Today is September 11. Where were you 10 years ago on September 11, 2001 How did you feel that day?
There are other tragedies that have gone on and that are going on right now all around the world, I know.
However, in modern memory there is no other single day that stands out like September 11. For those of us who were alive then, the events of that day are seared into our collective consciousness.
The trauma of that day impacted each of us like few other public events. The loss of the innocent, the heroic sacrifice of the first responders – many of whom it must be acknowledged acted full well knowing everything was on the line for them
The sheer national and continental and international shock of the attacks that day – all of these things are burned into our memories. It was a day that rocked the world.
I’m not going to talk a whole lot more about 9/11 today. I do think it’s important that we acknowledge the day, though, even as our neighbours to the south remember the anniversary of that day and as they continue to keep watch over the threats that still come their way.
People still want to recreate such horror. There are people who feel justified perpetrating evil, who with the most twisted view of God imaginable, feel they are honouring Him in by murder.
So I’m not going to talk any more about 9/11. In fact, I prefer to talk about something that is in stark contrast to the evil of that terrible day. Something that, set beside the hate and ignorance and wickedness of those responsible for the attacks, is perhaps to be appreciated even more.
I’m going to ask ________ and _________ to read from Romans 13.
Now there are some people who live without going in debt. My sister and brother-in-law actually are two of the few I know in this day and age who have always lived without debt, despite owning a home and raising two children.
Pretty remarkable in this age where opportunities to go into debt are everywhere. Barb and I get credit card offers thrown at us all the time.
But it’s clear from this Scripture that indebtedness is not a good thing. It’s clear that God wants you and me to be free of debt, to not be beholden to anyone.
Perhaps to live closer to the means he has given us. But there is one good debt to have. A debt that God wants to never be satisfied or paid off. What is that debt?
It is the debt to love one another. Now there’s whole lot in this passage to touch on as we go into this, but I think it’s best to focus in on the last verse: “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature”.
I need to confess something. There are a lot of commentaries out there that a lot of folks use when preparing sermons, aids to understanding the Scriptures. But I don’t use them, generally speaking. You may wish that I did.
But this week, at the gathering that Maryellen hosted, I asked the group what they thought of this passage of Scripture, and they shared some great insights off the cuff.
So I thank them or their input. If what I share is good, you can credit the good folks at the gathering. If it’s not so good, I’ll take the blame
What does it mean to clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ? I love how the Bible uses simple ideas to convey really profound and powerful spiritual truths. We all know what it means to clothe ourselves. Hopefully all of us here today are clothed.
We give thought to what we’ll wear, don’t we? Now it’s probably fair to say that some people put a lot more thought into how they present themselves than others. When Barb and I go out, she will often put a few different outfits on the bed and mix and match and consider which is best and she’ll ask my opinion or the kids’ opinion.
I usually give about 10 seconds thought to what I’m going to where to any given occasion. It just never occurs to me. Is that a guy thing?
But the Scripture says: “Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a call to daily embrace my identity in Christ.
To be a Christ-follower is to understand that my worth and value flows from my belovedness from God. It flows first from the fact that, as Genesis says, humans are dignified by where they came from:
Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”.
This is why we say at the mission that all people have inherent dignity and value – because they are made by God in the image of God. That’s a universal truth that should help us to realize the tremendous value of the individual person.
And it definitely points us toward our identity which is fully realized for the Christian in belonging to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
You know I don’t think this is intended to be something we understand once and then move on, like a math problem.
It’s intended to be a reality that over time settles down deep in our souls, deep in our character, deep in our habits and decisions and choices.
In order for THAT to happen, I must daily ‘put on’ or ‘clothe’ myself – consciously remind myself Whose I am, and then make my daily choices in life based on Who I belong to, He Who redeemed me, He who is transforming me to be more like Himself in character, in holiness, in joy.
And who is He? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Lord” denotes authority. In the original Greek the word we translate “Lord” is kyrios (keer-li-oss).
It refers to he to whom a person belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord; it refers to the possessor, the owner; one who has control of the person, the master.
So first off, clothing ourselves in Jesus Christ means that we purposefully, intentionally, and daily choose to live for the One we belong to, to Jesus.
We freshly commit to following Christ, our Master; to make our choices based the fact that we are His, we are children of the Risen King. Amen?
1 Cor 13:19b-20a says: :You are not your own; you were bought at a price”.
Daily, we must remember, and behave, as though we are not our own. This is hard, I realize, but it is what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Secondly, spiritually speaking, we are going to be clothed with something. We might be clothed with pride, or with a kind of social armour that keeps people from getting too close.
We might be clothed with our own fierce determination to do what we want without consideration to others or to God. That’s possible, eh?
Romans 13 gives us a bunch of things that people typically choose to be clothed with that do us no good and that offend God. What are some of those things? Adultery, stealing, coveting, sexual immorality, dissension, jealousy.
You name it. You know where that stuff comes from. They’re the themes of most of the movies and the TV shows we watch.
You know, we will either be clothed with light or with darkness. With God or with something less than God. With Jesus Christ or with something inferior to Him.
Let us choose Jesus over all other things. Anything other than God that we clothe ourselves in is an idol, a lie, a deception.
When we clothe ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are wrapped in truth, so our words will always be true.
We are attired in grace, our actions will be grace-filled. We are dressed in kindness. The well-being of others will be a pre-occupation.
Now the flipside of this is the rest of the verse. This is a two-sided command. There’s a do and a don’t.
Some of you know I play a bunch of instruments and I’ve studied music a great deal. When I’ve taken formal music lessons, I’ve been taught how to build my skills with positive direction and encouragement, as well as concrete instruction on how to improve.
But I’ve also been taught to avoid pitfalls, to steer clear of bad habits, bad posture, lazy practice habits – the things that will work directly against what I’m working so hard to accomplish on my instruments.
I learned from this that if I want to move forward, I need to be aware of potential dangers, drawbacks and entanglements.
When I first played the flute, I was self-taught. I made it past the university audition, but when I got in I discovered very quickly with the help of a great teacher that I had learned the instrument wrong.
I had all kinds of awkward and bad habits and technical flaws in my playing that, as I was told, would prevent me from going any further on the instrument.
The key forward was to step back. I had to relearn the instrument, now with an acute awareness of what to avoid.
You find that often in Scripture, there’s a ‘do’ and there’s a ‘don’t’; and both are always necessary. To do the do and not do the don’t is to miss the point entirely. The ‘do’ is be clothed with Christ. The ‘don’t’ has to do with how we occupy our minds.
The ‘don’t’ is this: “…Do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature”.
The Apostle Paul unpacks this elsewhere:
Ro 8:5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
Gal 5:17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
If we live, as God wants us to live, daily clothing ourselves in Christ, we cannot at the same time be doing dumb stuff; we can’t be trying to gratify the desires of our sin nature. If we do that we’re a walking contradiction, living in tension with ourselves constantly. There is no peace in that. There is no joy in that kin d of conflicted living.
The other problem with this is that what our sinful side, our sinful nature, wants will lead us down a very dark trail.
James 1:14-15: Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
What God wants for you is life. What God wants you for is joy. It is to realize our value and our purpose, and to have a living hope that propels us forward into a new way of living and a new way of loving.
When we clothe ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ we will be robed in love, because God is love. And this takes us back full circle to verse 8 in Romans 13: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law”.
I honestly love this verse. It of course refers to what Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-40: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”.
But what is that debt? “Let no debt remain outstanding…”. What might that debt be referring to? I’m asking?
1 John 4: 16-19 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him... We love because he first loved us.
The debt we can never repay is the reason we love. We love because He first loved us. That gift of love is so huge, so monumental, so unlike anything on the planet – it cannot be repaid.
Think of the love God has given you personally. The embrace you feel as you draw near to Him.
The forgivenesss and relief to a guilty conscience that He has given you through Christ’s death on the cross. Calling you His beloved daughter, His cherished son.
Think of the love that you have received from God’s own hand. Then times that love by 7 billion – the current number of people who God is loving right now on this planet.
Then we get a sense of how great is His love, and why, as long as we live on this globe, we will never be able to repay that love to God or to others – every other person God puts in our path.
Someone at the gathering this week said that clothing ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ has similarities to ‘putting on the whole armour of God’, a key passage that is found in Ephesians 6.
That’s true, and I encourage you to read or reread THAT passage this week, but it’s another message.
Suffice it to say that we are given ways to apply this passage in a very focussed way in Ephesians 6.
Today is September 11. A day when hate and evil manifested itself in the slaughter of over 3000 people in New York City. We will remember that our whole lives. No doubt.
But may you and I remember even better, to daily clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ. That is how to love one another. That is how to reach the world we live in that is starving for meaning and purpose, for something real. Let’s pray.
God you love us and you’ve sent Jesus to die for us so that we can live our lives in love, in unbroken fellowship with You. May each one here choose to live for You daily, to embrace and be embraced by Your love, and to not conceal but live out that love among those around us. May we be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.
