Change your Clothes

Change Your Clothes

(“So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to; the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires.” Ephesians 4:22)

I am told that our sense of smell is the strongest of our five senses, and that it is the one most associated with memory. A few years ago I was sitting in a coffee shop, and a couple of ladies who were perhaps in their early 60s were sitting behind me. Within moments their perfume wafted into my booth and I was instantly transported to a memory of my grandmother. I am not sure if it is a law written in stone, but I think every woman over 60 wears the same perfume.

Now, another memory. When I was in high school, we were required to have “gym clothes”. Including a double-sided t-shirt and gym shorts, we had to wear them during every class of Physical Education. (“P.E. for Pacific People”, “Phys Ed” for you Midwesterners.). Adolescent boys seldom see any reason to wash their gym clothes more than once a week, even though they are sweated in every day for an hour.

Walk with me into the boys’ locker room on Monday morning and stand next to me as I open my locker to retrieve my gym clothes unwashed since the previous Monday. Having sat in the locker the entire weekend, their fermentation is complete. Whether you are the male remembering this moment or the mom holding your nose at the memory of those gym clothes right before the wash, the power of smell is undeniable.

Of course, this same situation is multiplied exponentially if we replace the teen with a preadolescent boy at summer camp. Now, the same clothes not only remain unwashed for a whole week, they also are worn every single day! If you have ever counseled this wonderful age group at camp, you also know that half of them have not yet discovered deodorant. It would make so much difference if they would at least change their clothes!

As Christians we celebrate the new life God has provided for us in Jesus. But it is easy to forget that our old life reeked! We recoil at the thought. We might have not quite measured up, but we weren’t all that bad, were we? However we frame the debate, this verse describes our old life as being “destroyed by its deceitful desires.”

God wants us to be clean inside and out. God has done everything possible on His side to bathe us from our old ways, clean us up and make us presentable again. But there is a corresponding response on our part. We must agree with God about the issues in our old life that are smelly as those gym shirts and shorts and change our clothes.

Only then do we truly begin to resemble the image God has for us. Following Christ is not just about accepting His forgiveness and still living in our old clothes day in and day out. Our old life is controlled by “deceitful” desires. That means we are more prone to think we are good than we are to acknowledge where we fall short.

What we think is so wonderful actually will plunge us into spiritual death. The things we excuse, whether immorality or hurtful personality issues, do not simply dissolve upon coming to Christ. We are commanded to take off the stinky old clothes. Don’t argue with God that they don’t stink, don’t excuse yourself that others are still stinky. Take care of your own walk with God and strip off everything that hinders your life with God.

That old life is full of “desires”. We must understand that every “want” we have is not necessarily a legitimate desire. We must learn the art of submitting our desires to Jesus’ Lordship. The lusts and desires of our old nature are simply illusions. They promise much more than they perform. Though, for a time they feel pleasurable, they leave those who have followed them to disappointment and tears.

Am I following any desires that are leading me away from actual obedience to Jesus? Then take them off like old sweaty socks and put on the new person you really are in Christ!

You are not to “get rid” of everything that pertained to who you were before Christ. Your taste in music, conversation, and dress may very well have been correct. But every habit, custom, opinion or mode of conduct that proceeded from the ungodly desires of your old nature need to be fully taken off and laid aside.

It is then that, fully refreshed in Christ, you put on the brand new wardrobe that God provides for you in Christ. No one simply puts clean clothing on over the old dirty clothes of the day. Take off the old person, whatever pertains to you, and put on the beautiful new person you are through faith in Jesus!