Fashion Deprived?
Mark 1:5-7 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
DO YOU like to look good? I do. I’m not trying to say I’m good looking. I’m simply saying that wearing clothes that fit, keeping my hair combed, shaving every day are important things for me. I think most people are that way.
But it appears John the Baptist wasn’t. John seems out of sync with even his culture. Why would he dress that way?
Think for a moment of what Jesus says about being a disciple: Mark 8:34 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” In John's way of living, he was demonstrating what is required of a new spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Jesus and the new Testament writers talk often of denying the things of the world in order to more fully wear the “clothes” of Jesus’ desires for you. Mark certainly denied himself. He gave up a comfortable life at home for the discomfort of living in new cultures and in danger of persecution. In order to live in Jesus, the Apostle Paul writes: Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
God had anointed John to live apart from the world because he would point to Jesus. Dress up in Jesus. Clothe yourself in his salvation and his majesty. And you’ll really, really look good.
Pause and consider it is essential you make the Gospel your fashion statement.
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