As you live, remember you are the pure and forgiven bride of Christ. Remembering your identity as a pure bride should lead you to live pure and blameless. Purity is your new identity. To live impure is to not live the reality of who you really are. To live impure is to revert to your old identity.
As the bride you were given new clothes. You now wear white. Do not put on your old clothes. Live in the new clothes.
You were taught with regards to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22–24 NIV)
After Katrina ravaged New Orleans, I went home to New Orleans with some guys from my church to gut some houses. We brought the oldest clothes we owned to work in the mold-infested houses each day. We brought old clothes because we knew we would throw them away at the end of each day.
After taking a shower each evening at the FEMA camp, I tossed the old clothes into trash bins throughout the camp. I loved the feel of putting on the new clothes my wife packed specifically for enjoying restaurants each night in the city.
After the shower I stayed away from the old clothes. I was now clean. I was refreshed, and I only wanted to wear the new clothes.
God has given you a new nature, a new set of clothes. He has given you His righteousness. Put that on. Leave the old clothes in the trash.
Adapted from Identity (2008, B&H Publishing Group)
