Dress whites …

I don’t understand how people successfully wear white.

It’s a great look. If you’ve ever seen sailors standing at attention on an aircraft carrier while in their white uniforms, it’s an impressive sight to see.

Many people wear white as part of their work uniforms. And some years ago, an all white look tried to take hold for a while.

But for me, it seems as though Murphy’s Law is drawn to me like a magnet when I wear white. That’s the “law” that says “whatever can go wrong, will.” For me, when I’m wearing white, that law seems to be magnified. It seems as though I suddenly develop a unique capacity to find every particle of dust within a 100 yard radius, and suddenly I become clumsy with food. It just seems like something happens to spot my clothes when I’m wearing white.

Yet, I’ve watched people who wear white for work go all day without getting the slightest spot of dirt on their all-white outfits. I’ve seen many people wear a white t-shirt all day without getting the slightest speck or smudge on it.

Me? It seems as though I get dirty putting on white!

Some people are better at spots and stains than others. Not just with regard to their clothing, but with their lives as well.

When we come to Christ, He cleans us up. He removes our sin and makes us as white as snow or wool (Isaiah 1:18). Then, we’re instructed to live our lives in such a way as to remain “unspotted” or “unstained” from the world … to stay clean! We find this teaching in James 1:27. The New American Standard Bible states it this way, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” but my favorite version, the New Living Translation (NLT), words the verse this way, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

I like the way the NLT phrases the verse because it captures the fuller meaning of the teaching. We’re to go beyond looking clean in our “Christian whites,” but actually being clean, ” … refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

One of the constant problems with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day was their love of appearing to not only be holy, but holier than everyone else. They paid great attention to their outward appearance, while inwardly they were seething with sin. Jesus described their sad reality this way, in Matthew 23:27-28. “27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Before that statement, Jesus had cut to the heart of the matter as He said, in Matthew 23:25-26, “25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.”

Jesus uses the example of giving attention to cleaning the outside of a cup or dish before using it. By cleaning just the outside, the cup appears to be clean, but the dirt inside the cup that isn’t cleaned away is what corrupts the drinker. If you want to drink from a clean cup, or eat from a clean dish, you have to clean the inside first, then you can clean the outside.

The same with our lives. Christ has removed all the stains of sin by His sacrifice for us. Now, we’re not simply to look clean, but to be clean by living clean! By seeking, and yielding to, God’s guidance and empowerment on a daily basis, we can avoid the things of this world that would “stain” or “spot” us.

We live in a dirty world that can make a mess of life. But notice what James wrote about staying clean. He said “… refusing to let the world corrupt you.” That phrase “refusing to LET” helps us understand it’s our choices we make that determine if we live in the cleansing love and power of Christ, or if we simply look good on the outside, while deathly black on the inside.

Are your “Christian whites” an accurate outward representation of your inward spiritual life, or internally are you looking more like a Dalmatian?

Scotty