If there is one thing my friends and family know about me, it would probably be that I am not fashion conscious. There are a number of reasons for that. First, I am a guy. Usually, guys get their sense of fashion from their mothers. But my mom was not a typical woman in this area. She did not care about fashion either. Growing up, she let me wear whatever I wanted to wear. I didn’t even realize clothes could “match.” I remember in the ninth grade a female classmate sarcastically telling me, “You sure do match today.” I didn’t know what she meant.

I spent my whole adult life in the military, where I was told what to wear. They told me what uniform to wear. That was fine by me. I was a soldier and my clothes “matched” who I was. My wife tried her best to dress me appropriately when I wore civilian clothes, but the die was cast. Unless she laid out my clothes, and made sure I wore them, I always looked like a “homeless person.” The situation remains the same to this day. I have even been told that my lack of fashion sense hurts any Christian ministry of which I am a part. But I have an unrepentant heart. I don’t buy that. I feel like John the Baptist was like me in this area, and he was able to serve the Lord with his lousy clothes.

But did you know that we can also be spiritually fashionable? That is much more important than the clothes we put on our physical bodies.

When we believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life, we become children of God. Peter points out that our Father is holy (1 Pet 1:15-17). The ways we live our lives are like spiritual clothes. They reflect who we are.

The readers of 1 Peter were wearing the proper spiritual clothes. They were fashionable. Peter says they loved one another. The world could look at them and see the work of the Spirit in them (1 Pet 1:22). They were like soldiers wearing the proper uniform. Their clothes “matched” who they were.

But believers can be spiritually unfashionable. Peter warns his readers that they can put on terrible clothes. He tells them to “lay aside” things like deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking (1 Pet 2:1). The verb that is used for “lay aside” was often used to describe taking off clothes. Peter was telling these believers that if they walked around doing these sinful things, they were wearing the wrong clothes. These clothes did not match who they were.

Peter tells them to desire the teachings of the Word of God. They were to see what the Scriptures told them to wear. Through the power of the Spirit, they could put on those kinds of clothes. The Scriptures are like my wife telling me what to “put on.”

The young lady in my ninth grade class pointed out that I was wearing the wrong clothes. My guess is she thought it was a little funny. I didn’t really care.

But it would be sad if others saw us and saw the sinful activities of which Peter speaks. If they do, they can rightfully say, “You are a believer in Jesus Christ, but you do these things. You don’t match.”

I will probably never be interested in being fashion conscious. But may all of us desire to be spiritually fashionable.