the water following our baptism starts the beginning of a brand new life. 

In both Ephesians and Colossians, then, Paul compares the new realities of being in Christ with the act of putting on new clothes. 

You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:9-10)

I have quoted both passages from both books because, as similar as Ephesians and Colossians so clearly are, they bring to light slightly different but important points for us here. Let’s begin with Colossians. That passage makes it abundantly clear (in ways that translators don’t always make clear when it comes to Ephesians) that the process of clothing ourselves with Christ is something that has already happened to us. It is very much an act spoken of in the past tense. This is important for us because it helps us understand that we are not taking off our old self each and every day (or many times a day depending on how your day is actually going) and putting on the new self each and every time. The Christian life is not an ongoing battle between two natures. Once for all at our conversion, specifically at our moment of baptism in water, our old life was buried and our new life in Christ began. Yes, you still have memories of what you did in your old life: not only sins you may have committed but useful information like your address or phone number or the names of your children; however, the person who performed those former sinful acts has died. (So has the person at your address but don’t use that as an excuse with the council not to pay your bills.) You are a brand new person in Christ. And in clothing yourself with Christ – and continuing to clothe yourself with Christ – you are now learning to live a life according to the example the Lord Jesus Himself set for you. 

Which brings us on to Paul’s remarks in Ephesians. There Paul inserts a vital step in the process of putting off the old self and putting on the new. What’s more, while these two actions can be rendered in the past tense, this other one cannot: it is most certainly an ongoing, present tense action. What is it? It’s a phrase unique in the whole of the New Testament: ‘be renewed in the spirit of your minds’. You see, Paul is clear in both Ephesians and Colossians that a dramatic change has taken place. Having put on the new self, you have clothed yourself with a nature that is ‘according to the likeness of God’. It is a nature characterised by ‘true righteousness and holiness’. You didn’t live that way before you put your faith in Christ Jesus; so now begins the journey of learning to follow Him and live like Him. There are a number of tools that God makes available to us in order to help us. First of all, there is the person of the Holy Spirit. He has come to live in our hearts as individuals, as well as move among us when we gather collectively. He leads us, guides us and teaches us. As we follow Him, listen to Him and yield to Him, we find our lives increasingly demonstrate the fruit of His character, which Paul describes as being ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ (see Galatians 5:22-23). Secondly, there is the Word of God itself. The Scriptures teach us – through story, song, warning and encouragement – about the God we have come to know, about His plan for the world and our place in it. As we respond to the Word of God, putting it into practice in our lives, we find, again, the evidence of the life of God in our everyday lives. Another tool is the church, the body of Christ. Through connection and friendship with other Christians, we learn from them and they from us. We pray together, worship together, serve together. We meet each others’ needs, look after each others’ kids, visit one another’s homes. And in so doing, in all our unity and diversity, we become more and more like the Lord Jesus. 

Which brings us back to Ephesians and putting on the new self. Because there Paul hits upon another vital tool in our discipleship journey with Jesus: the human mind. In order for anyone to live differently, they first have to think differently. In his epic poem Paradise Lost (which many moons ago I studied for GCSE), John Milton said, ‘The mind is its own place, and in it self/Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.’ The Book of Proverbs had put it this way thousands of years before: ‘as a man thinks within himself, so he is’ (Proverbs 23:7). What we think about determines so much of our experience and enjoyment of life. This is why the American Bible teacher Joyce Meyer often encourages people to ‘think about what you think about’. My four children could experience exactly the same trip to the beach with my wife and I, but each of them could remember it differently depending on what did or didn’t happen to them and what they may or may not have expected would happen. Christians can be like that too. One person is crushed by an adversity; another goes through it and comes out stronger. There are many and varied reasons for that; however, one of them most certainly is to do with our attitude, with our thinking. 

Paul is very clear, I think, with the Ephesians. To truly grasp the realities of the new creation, we have to change the way we think. And we have to keep changing the way we think; we have to continue to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. So how do we do that? The first way, I think, is to read and believe the Word of God. If the Bible says you are chosen, loved and forgiven, then hear it and believe it. Believe it in spite of your past and in spite of present circumstances. If the Bible says to be thankful, gracious, forgiving, then do that. Even if it wasn’t in your nature before, it is now because it is in Christ. Next, develop a friendship with God himself. You can do this by praying, by worshipping, by being continually filled with the Holy Spirit, by moving in gifts of the Holy Spirit such as prophecy or speaking in tongues. Thirdly, make meeting with your church family a priority. Devote yourself to it the way the early church did. In our 24/7 world there are plenty of other things we could do instead of meeting with our church family; however, we need relationship and fellowship if we are going to grow. Folks at All Nations have heard me say many times: the Christian life is a process and we celebrate progress. It may take time to change your way of thinking so that it’s God-centred instead of self-centred, but with the help of the Holy Spirit you can do it. Enjoy the adventure. And enjoy your new clothes!