Clothing of Holiness

I was reminded on Sunday of the beauty of the words of Colossians. "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." -Colossians 3:12.

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These words and their adjectives are 'sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.' (Proverbs 16:24) I love adjectives like these above -- virtues to aspire to. I did some thinking yesterday and discovered that the first four virtues all align with respect. To have compassion is to be respectful in the way to place ourselves in another's position and 'feel' like them. Kindness is the ultimate respect. Humility is the very epitome of respect. Gentleness, again, is 'other-focused.'

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Then I thought, 'What about patience?' Patience is more a matter of trust. Patience is the supreme test and it underpins all the others in my view. Alternatively, the other four 'respect' virtues come from a intrinsic heart of love. They're a natural effect of a touch of God's Spirit. Patience seems more to be grown and exhibited in and through trials and tests, but it could also be as a result of touch of God's Spirit -- the gift of grace that some people have and some people have not.

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Paul apportions the 'clothing of holiness' to followers of the Way so that we might bring glory to God through our beings. When we bear with one another and forgive grievances, showing compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, we invite others to show us the same courtesy; though that's not the reason we do it -- again, our motive is: for the glory of God to be manifest in our being. We show compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience especially when they're not expected -- and this brings glory to God.

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Love binds compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience together in perfect unity. (Col. 3:14) What this means, it seems to me, is without love, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience are NOT. We can try all we like to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient, but without love, it falls apart. It's false and error-ridden. Our compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience are all conditional, at best. Conditional love, like conditional acceptance, is not love or acceptance at all.

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Love is the true basis of holiness, and indeed, the true test of holiness. Love, like wisdom, is true.