Question:
How has "wearing your faith" become putting on a wrist band?
Paul tells the followers of Jesus in Colossians what our "Christian" clothing should look like:
"....clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."
and then he emphasizes, "And over all these virtues put on love."
I promise you this, if we took Paul's clothing advise seriously, we wouldn't find the need to commercialize our faith. Christian consumerism and commercialism is a stench to the lost and hurting of our world that desperately await some authentic "Good News".
Paul's advice for our clothing is a real, noticeable, Jesus way of life: you can't just buy that.
So don't buy it!
See, the real danger is not that someone might not be effected by our materialistic "christian" clothing.... As bad as it may be, I'm not as concerned that most of our "chirstian" apparel doesn't effect the lost world.
The Heart of the Matter
What really bothers and convicts me is that many of us who desire the Jesus-shaped life might be deeply deceived by all this. When we think that buying and wearing a product, a shirt, a wrist band, a bumper sticker, or whatever, is a way to "wear and share" our faith, we've really really devalued and distorted the heart of Jesus. That's an American thing, not a Jesus thing.
Like Paul knows, Jesus' clothing line is not material... it's a heart and life. You know, the eternal stuff that actually counts. And it's not cheap... it's gonna cost you your pride, your agenda, your life. But Love is worth it... His Love is worth it.
Be cautious of the subtle shift in our focus from God's inward molding of our nature to the outward stuff like shirts and wrist bands.
If your like me, you have plenty of room in your inner wardrobe for some real Christian clothing. How much money does it take to buy that?
Matthew Armstrong
RescueTheGirl.com
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