The week between Christmas and New Years is a festive time, with plenty of holiday parties and get-togethers. It is the perfect time to show off all the new clothes opened up on Christmas day. Whether it’s an expensive designer-label jacket or just a different pair of jeans, wearing something new makes everything seem special and different.

In this week’s Colossians’ text the author affirms that “putting on” something new is transformative. But instead of clothing ourselves in new designer duds, the Christians Colossians addresses are called to clothe themselves with actions and attitudes that will show the living presence of Christ in their lives. Having already enumerated a list of “vices” Christians should get rid of (3:5-11), Colossians now provides a list of the “virtues” that those…