THE WEDDING GARMENT
A. M. Hayward
In Matthew 22 we have the habiliments of the nation. We are not to dress as we like. God was very particular about the dress of His people even the tassels on the garment were specified, Numbers 15: 38, 39. One looks round on the brethren and wonders a little sometimes as to the habiliments—not that one would criticise, but there are things that pain.
The great feature about the wedding garment is that we disappear and Christ appears. The movements, the deportment, the speech, the manner of life, even the material manner of dress are all to be such as honour the King’s Son; no other habiliments are accepted in the holy nation. Every one of us knows that the natural tendency of our hearts is to endeavour to leave with others a good impression of ourselves; but let it be an impression of Christ and not an impression of ourselves! Books are written on how to leave a good impression of oneself.
The only impression left by those who are chosen persons, who have come to the marriage feast according to God, as having on the wedding garment, is that they have come to it with this understanding in their hearts that there is only one Person to be made great whilst here on earth, and that is the King’s Son.
We wait the day when God will fill this scene with the glory and beauty of Christ, but our testimony now is to His excellence; and our deportment, our habiliments—in other words, the wedding garment—are to indicate that our concern is to make great the King’s Son. Great detail is given in the New Testament as to actual dress. How we naturally love to adorn ourselves! If we put on anything that is not necessary for dress, it is adornment, see 1 Peter 3.
It is calling attention to oneself instead of to Christ. The wedding garment would be the whole exterior as seen in our school, at our business, or in our home life, and in the assembly.
Our one concern would be to make our Lord Jesus Christ great.
Christ’s object here was to make nothing of Himself but everything of God; whether it was in His contact with the Jews, or among His disciples, or whether it was amongst wicked men, or whether it was in His teachings and utterances, His one concern was to make God great.
From ‘The Laws of the Kingdom’, pp.12, 13.