Is Your Wedding Dress Dirty?

by David Shannon

Let's observe a few phrases of the following passage about the faithful of the church described in Revelation 19:7-9.

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.
And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints and His wife has made herself ready"

As a minister I have stood in the presence of several brides on their wedding day. Their preparation is obvious. Their hair, makeup, nails, veil, dress, shoes, and posture are all considered. The arrangements made for I the location of the wedding, the flowers, invitations, music, photography, and wedding party involve many hours of planning and thousands of dollars of expense. My wife and I reminisced the other day about the summer she worked three jobs. Her reply was, "I was saving for my wedding." Sacrifice and preparation are common characteristics of brides who make themselves ready for that day.
"For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."
What are the spiritual garments of people preparing for the Groom, Jesus Christ, to return?
The garments are clean, not defiled in sin. This is a person who has been washed through the Lord's baptism ( Acts 22:16).
f The dirty garments are removed. A person must take off and repent of the old clothes worn in spiritual death. Colossians 3:8 tells us to "put of anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, and lying if we have been "raised with Christ" ( Colossians 3:1). "Put off in the Greek is the same word that would be used to talk of putting off or taking off a shirt or coat.
The clean garments must be adorned. Colossians 3:12 Paul informs us of what kind of spiritual garments to "put on." He says to change into ten' mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, forgiveness, and love.
Learning from Paul (writer of Colossians) and John (writer of Revelation) we can see the Lord's bride is waiting for His return in proper apparell. The white, clean dress is righteous acts. Failing to do righteousness like is smearing mud on a beautiful wedding gown. Can you imagine a bride careless about the cleanliness of her gown?

• Are You Watching and Waiting for the Lord's Return? -Jul 27, 2008
• An Expensive Dress, A Nice Gift, a Big Night -Mar 17, 2002
• The Last Day -Jan 21, 1990