Wardrobe worries?

Galatians 3: 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

As I write this I’m sitting in Tesco’s café. At the table next to mine is a woman with more holes in her than our colander!

Now this isn’t going to be an anti-piercings rant. I’m trying to keep an open mind on piercings as far as my children go, whilst being very glad that ears are all that have been done so far! It’s just that this woman has reminded me how our culture is obsessed with self-image. That depending what tribe we belong to (or would like to belong to), we wear our uniform with pride.

I’m a member of the Middle-aged men pretending they are 10 years younger than they are tribe. We stand out less than the wholesale piercing tribe. But we’re no less insecure. What’s your tribe?

We are created to belong. That is why we are so desperate to fit in somewhere. We are made to find security in a set of relationships where we are accepted. The problem is that the world judges us on the way we look or what we’re good at or how much money we’ve got or whether we’re the life and soul of the party. The world judges us on our performance according to its standards.

The glorious news of the gospel is that God accepts us as we are. Though he has every right to judge us according to his perfect standards (which have nothing to do with the cut of your jeans or the colour of your hair), he offers us a relationship based not on our performance but on the performance of his son, the Lord Jesus. He gives us the righteousness of his perfect life. He dies to deal with the unrighteousness of our sinful lives.

For those who are in Christ the world’s tribes should no longer have any hold over us because we are sons of God. There is neither male nor female, slave nor free, Greek nor Jew. Gender, job and race don’t primarily define us. Christ does.

I think that means we’re free to wear whatever we want…as long as it doesn’t matter to us. Where did I put those skinny jeans?