Clothed in Christ with Caroline Saunders
Today we have the joy of hearing from Caroline Saunders on the topic of clothing. In this conversation, Caroline points us to the hope we have as those who are clothed in Christ. If you don’t know her, Caroline is a writer, teacher, and writing teacher who believes in taking Jesus seriously and being un-serious about nearly everything else. Caroline lives with her husband Luke and their three funny kids in north Mississippi, where Luke pastors a church and the kids run wild in the lobby. Caroline loves to help others know and enjoy God and his Word, which you’ll hear in this conversation!
We pray this conversation with Caroline causes you to consider how you can put on the Lord Jesus Christ and trust him as you step into the closet and choose what to wear. May his righteousness be your covering today and every day.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Where do we see the topic of clothing in the Bible?
How does the story of Adam and Eve tell us something about who they were, and what does it tell us about who God is?
Are there any other key passages that have shaped your view of clothing?
How have we been clothed in Christ? How does the gospel transform the way we view our clothing?
How can we turn our eyes away from what we see in the mirror and turn them towards Christ? How can we strive to behold the Lord first and then view ourselves and others?
What are some of the deeper heart questions we should be asking when we're deciding what to wear? How does this serve others?
How does what we wear tell a story about who we are? How does what we put on the outside reveal what's going on inside us?
What are some guiding biblical principles that can help us make wise choices about how we dress?
How can we gently and lovingly guide other believers through the perils of closets and clothes and confidence?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“God loves to use common items like water, bread, light, and clothing—these everyday things we can’t help but interact with—in order to reveal truth about himself.”
“God creates Adam and Eve naked.”
“God creates the people, God commissions the people (to rule the world and make it thrive), and he communes with them. He walks with them.”
“Adam and Eve sin, and in doing so they rebel against their Creator. They reject their Creator, they reject their commissioning, and they destroy their communing. The very first consequence of this rebellion is that Adam and Eve realize that they’re naked.”
“They were naked in a world where there was no rebellion. And now they are naked in a world where there is rebellion, and that’s a game-changer. Their immediate feeling toward this is shame.”
“Suddenly, God’s people have a new need. They need to be covered.”
“Despite the fact that they have rebelled, God treats them with such fatherly kindness and dignity by covering them. He offers a clothing that is better than what they could offer themselves.”
“One of the animals that Adam had named was killed (and nothing had ever died before) so that Adam and Eve could have a sufficient covering.”
“In order for those who are naked and ashamed to be clothed, death must occur, sacrifice must occur.”
“The big story of the Bible continues with person after person who follows after this same pattern… Some people are kings dressed in royal robes and some are prophets dressed in weird garments and some are warriors dressed in armor, but spiritually speaking they are all naked and ashamed—they are all in need of a covering.”
“God pursues the naked and ashamed to provide a covering they could not provide themselves.”
“Like that animal in the garden long ago, Jesus was killed so that traitors could be covered. Through his work on the cross, anyone who is spiritually naked and ashamed and seeking to cover themselves, could be clothed with a covering that only God could provide.”
“As we walk in that tension of knowing that we’re clothed in Christ yet sometimes still feeling naked and ashamed, we look forward to the day where there are white robes that have been washed in the blood of the lamb and there’s a beautiful bride whose groom looks at her with so much love.”
“Any time we are longing for a safe place or longing to be covered, there is one place to look, and it's to the God who has always covered the naked and ashamed. And if you pay attention to anywhere you’re reading in the Bible, you’ll see a glimmer of that—of somebody longing for a covering and God able to provide it.”
“Being clothed in Christ means we once were naked and ashamed and yet now God has covered us. Now we partner with him to put on Christ.”
“As I’m getting dressed, I can ask, ‘How does this outfit play a small role in how I’m being parented by God? How is my parent leading me and challenging me and delighting in me as I put this on? Also, how can what I’m putting on preach to the world around me about true clothing?’”
“Clothing is one of these small elements that God has on purpose embedded in our lives to tell a story about him.”
“Jeans—at the end of the day—are just jeans. But God can use the jeans to work within us and work within others.”
“I don’t have to earn my righteousness. There’s actually nothing to prove here. I don’t have to ask this new dress or this pair of jeans or this new shirt to give me value. It’s just so not that serious. I get to just enjoy this for what it is, or not buy it at all if it's the worst thing ever. And it doesn’t have to impact my soul, because my soul is safe because I am covered.”
“No matter how fit and how well-dressed we are, at the end of the day it’s just not enough.”
“We all know the verse that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14). But what is so beautiful is to zoom out a bit on that psalm because we will so quickly apply that to ourselves and miss the fact that for the 13 verses leading up to that, David has been meditating on how big and how powerful and how all-knowing God is. And he has spent all that time beholding God and it actually changes how he sees himself. He starts to not just see that God is good, but that God has made things that are good and that this includes his physical person.”
“Three practical things we can do so that we can behold the Lord first and then let that overflow and impact how we see ourselves:
Develop rhythms that reorient us: Bible reading, prayer, memorization. Pick a passage that talks about how big God is. Read it over and over again. Think about it deeply. Use it to create prayers to God. And then eventually maybe try to memorize it. If you keep doing that kind of thing over and over again your whole life, it will change everything, including what happens when you look in the mirror.
Develop discernment for our disorientation: When we’re disoriented, that needs to be a trigger that prompts us to run to the Lord. Because it’s just clear evidence that we are beholding the wrong thing. We need to behold the proper thing.
Investigate it: You probably don’t have an outfit problem; you probably have a spiritual problem. Go back to any of those passages that reorient you. Run to that and let God’s truth wash over you in a new way.”
“Ask yourself, what is going on with my soul?” (Psalm 139:23-24)
“God can expose the things in you that are producing death, and instead lead you in the way of life.”
“Because of Christ, I’m clothed in righteousness, I’m clothed in strength and dignity.”
“Anytime you spiral, ask yourself, ‘What is going on with my soul?’ Ask God to search you and know your heart.”
“Ask yourself, ‘Am I taking myself too seriously?’”
“When we become obsessive about policing others and policing ourselves, what we’re doing is trying to prove righteousness or ask other people to prove righteousness, and that’s just not the story.”
“When God covers his people, it’s a response to shame.”
“Christ has clothed me, and therefore I want to overflow and live a certain way.”
“If we are faithful to remember God as our loving father, and we’re asking him, ‘How can I benefit my personal walk with you and how might I benefit those around me?’ that will help us to make really wise choices about how we dress.”
“Put Scripture in the places where you know you're quick to get disoriented about what is true (on your mirror, in your closet, on your phone background before you go into a fitting room).”
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Beach Brain (PDF) by Caroline Saunders
OTHER RESOURCES FROM CAROLINE
Story of Water, by Caroline Saunders
Story of Home, by Caroline Saunders
Better Than Life: How to Study the Bible and Like it (A Bible Study for Teens) by Caroline Saunders
Good News: How to Know the Gospel and Love it (A Bible Study for Teens) by Caroline Saunders
Sound the Alarm: Joel, Amos, and Jonah (Kaleidoscope Kids Bibles) by Caroline Saunders
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
SIMPLE JOYS OF CLOTHING
My pink jumpsuit
Any pajamas or loungewear
My new earring organizer
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Are there any biblical passages or points from this episode that have shaped your view of clothing?
How does understanding that you have been clothed in Christ transform the way you view your clothing?
Have you ever experienced insecurity in your clothing or how you look? If you could go back, what truths would you tell yourself in those moments?
How might beholding God change how you look at yourself and what you wear?
What might you implement or change based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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