Isn’t it so true that men love to wear old, worn out clothes! They don’t care about style; it’s all about comfort. It doesn’t matter if the clothes are full of holes, if the elastic is overstretched, or if the colour is completely faded. I’m talking about the sorts of clothes that get mistaken for cleaning rags! Clothes so old that wearing them outside the house would give “retro fashion” a bad name!
But what is the attraction to clothes that are well past their expiry date? Familiarity? Favourites? Or because they just feel nice? Whatever the reason, it does seem hard to get rid of the old ones – even when replacements have been bought.
The Bible teaches us to “put off” the old self and “put on” the new (Eph 4.22-24). Picture yourself taking off old, dirty, worn-out clothes – and then putting on brand-new, clean, luxurious clothes. We all enjoy doing this, but sometimes we prefer to go back to the clothes we used to wear. There’s something about sin that we like and in moments of weakness it’s easy to choose what we know is wrong.
Peter quotes a couple of unfortunate proverbs to describe what it’s like to return to the old:
“‘A dog returns to its vomit.’ And another says, ‘A washed pig returns to the mud.’” (2 Pe 2.22, NLT)
Even though we as believers in Christ have crucified the “old self”, also called “the flesh”, this thing called ‘sin’ is still at work. A battle rages within! The Spirit works to keep us from sinning against God, while ‘sin’ works against our innermost desire to please God. The choice we must constantly make is to exercise faith and learn to take our lead from the Holy Spirit.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law… And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Gal 5.16-18, 24-25)
The good news is that even though we sometimes stumble and fall, the grace God poured out through Jesus Christ is more than enough to cover our sins. He forgives us freely in Christ because we have been saved by grace (Eph 2.8). Sin gets its power by using God’s commandments against us (Ro 7.8-11). But we “are not under the law” – the written code God gave his people through Moses (Ro 7.6).This means that sin has no real power over us unless we choose to give in! The battle takes place in the mind. Sometimes the flesh seems to be winning, but we have the help of the Holy Spirit who is able to put our sins to death (Ro 8.13).
Repentance requires a firm decision to get rid of sin and commit to what we know is right. It’s like being careful to wear our best clothes at all times.
“Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Ro 13.14)
Come to think of it, the old saying, “I wouldn’t be seen dead in that!” makes perfect sense.♥
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