What’s In Your Closet?

One of the metaphors that Paul uses occasionally to describe the Christian life is the metaphor of clothing. I think what he has in mind is that what we wear impacts ourselves and it also is visible to others.  If you wear a striped shirt and a plaid pair of pants at the same time it will be visible to others and it also says something about you.  If we look in our closet we see the choices that we have to wear each day.  Or maybe you just pick up something from the floor (if you are over 18 and do this we should talk).  But our closet is reflective of our wardrobe.  Please read what Paul writes here in chapter 13, verses 11-14:  “¹¹ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.  Paul uses the phrase “put on” to describe the life of the Christian. We are to “cast off” the works of darkness and “put on” the armor of light and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The reason I asked you “what’s in your closet?” is that if something isn’t in your closet you can’t wear it.  God doesn’t desire that you have revelry and drunkenness hanging up for you to be able to choose.  He doesn’t desire that lewdness, lust, strife or envy are even options for you to select from your closet.  If we “put on” lewdness, we say something about ourselves and we give off a message to others.  Our behavior doesn’t save us but our behavior does reveal whether or not we’ve been saved. So, if there are some things hanging in your closet that ought not be there, why not get rid of them?   Don’t donate them to someone else, just throw them away.

Finally, note the sense of timing that Paul brings to this idea of what we put on.  Paul speaks to the “day being at hand”.  Each day your complete salvation is nearer than the day before; whether you are one day closer to the return of Christ or one day closer to physical death.  There is no time to waste, for your own sake and for the sake of others.