A Thread Runs Through It

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14

The last couple of days, we’ve talked about clothing yourself with God’s characteristics. It is quite the wardrobe as you can see… compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and mercy; however, these will all become mere fashion fads if they are worn without the thread of love running through them all. 

When I was younger and young in my faith, I worked on implementing everyone of these attributes into my life. The problem was that they didn’t have any love behind them, at least not the selfless, no-strings-attached-that-expects-nothing-in-return kind of love. It wasn’t until a couple years later, that I realized I wan’t really loving people at all. I was merely treating people with all of these attributes, because it made me feel good and people tended to like me for it and compliment me. It was more about what I got out of it than anything else. 

One of God’s most amazing attributes, if not the most amazing, is His love, which you can see woven through all His other attributes. His justice, for instance, can seem harsh with the punishment for sin as death and yet He gave His one and only Son, so that we might live. His holiness can make Him seem unapproachable, as we ourselves could never attain sucher perfection, but God shows his love by making us holy through his Son. Look at any one of His attributes, and you will see the thread of love running through them all.

Spend a minute with the Lord asking Him to show you how you might be using these attributes for selfish gain. Make sure to take some time to listen and see what he shows you and then confess these things to Him. Ask Him to fill you with His perfect love. Pray that He will weave His love through every part of your character.