Ephesians 6:11-17 “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”
The armor of God which we are told to put on is truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit (spiritual sword).
1 Cor 15:53 “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
The corruption that we wear must be taken off and incorruption put on. The armor of God helps us with putting on immortality.
Luke 22:36 “Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.”
And if we do not have a sword (sword of the Spirit) we are to sell our garment and buy the sword of the Spirit, which is part of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:17). Having a sword is more important than having a garment or clothes, spiritually speaking. The armor of God is what we are to put on rather than clothes.
Colossian 3:8-10 “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”
And the garment (coat) that we are to sell (put off) represents the clothing that we wear which is not the armor of God. The things we “cover” ourselves with represents corruption (1 Cor 15:53), and it represents our old man which has anger, malice and the other things described in Colossian 3:8. These are the garments we are to put off.
Ephesians 4:24 “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
And what else does this new man that we are to “put on” represent?
Colossians 3:12-15 “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
The new man that we put on shows compassion, humility, and forgiveness; does not pass judgment and is thankful. The clothing [or outward appearance] that we wear reflects what is ruling our heart.
Mark 6:9 “But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.”
One can puts on “two coats” (Mark6:9) and “cover up” the outward appearance with a second coat and “make” themselves look like the things listed in Colossians 3:12. Mark 6:9 says we are not to do this. This is when one acts nice outwardly but their heart is not nice. However, when the peace of God rules (Col 3:15) the things listed in Colossians 3 show through and both coats are put off. Is this what righteousness looks like?
Job 29:14 “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.”
Isaiah 59:17 “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.”
Now how are we to obtain the armor of God and put off the old man, rather than just putting on that second coat of appearing righteous outwardly (works of righteousness) to cover up what is in our heart?
Luke 12:33 Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
The word “alms” means compassion, mercy, and charity which is love. To give alms means to give love, compassion and forgiveness rather than anger and hatred. When we sell what we have and give alms, this does NOT mean sell your physical house and ALL your physical belongings and give money or food to the poor; but it means to sell our hatred, sell our judgments, sell our anger and rather give love, compassion, mercies, humility, and forgiveness to ALL. When we “sell” our old clothing of hatred, wrath, and malice we are able to obtain treasure in heaven which includes the armor of God. Luke 12:33 has nothing to do with physical possessions which are nothing to God.
Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”
Matthew 6:25 gives us a hint as to how we are to put on all of the [spiritual] things that we should. These verses tell us to “take no thought” or in other words, be not anxious or troubled with worries about what you will put on. Again this is speaking about spiritual clothing not physical clothing. When we are anxious and troubled about our outward appearance (outward righteousness) we tend to use “works of righteousness” to DO what we think is right rather than having a change of mind and heart. When we see ourselves having hatred, malice and pride and we want to change it, many times we want to force ourselves to be nice and we try and cover up our hatred rather than understand why we do the things we do. And when we worry and are anxious about it we are bound by the law (tree of knowledge of good and evil). We then tend to lie to ourselves about how we truly are and we try to fix it by changing our outward behavior rather than changing ourselves within. This represents the putting on of two coats (Matt 10:10 and Mar 6:9) which represents covering up our hatred and judgment [of ourselves and others], and using works (outward behavior control) to force ourselves to be righteous outwardly, which is only a show of our efforts and not a change of our heart and mind, which is performed by the awakening of Christ within (inward thought examination) and not by our “works of righteousness” (Titus 3:5). Sometimes we also use the “law” (tree of knowledge of good and evil) to judge others with a self-righteous view of ourselves; thinking we are better than others and that our criticisms are justified. “Works of righteousness” do not save us from our old man with our old clothes, and James 5:16 says to “confess your faults”; it doesn’t say to worry about them. Confess what you think is wrong with you, and then give it to God and have faith it will be fixed without being anxious about it. Only Christ arising in us can change us. See previous posts on Christ arising in us.
Titus 3:3-7 “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
It is not “works of righteousness” that gives us the clothing we should wear. And as Matthew 6:26 says, we are not to be anxious about it, but look for the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Which means letting go of worrying about it and having faith something higher than yourself will provide the way [to righteousness].
Matthew 6:27 “{Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Matthew 6 goes on to say that we are not to seek the clothing itself, which means we shouldn’t simply try by our efforts (works) to put on meekness, charity, humility, compassion, and forgiveness; but we are to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you”. Most people (Gentiles) will seek after righteousness by the outward appearance (Matt 6:27, 1Sam 16:7, 2Cor 10:7, Matt 23:28), but it says we should look to the inside first, and the outside isn’t so important.
Matthew 23:25-28 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
So how do we move from appearing righteous to men to being righteous in God’s eyes? Matthew 6 says we are to seek first the kingdom of God and “all these things will be added unto you”. Titus 3:5-7 says it is by grace [not our works] that provides us this inheritance, and that it is the Holy Ghost that shows us the way. So how are we to seek the kingdom of God which in turn will provide us with the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which in turn will make us shed our old “clothes” and put on new ones (Col 3:12).
Luke 17:21 “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
The kingdom of God is a rule or dominion that is within us.
2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.”
Ephesians 1:17-18 ”That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…”
The kingdom of God is not of this world and is not the knowledge of the good and evil of this world that we see with our five senses, which only gives us judgment of this world and its outward appearance. Remember, the outward appearance is not of the knowledge of God, and the kingdom of God comes from within us. The spirit of wisdom and the renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5) is a spirit (i,e, essence, attitude, energy, understanding) of wisdom that comes to us when we begin to understand God and what God represents within us. When we obtain this spirit of wisdom, it is a type of revelation and our eyes of understanding [within us] are enlightened. This enlightenment gives our mind and heart a new understanding of the outside world and our heart begins to change from within because of our renewed knowledge of God, and it is not because of our works to make our outward behavior appear righteous according to our knowledge of good and evil. See previous posts on the knowledge of good and evil. (i.e. May 24, 2015, January 17, 2015, October 28, 2014).
Remember the kingdom of God is within us, as is Christ [the hope of glory] (Col 1:27), where glory means sound judgment and understanding. When we actually realize this we come to recognize the importance of what is says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, that every thought should be in obedience of Christ. We also come to understand what it says in Titus 3:5, the washing of regeneration; our minds are changed according to what we come to know. When we come to know Christ we come to glory or sound judgment and understanding which in turn changes our mind and our heart from within in time.
In time we come to know that we can trust God and we are no longer to worry or be anxious about our “clothes” (outward appearance to man and to ourselves), but rather we keep our mind and thoughts on trusting God and being truly thankful (Colossians 3:15). Then [also in time] all or our high thoughts that exalt against the knowledge of God are cast down (Ephesians 6:12 & 2 Corinthians 10:5). So by means of the armor of God described in Ephesians 6 all the things listed in Colossians 3:8 are “put off” and all the things lists in Colossians 3:12 are “put on” as our thoughts are in obedience to Christ as described in 2 Corinthians 10:5, who is the “anointed” one WITHIN US; anointed with the armor of God.