Answer:
Scripture
Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Observation
God chose us to be His holy people and we need to put on His character- tender mercy, humility, gentleness and patience. We are to forgive others, just as Christ forgives us.
We must let the message of Christ, the Good News, fill our lives as the community of Christ. We are to teach and counsel each other, and sing songs of praise and worship together. Above all, we must make Christ the centre of all we say and do.
Application
God chose me to be part of His holy people. He called and I responded. Now I must live the life He has called me to, a life set apart for God’s purposes.
There are certain attitudes or ways of relating that mark the Christ follower. Christ must be born in my heart then flow out to others in my daily relationships.
Paul describes these qualities of love, peace, patience etc as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, but here he tells us we must clothe ourselves in these qualities.
There is no contradiction here; it is a bit of both. We must allow the Holy Spirit to grow the qualities in us, but we must also take the responsibility of living the Christian life. As the Holy Spirit convicts us of sinful actions or wrong attitudes, we should repent and turn again to God. At that point, the Holy Spirit gives us grace to replace the sinful thing with His fruit.
It is always a partnership between us and God, between “clothe yourselves” and allowing God to grow Himself in us.
I hope it helps, have a good day po;)
