IT may be that many children of God have been struck with the varied exhortations by the Holy Ghost in the epistles to “put on;” or, if we may so express it, the different kinds of garments in which they should be found attired. They are addressed as “saints,” and recognized as “in Christ Jesus.” The apostle thanks God for the reality of their confession, owns them as having redemption in Christ Jesus through His precious blood; and, because they are saints, he earnestly enjoins them to “put on” certain moral or spiritual qualities. For it is plain that if God in His exceeding rich mercy has brought us into oneness with Christ, and into everlasting relationship with Himself, He must have a walk and testimony by us suited to Himself, and this must of necessity bring us into conflict with, or separation from, all that is contrary to His own mind. Loong into the epistles on these points, we find that the injunctions as to what we are to “put on,” are always based on the great principles which the letters in which they are found set before us. We may refer to 1 Thessalonians 5, Ephesians 6, and Colossians 3, as each giving different instructions as to what we are to “put on,” and, for the sake of distinguishing between them we may call them testimony garments, battle garments, and walking garments.
Testimony Garments.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:8-108But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:8‑10) the saints are viewed not as in conflict, or as walking consistently with a new-creation standing, as we find elsewhere, but as sons of light and of the day in the midst of people who belong to the night and to darkness. The light therefore should be given out by them; hence they are called on to bear testimony to the realities of Christianity, the three essential characteristics of which are faith, love, and hope. It is this testimony, or bearing witness to our association with Christ, that often brings us into trial. It was so with the apostle John. He tells us that he was banished to desolate Patmos for “the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.” If a light be set on a candlestick it is that all that enter into the house may see the light. A saint is a light-bearer; and it is the will of God not only that we should be blameless and harmless, but, being in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, we should give testimony to the Lord Jesus— “shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life,” &e. (Philippians 2:1515That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Philippians 2:15).) So in Thessalonians, where the apostle, by the Spirit, is contemplating the saints as surrounded by those who are in darkness and unbelief—having no hope, and without God in the world, he beseeches them not only to be sober, but to be putting on. Observe! “putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.” In this way they would indeed shine as lights in the world. They would be known, in an unbelieving and dark place, as those who trust God; as those who do labors of love—who love the Lord, His word, His ways, His saints, and His blessed gospel of salvation to precious and immortal souls in a world that crucified Him, and still rejects Him; and as having an intelligent hope of glory in a world that has “no hope”— the expectation of the coming of the Lord, and of being caught up to meet Him in the air. This is something more than the knowledge of forgiveness of sins, peace with God, standing in Christ, relationship with God as His children, &c.; for it involves “putting on;” it necessitates the activities of the heart flowing forth in testimony to the Lord in a world of sin and darkness, and declares that He is worthy not only to be served, but to be trusted, to be loved, and to be waited for.
Fellow Christians! are our souls going forth in true testimony to the Lord? Do those who surround us know us as those who really live and walk by faith, and therefore have no fellowship with unbelieving ways and conversation? Do we labor in loving ways as we have opportunity in the name of our Lord Jesus? And are we known as unsettled on earth because we are waiting for God’s Son from heaven? If so, the light does indeed shine; we have put on “the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.” But what a poor thing it must be in God’s sight, if He sees our heads filled with Bible knowledge, and this breastplate and helmet not “put on.”
Let us see to it, beloved, that we never fail to put on our testimony garments!
BATTLE GARMENTS.
In Ephesians, where the believer’s standing as now seated in heavenly places, and his new relationships are treated of, he is recognized as battling with wicked spirits in heavenly places, which seek to encompass him with “wiles,” or to inflict “fiery darts,” to withstand his entering into the place and character of blessing in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies, in which God in His grace has set him. Satan, though he cannot hinder our eternal salvation, does try to hinder the believer’s communion and joy. We are therefore exhorted to put on the whole armor—the panoply of God—and stand consciously in and enjoy the blessings God has graciously given us in His own presence inside the vail. The breastplate here is therefore called “the breastplate of righteousness,” that is, practical righteousness; for if this be lacking, it is manifest that it would give Satan a crevice in which he might effectually lodge one of his “fiery darts.” The believer therefore is here exhorted to “put on” the panoply of God, to be strong in the Lord, and thus to withstand Satan, and take possession of, stand in, and enjoy the marvelous position and blessings God has so graciously given him in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. This conflict is often sharp; for Satan and his hosts so withstand us that we are said to wrestle against principalities and powers, &c. It is not wrestling with flesh and blood, not battling with circumstances down here, but conflict with wicked spirits as to our standing, abiding, and enjoyment inside the vail, where our Lord Jesus is. These battle garments then must be “put on,” the conflict must be entered upon, if we would be consciously in our true place inside the vail. This battling, too, implies the activities of the soul going out in faith and love, skillfully using the truth, and conscious of being in the place of entire dependence, crying unto God with all prayer and supplication, &c., and having but one weapon of attack— “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” How important, nay, more, how absolutely necessary, it is, that we should “put on” these battle garments, if we would triumph over Satan, and possess and enjoy our true resources of happiness and strength which our gracious God and Father has given us in Christ Jesus in heavenly places.
Dear Christian reader, do you know the sweet liberty and joy of standing consciously before God in all the acceptableness of Christ, as already seated in Him in heavenly places, having all your springs, resources, and blessings in and through Him? Depend upon it, unless we enjoy our real blessings inside the vail, we shall never really take our true place here as going forth “to Him outside the camp bearing His reproach.”
WALKING GARMENTS.
In the epistle to the Colossians, the believer is not looked at as in the heavenlies, nor simply as a child of light in the midst of darkness; but he is seen as “risen with Christ,” who is his life. (Chap. 3.) His walk, therefore, should be according to it—the outflow of resurrection life. He is therefore also enjoined to “put on;” but what? not battle garments, for the subject is not conflict; not testimony garments, because it is not simply the manifestation of light in the midst of darkness, though every act of godliness must be more or less that; but he is to “put on,” so to speak, walking garments; he is to walk, as we have said, suited to such as are “risen with Christ.” Christian walk, therefore, is living out this new-creation life in Christ—to “put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,” &c., to be forgiving like Christ, encircling all with a girdle of love, peace ruling the heart which sings with grace to the Lord, so occupied with Him that His word dwells richly in us, and that we do everything in His name. Thus we shall be practically Christ-like, we shall walk as He walked. The path is holiness, love, faithfulness, and truth. It is obedience, self-sacrifice, Christ-honoring; happy too, for “wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” What a life of absolute dependence, self-abnegation, and continual occupation with the Lord Jesus this walk involves!
We may add a word from 1 Peter 1:13,13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (1 Peter 1:13) where believers are exhorted to “gird up the loins of their mind.” The reason for the figure being here used of girding up is obvious; for in this epistle the believer is looked at as a stranger and pilgrim on earth, ruing on to the inheritance reserved for him in heaven. The path being encompassed with “afflictions,” “trials,” and “manifold temptations,” the loins must be girded. Like those in the east, whose journey lies in a rough and thorny way, find it absolutely necessary to fold up their long, flowing garments, and gird them round their waists, lest they might be caught by the thorns and briers of the way, and thus get entangled and detained in their journey; so we must gird up the loins of our mind. We should be so sensible of the dangers and difficulties of the way as to feel imperatively the importance of bracing up the energies of our souls, and go forward, onward, and upward in the might of the Spirit. Cheered too with the hope of glory, the inheritance reserved for us in heaven, we should, be prepared to avoid every entanglement, and overcome every obstacle in our path. So may it be with us, dear Christian reader, that the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be magnified by us, and in us!