“Put
on, then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate
hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one
another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each
other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
– Colossians 3:12-13 (ESV)
I
remember when I was much younger, as a young minister’s wife, I had
the privilege of attending a state-wide Bible conference at which Dr.
Julian T. Pipkin, then Georgia’s Secretary of Sunday School work,
an excellent Bible teacher, was teaching the gathered group Paul’s
letter to the Colossians.
To
help us remember verses 12-13, and Paul’s command to Christians to
“put on” characteristics needed by each Christian in his life,
Dr. Pipkin, always dressed appropriately in suit, white shirt and tie
when he appeared before an audience, came before the class that day
and took off his coat; then his tie. Then he asked us to turn in our
Bibles to Colossians 3:12-13 and asked for a volunteer to read the
two verses. After the verses were read, he led in prayer. Then he
said something like this:
“Now
let us see if we can do what today’s scripture asks us to do.”
He then went to the chair where he had laid his coat. He took it up,
put it on, and also put back on his clip-on tie. He then looked neat
and well-dressed, as Dr. Pipkin usually appeared before an audience.
“ ‘Put on,’ God tells us through Paul’s writing, because we
are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, we must deliberately put
on (1) compassionate hearts, (2) kindness, (3) humility, (4)
meekness, (5) patience, (6) forbearance, (7) forgiveness. Seven
Christian characteristics or virtues should be as well-fitting to our
lives as the clothes we wear, and as deliberately ‘put on’ daily
as if we were dressing ourselves appropriately.”
Dr.
Pipkin’s simple but profound illustration of showing us that we
don’t “automatically”: have these virtues, we must ‘put them
on’ deliberately, or develop them in our lives and use them for
other’s good remained with me. He led us to talk about each of the
seven virtues, and we had good group discussion of how we might
exercise the virtues in daily situations. I came away from that
Bible study very conscious that these Christian characteristics do
not just “happen” in the Christian’s life. As Paul states,
they must be deliberately cultivated, put into one’s life.
To
put on the virtues of Christ calls the Christian to a holy lifestyle,
to one that will not only benefit the “wearer” of these virtues
but will help all those whom the Christian encounters in his daily
walk.
As
we met with Dr. Pipkin the next day at Bible study time, he asked us
how conscious we were of “putting on” the seven Christian
characteristics we had studied the day before, and how had we
utilized any one of them in our encounters with those we had met. We
were able to share how we were much more aware of how the
“well-dressed” Christian approached others. We could name the
seven virtues we were working to incorporate into our manner of life:
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance and
forgiveness. God, help each of us to put these on and practice them
daily. - Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.02.2017
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