Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14
Paul’s point is that we are to deliberately put on the qualities of life: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness. The reason, of course, is because we can. As born-again Christians, these qualities of life reside within us.
The self-centeredness is to be put away (the ‘used to be’ or ‘old’ person) so we can respond to the appeals to be what God has now made us to be. So, first thing in the morning, put away the self-oriented stuff and deliberately put on the following seven qualities that reflect the life of Jesus that dwells within us. Because you can.
Compassion
“Clothe ourselves with compassion.” Clothe ourselves with a heart of empathy with everyone we meet throughout the day. Approach life with compassion; that is what Paul is saying. Put it on when we get up in the morning. You are a new man, or new woman; so therefore live that way.
Kindness
Kindness is action that reveals compassion, action that arises out of a sense of empathy. It can take many different forms — a smile, a kind word, a pat on the shoulder, an invitation to lunch, an offer of help. We are to put on compassion and kindness as we start our day and throughout the day.
Humility
John Stott references humility as “the rarest and fairest of all Christian virtues.” He references humility as the highest because it is the exact opposite of the worst of sins, which is pride. Thus, we are to put on humility. We are not to consider ourselves in any way as superior to others. Someone once said that we are to remember that “all of us are made in the same mold, only some are moldier than others!” And that, of course, would be you and me.
Gentleness
Gentleness is strength under control. It by no means references weakness. It is real strength, but it does not have to display itself or show off how strong it is. It is a willingness to waive one’s rights or set aside our rights. Gentleness is a willingness to suffer loss vesus demanding what we deserve. Gentleness is the exact opposite of rudeness and abrasiveness.
Patience
Patience means long-suffering — the enduring of another’s exasperating conduct without flying into a rage. It is holding back, restraining yourself from becoming upset or speaking sharply or at an ear-piercing pitch to somebody whose conduct you find difficult and exasperating.
Forbearance
Forbearance is linked with Patience and means to uphold and support someone. Not only to restrain ourselves as in Patience but to support others, encourage them and sustain them.
Forgiveness
The last quality is forgiving whatever grievances we may have against one another. “Forgive as the Lord forgave us.” It is important to recognize that we are still asked to privately air a grievance or tell someone of an injustice or unfairness we see. But, having done that, we are to forgive and forget the unkind thoughts, the blasphemous attitudes, the grievous, and hurtful sins as Christ has forgiven us for far graver sins. As those who are forgiven ourselves, we are not to bring up to the person whom we have forgiven the thing we forgave. We are to treat them as though it did not happen. We are not to constantly harass him or her with reminders of the evil things done in the past.
The second thing forgiveness means is that we do not tell anybody else about the matter that is forgiven. We do not gossip about it to others. We can do that because we ourselves have been forgiven. Then the third thing forgiveness means is: we do not remind ourselves of what has been forgiven! Even in our private thoughts we never allow the offense to come up and to color our attitude toward the one we have forgiven. We are not to allow it to awaken feelings of resentment and unfairness and play it all over again. Forgiveness means to put it aside even to ourselves because that is what Christ has done for us.
Then, having given us these seven beautiful qualities, the apostle tells us to wrap it all around with the bond of love: “over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Someone has said it this way: “Put on the overcoat of love.” This, of course, is that quality of acceptance of others because we are a new person ourselves. We are no longer the old person we once were. We are a new person with these beautiful, God-given attributes. Why? Because we can.
John Fischer The Catch 