SOUTH ASIAN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP of Boston
Keeping the Good Garment

Rev 16:15 Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his GARMENTS, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

The garments refer to the righteousness of a person. We need to keep our garments/righteousness clean and be prepared for the wedding, when the Groom arrives, so that we may be prepared, worthy and selected by Him. Let us look at few cases where the garments represent the righteousness of certain persons and let us learn from this and keep our garments clean. Let us determine which of the following types of garments are we wearing

Bad Garments
Sin & Shame
Adam and eve sewed fig leaves to cover their sin and shame. The Lord later provided tunics to clothe them. This can also mean that Adam and Eve sacrificed leaves to cover the sin, but it took the sacrifice of animals to cover it better. Some of us cover our sin and shame the way we want. God covers our son with the sacrifice of the Lamb, the way He wants.
Gen 3:7 they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 21 the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Deceit
Some of us deceive others by putting on false clothing. We try pretend to be what we are not. But we cannot fool God with these garments.
Gen 27:16 she put the skins of the kids of the goats on Jacobs hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

Pride
The Multicolor tunic can represent pride. There are around 12 main colors in the world. When Joseph wore this robe of roughly 12 colors he felt he was greater than his brothers and may have taken pride in it.
Gen 37:3 Jacob made Joseph a multi colored tunic.

Comfort & Worldly
Joesph was wearing the garment given by the Pharoah. When she hold it she felt she owned it. In our lives too the world gives us garments to put on, but then it will come back to us and try to control us laying hold on the garment. We must let go of the wordly garment of comfort. It may take away our reputaion, but we must not give up our character.
Gen 39:12 the Pharoahs wife caught Joseph by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.

Blindness, Curse & Sickness
The blind beggers garment represent his identity. It identified him as a begger. It was his worldly posession and held his money in its pocket. It also represents the hinderance in the crowd to move forward to receive Jesus. But he believed that Jesus could save him and thus let go of that garment and went forth and was healed. He did not fear, if he would return still the same blind and not be able to see his garment. He knew he needed it no more and so we also must be better than this begger, let us not let the world, or our identity or money hinder us, let us throw that garment of our oldness to receive the blessings of God.
Mark 10:50 throwing aside his garment, the blind begger rose and came to Jesus to be healed.

Good Garments
Trust & Power
Goliath put his trust in the weapons of the world. David was not able to walk with the Kings armour, so he rather relied on the armour of the King of Kings. We too must not put our trust in men, God is our ultimate protector over all powers. The weapon of the truth of the Gospel is the sharpest weapon (Heb 4:12)
1 Sam 17:5 Goliath had a bronze helmet, armed with a coat of mail, 6 bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.
1 Sam 17:39 David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.

Hardship
John wore clothes of camel hair which would be the best to be worn in the wilderness. His priority was Gods work, he led a hard life for God. We too must be covered with the garments to help us overcome hardships.
Mat 3:4 4 Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Prepared
The access to salvation and Christ is free, all are welcome to the wedding in heaven. But then we must be ready and prepared and respectfull to Gods wedding. We cannot go as we were, we need to be prepared with the wedding garments.
Mat 22:11 the king saw a man who did not have a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was punished...

Humility
Jesus humbled himself by comming to earth in the form of man. He humbled himself by washing his disciples feet. We must be ready to serve our subjects. While doing so he put aside His garment. He did not want to dirty it and later put it back on. We too must not dirty our garments in the process of doing menial works and remember to put it back on to remember our responsibilities and duties.
John 13:4 Jesus rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments,
Phil 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

Armor of God
We must be covered with the Armor of God to protect us from the enemies. For more info click here for the Armour of God
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Conclusion:- Let us make sure that we do not wear the garment of sin, shame, deceit, pride, comforts or sickness. But let us put on the garment of Gods protection, of hardship, being prepared with humility. Let us put on the armour of God.