The Triumphant Churchwhich after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
Put On the God-kind of Love
Let's look in Colossians chapter 3, to see how the
new creature in Christ acts and to see what we are
commanded to "put on."
COLOSSIANS 3:12-14
12 PUT ON therefore, as the elect of God, holy and
beloved, BOWELS OF MERCIES, KINDNESS,
HUMBLENESS OF MIND, MEEKNESS,
LONGSUFFERING;
13 FORBEARING ONE ANOTHER, and FORGIVING
ONE ANOTHER, if any man have a quarrel against
any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things PUT ON
CHARITY, which is the bond of perfectness.
In verse 13, the phrase "forbearing one another"
means putting up with one another. When we begin to
get agitated and impatient with one another, it isn't
necessarily a devil at work. We just need to exercise
forbearance and forgive one another, even as Christ
forgave us (v. 13).
The word translated in verse 14 as "charity" is the
Greek word, "agape"—the God-kind of love. We are to
put on love. Putting on love is a protection against the
enemy because then we don't give the devil any place in
us (Eph. 4:27).
When we're born again, the love of God has been
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost (Rom. 5:5).
But we're going to have to take the love that's in our
hearts and put it on our outward man because the love
of God hasn't been shed abroad in our flesh. If we don't