“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:14)
“What will I wear today?” Maybe you ran through that question this morning as you got ready for the day ahead. Paul would have us ask another, more important question today: who will I put on today? The answer for Christians should be Christ.
But what does it mean to clothe yourself with Christ? Negatively, the opposite of putting on Christ is gratifying our sinful desires. You are not clothing yourself with Christ if you spend your day quarreling or coveting, for example (Rom 13:13).
Positively, putting on Christ is parallel with putting on the armor of light (Rom 13:12). It is walking properly, in what is good and right. Putting on Christ refers to a daily trust in him that leads us to live like him. People look at us, and they see Christ in us. We bear the signs of his tangible work in our lives.
NT scholar Douglas Moo writes that putting on Christ here “means that we are consciously to embrace Christ in such a way that his character is manifested in all that we do and say” (Douglas Moo, The Letter to the Romans, NICNT, p. 842).
So, Lord, help us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ today! Help us to embrace him that his character might be manifested in our lives.
