So often we have two levels of care in our lives, women especially, a level for everyone else and a level for ourselves. We would never talk to another in the same manner we talk to ourselves. We would never belittle, lie, mistreat and bully anyone the way we do to ourselves and yet in Colossians 3:12 we are told
You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
There is so much in so little here. We know we are the people of God, not many of us forget this, but we do forget that he chose us and loved us. His love is not judgemental, situational, fleeting or superficial. His love is all knowing, his love is overwhelming, his love is powerful, his love is perpetual. And he gives it to you willingly, he knows you intimately, he knows you completely and this only makes him love you more!
He says you must, he does not say ‘if you feel like it you could’, ‘if you have enough time and energy it would be great if’, or any other ambiguous instruction, he says must. This is an absolute command, there is no room for interpretation in this word.
He is also specific in who must be clothed. He does not say you must cloth ‘others’, ‘friends’, ‘your loved ones’, he says you must clothe ‘yourselves’. This means you. You must clothe yourself first. And what shall we wear? Not black, or polka dots, gold or diamonds but rather something far more valuable. Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Gentleness. Patience.
Compassion
Not just compassion for those we love or care for but compassion for those we do not know or even dislike. Compassion not just for others but also for yourself. It is easy to be compassionate to those we deem worthy of compassion, but God asks that we give compassion first to ourselves and then to everyone else
Kindness
What is it to be kind? I equate kindness to niceness. To be friendly, welcoming, nurturing of someone is to be kind to them. We welcome so many people into our lives and hearts as a way of showing kindness, when was the last time you welcomed our own thoughts to even raise from your subconscious?
Gentleness
To not only be gentle in physical touch but also in spirit and thoughts. To watch how we reprimand others and our own thoughts, to be gentle in our judgements and criticism, to be gentle when someone doesn’t meet our standards, even when that someone is ourselves.
Patience
We are not raised to put ourselves first as Christians, we are raised to serve others. So we need to be patient with ourselves as we retrain our brains and relearn the way we think to not only clothe ourselves, but clothe ourselves first.
Humility
We need to be humble enough to know that we are not going to get it right everytime, that we are going to make mistakes and fail as often as we succeed someday. Through our humility, we can use this to become closer to God, closer to ourselves and ultimately able to serve our community better as we become better Christians ourselves.