Be Clothed in Love

Colossians 3:13-15

Introduction

We are beginning a new series on the fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5. This passage is pretty amazing. Paul pushes back against a Christian faith that is purely rules-based. What Paul argues about in Galatians is that the Christian life, instead of being about obedience to a certain set of commandments is more about walking in the Spirit. I have to admit that this has always been a challenge for me to get my mind around. I can understand what obedience to rules looks like. You are supposed to do this and so you do that. You are not supposed to do this and so you don’t do that. But walking in the Spirit seems to leave too much to chance. It’s a bit more messy than I would like. And yet this is the way.

That’s not to say that churches have not imposed rules on people, many of which are not based on Scripture. I understand this because we want a measure of how well we are doing. That is normal but the human tendency is use these measurements on others before our ourselves. 

The fruit of the Spirit is mean to be a measure of how we are doing but it is not meant to be used against other people. We are not fruit inspectors, looking at well other people measure up to what Paul writes in this passage. To be honest, it is a full time job looking at how the fruit is appearing in our own lives and we should not have time to judge others.

One of the questions that often comes up with the fruit of the Spirit is about how active or passive we are in this process. Is this a matter of just sitting back and letting the Holy Spirit do the work in us? Or are these fruit something that we must strive for?

I think of the Holy Spirit as the seed for the fruit that appears. The fruit are not something that we will into being. But at the same time, there are things that we can do to help or hurt the development of the fruit in our life. Anyone who has tried to grow something know that just having the right seed is not enough. Yes, there are times that seed just drops and things work out wonderfully. But most of the time, we have to cultivate the plant in order to see the best fruit. The bottom line is that we are not passive in the process, but nor are we one that claim the fruit as simply the result of our good work.

The Fruit of Love

Paul is a very careful writer and we should look carefully at what he writes. Not just the content, but how he crafts his thoughts. The first of the fruit that Paul lists is love. This is not an accident nor did it just happen to be the first virtue to come to mind. Paul knew, and we see this throughout his letters, that love was the guiding virtue for Christianity. One of the post popular passages by Paul is 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. That chapter is placed strategically between 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, which describe the life of the church. Everything we do should revolve around love, not just love for God but love for people.

Turning to the passage in Colossians, Paul says some very interesting things. He says: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

Above all? Is he really saying that being loving is our primary responsibility as Christians? That really does look like what he is saying. And he phrases it as “clothes yourselves with love.” What does that mean? Especially in the ancient world, but to some extent today, you were judged by how you dressed. Not so much the latest fashions as those things did not change as quickly as they do now. But the expectation was that a person should be able to meet you for the first time and by looking at your clothing, they should have all the information they need about you. We may not think of that as fair but that is the way it is. It is very difficult, even today, to change a first impression. Speaking metaphorically, Paul is saying we better be wearing our best, and that is love. In previous generations it was very important to wear our Sunday best. Whatever we think of that, our Sunday best should be primary being clothed in love. While Paul could be aggressive and harsh at times, it was always done out of love. The strongest we see Paul is when he is defending the weak from the strong. He is protective and that protectiveness comes from a place of love.

Paul also says that love binds everything together in harmony. Love is not a solitary virtue. It actually brings together everything else. It is a binding agent without which, everything else falls apart. Love is that important. 

I would say that Paul could not recognize someone as a Christian if they were not manifesting love in some way. What does that look like? Well that is something we will have to take a closer look at.

Love in Action

If you are like me, you want something more tangible than just love is important. There actually is a lot of debate about what Christian love looks like. A couple of examples include conversations I have had with people concerned about certain groups of people who have been labelled as “undesirable.” I was told that the loving thing to do is to treat them as nasty as possible as that will put the pressure on them to change and become more like the people we want them to be. Another is the recent discussions among American Christians on what loving looks like in dealing with immigrants. Some Christians saw love as supporting their right to stay in the country while other Christians saw love is pushing for them to be removed from the country. But these extreme examples are not necessarily helpful for us in our context.

I want to acknowledge that there are some people who find it easier or harder to demonstrate love, especially to people outside their family. Some people are extroverts and some people are introverts. There are people of different temperaments, some being easily irritated by people and others who are very tolerant of people they disagree with. Some people have the time, talents, and financial resources to easily show love in acts of kindness but not every one has that. And that is why I do not like trying to impose a program of loving others.

I want to say this clearly, we do not expect pears to grow on apple trees or strawberries to grow on grape vines. The fruit of the Spirit works within us as the people we actually are. The fruit that develops within us is that which is natural to who we are as individuals.

We recognize love as fruit in our life by what is appropriate for who we are and where we are. It is not about comparing ourselves to another Christian. What does it mean for you to be loving? Who is available in your life to be loved by you? In what ways can you be loving toward those people? I have seen powerful acts of love from everyone from young children to people living in nursing homes. I have seen it from the rich and poor, from the healthy and sick, from the outgoing to the quietest of individuals. 

I have heard sermons where I thought that the message was not overly applicable to my situation. The call to clothe ourselves with love is for every single one of us. It is not about feeling love or agreeing with everyone or believing that everyone is right. It is about cultivating love in our life and being prepared to act on that love as the opportunities become available. Those acts of love can be anything from a smile to a stranger to an offer for coffee to buying groceries for a family in need. This church participates in many acts of love through our various projects. I know that many of you do this naturally on your own, calling a person living on their own or doing some odd jobs for a person in need. This is love.

Conclusion

I want to go back to Paul’s image of clothing ourselves with love. What does that look like? It is not about us videoing ourselves as we give money to someone living on the street. It maybe embracing someone you disagree with or even dislike. When we look to the Gospels, we see Jesus spending time with marginalized people even though he was being criticized by the elites. We see Jesus forgiving a disciple who denied him and a brother who rejected him. 

If we are followers of Jesus, we have been given the Holy Spirit within us. That Spirit is seeking to produce fruit. Are we cooperating with the Holy Spirit? I am very aware in certain circumstances that I have a choice of how I am going to respond. To be honest, I do not always feel like doing the loving thing. I hope that I am cooperating with the Spirit more and more as I follow Christ. 

My request for all of us is to consider our wardrobe. Are we clothed in love? Do people who meet us have some sense that we are loving and generous people? Love is a fashion that will never grow stale.