Colossians 3:1-11

"New Clothes for a New Man"

Makeover-type shows were very popular for a season. Are they still popular? I am a little out of touch, but I do remember many of them from years ago.

Houses were getting fresh remodeling and new interior design to the mind blowing applause of the viewing audience and the owners. People were getting plastic surgery, liposuction, new wardrobes and hairstyles, also to the applause and approval of friends and loved ones.

The premise behind these shows is that transformation happens from the outside and moves in. But is that a sound premise? I was curious. What becomes of the people and the houses? Do they all live happily ever after in their new life?

The simple answer is, "no". The follow up stories are varied and occasionally tragic. Interior design trends change, families can't afford higher taxes, and people don't have the energy to maintain the new "look". And, by the way, what is the new look modeled after anyway!?

Colossians 3 continues to press home the failure of religious works to produce a new identity. It is very easy for church to become an extreme religious make-over when God is looking to give you an entirely new identity. Religious ritual and restriction may be only an external makeover and short-lived unless there is a new identity. That's the key to everything -- a new identity.

There are old things to get rid of and new things to embrace. But those don't revolve around external religious traditions and restrictions. They are internal things. A new identity naturally accepts a new wardrobe of behaviors and attitudes.

If you want to know what you were always meant to be, then.....

....View and See!

Steve