A Whole New Wardrobe
Colossians 3:1-17[1]
I usually learn a few things from teaching confirmation
class. Not necessarily about faith, mind you, but about popular culture and
where our young people are. A couple of years ago, one of our students told me
that I dress in a manner he called “bougie.” I’d never heard of that word, so I
didn’t know what it meant. One of the other students assured me that it’s a
good thing. As I understand it, the idea is that he thought my wardrobe is
stylish. That’s the way many young people use the word “bougie” these days. Well,
as you may know, I’m interested in words, so I looked into it. As is often the
case with “new” words in our language, others use it in a different way. To
some “bougie” means “fancy,” or “flamboyant,” or even “overly pretentious.” I
looked up “bougie” and discovered that it comes from the term “bourgeois.” That’s
a philosophical word used to describe the “showy” behavior of middle-class
people with recently acquired wealth. And, originally, when “bougie” became a
slang word in American English in the 1970’s, it referred to people trying to
“act rich.” But as words change, these days, “bougie” simply means “stylish.”
What began as a rather sarcastic criticism has become a compliment.
In our lesson from Colossians for today, Paul talks about changing
of clothes. In reality, what he’s really talking about is changing one’s life,
which is a lot harder for us than changing clothes. Throughout his letters,
Paul addresses the change of life that ought to accompany a person’s profession
of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. All the ways in which we can live that harm
or diminish ourselves or others are like clothes that have been so stained as
to become unwearable. Or they are like clothes that have become worn out or that
simply don’t fit us anymore. When you have clothes that you can’t wear anymore,
you get rid of them. Paul’s meaning is that in place of those harmful ways of
living, we’re to “clothe” ourselves with the qualities that defined Jesus’ way
of life.
In particular, Paul calls us to live with “compassion,
kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline” (Col 3:12, MSG).[2] That in and of itself is a tall order, if you really think about what it means
to make those qualities the defining marks of your life. Above all, he says
that we’re to “wear love” like a “basic, all-purpose garment” (Col 3:14, MSG)
That shouldn’t come as a surprise to us, since the whole Bible teaches us that God
wants us to love our brothers and sisters—all our brothers and sisters. None of
this is new to most of us. But I’m not sure whether we understand the
motivation for it all. It’s not just that you’re supposed to be a good and kind
and nice person. Since Christ died for us, we’re also called to die to all that
characterizes a life that is selfish and harmful to others (Col 3:5-9). More
than that, because Christ has been raised to new life, and we have been “raised
with Christ” (Col 3:1), we have his new life within us.[3] What Paul is really asking us to do is to clothe ourselves with Jesus. His way
of life, his love, his character, and all that goes with it, are to be the “new
clothes” in our wardrobe.
That might sound easy enough for us. Changing clothes is
something we do all the time. But what we have to remember is that most people
in that day only had one set of clothes. Having more than one set of clothes
was a sign of wealth. The wardrobe that many of us tend to keep in our closets
would have been available only to the richest of the rich. Everyone else literally
wore the same set of clothes day after day. So when Paul talked about a change
of clothes, that would have been significant. Working-class people may have
been able to replace their clothing more than once a year.[4] But most people simply wore their clothing until it was too stained or too threadbare
to wear in public.
I think the point we should take away from this is that
“changing clothes” wasn’t something that happened often for most people. It was
a significant act. That’s why Paul could use it as an analogy for the
difference our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord should make in our lives. It
should be a big deal. In fact, it was such a big deal in that day that some
people were shunned from their families, some were fired from their jobs, and
some were even expelled from their communities as a result. Faith in Jesus
Christ as Lord may have changed everything in their lives! In our day, I’m not
sure that’s the case for us these days. Ironically, our faith in Jesus Christ
may be just as insignificant as changing clothes is for us. We typically change
clothes more than once a day, at least. We have work clothes, we have gym
clothes, we have dress clothes, we have casual clothes, and we have comfortable
clothes we only wear at home. Changing clothes for us is no big deal. I wonder
whether professing our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord has become as insignificant
to us as changing our clothes.
Lately I’ve been exploring some of the reasons why people
outside the church don’t come to church. I think this may be another reason. Our
faith just doesn’t seem to make much of a difference in the way we live. In
fact, sociologists have documented that the lifestyles of those who are in the
church aren’t much different from those who are outside the church. When we
fail to demonstrate the difference our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord makes in
our lives, we fail to give anyone a reason to be here. Participating in church
is just another option for Sunday morning, like the varied options of clothing
we have. To some people, it’s just a waste of time. If we don’t have anything
better to do, we go to church. But who wants to waste their time with something
that doesn’t really make a difference in their lives or in the lives of anybody
else? I’m not sure I have the answer to that question, but that’s a question
that I wonder about when I think about Paul comparing the difference our faith
in Jesus Christ makes in our lives to changing clothes.
Going back to where we started, I personally don’t think the
way I dress is all that special. I’ve had the suit I’m wearing today for twenty
years! I try to keep my wardrobe fresh, but the way I do it is by shopping
clearance sales. Sometimes that works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. My
daughter assures me that I most definitely do not dress “bougie.” I’m okay with
that. I want to look my best, but I also want my clothes to be practical. And
by that I mean that I can get away with wearing them for a long time by just
adding fresh touches here and there. I pay attention to my wardrobe, but I’m
not much of a shopper, so I don’t make a big deal out of it.
As we reflect on our lesson for today, I think most of us
would like to hope that our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord is far more important
than the clothes we wear. Perhaps a better analogy for us would be a completely
new wardrobe. Not many of us ever completely change our whole wardrobe at once.
That’s what Paul is calling us to do. But I would say that for most of us it’s
all too easy to get caught up in the push and pull of our lives. So much so
that we really don’t pay that much attention to how we live. We don’t put much
thought into what we say, and whether or not our words harm others or help
them. We don’t put much thought into how we interact with people. Our own
experiences, the stresses and the frustrations, the fears and the hardships, as
well as the joys and celebrations of our lives just occupy us so much that we may
forget to think about being intentional about “clothing” ourselves with Jesus
Christ each day. Some of us may need to clear out a whole wardrobe that does
not fit well with our faith. In place, we may need a whole new wardrobe. Paul
calls us to put on the qualities that define Jesus’ life: his love, his
compassion, his kindness, his humility. When we live this way, I believe that
people will be drawn to join us. Not because of who we are, but because of the
way we demonstrate the life of Jesus Christ in the way we live each and every
day.
[1] © 2025. Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/3/2025 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. E. Lohse, Colossians and Philemon: A
commentary on the Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 147: “All of
the five terms that describe the new man’s conduct are used in other passages
to designate acts of God or of Christ.” (compassion: Rom 12:1; 2 Cor 1:3;
kindness: Rom 2:4; 11:22; Eph 2:7; Tit 3:4; humility: Phil 2:8; 2 Cor 10:1;
patience: Rom 2:4; 9:22).
[3] Cf. Michael Barram, “Colossians 3:1-17,” Interpretation,
59 (April 2005): 190, where he says that “the living Christ provides the basis
for all Christian conduct”; and further, these behaviors become “the norm for
believers because Christ is alive and reigning with God.”
[4] For a summary of research about this, see Dafna Shlezinger-Katsman, “Clothing,”
in The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine, 362-81,
and on the availability of clothing related to wealth and poverty see Gildas
Hamel, “Poverty and Charity,” in ibid., 308-324, esp. 318-19.
