Simple Bible Answers - A web site to further understand the Word of God.
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Simple Bible Answers - A web site to further understand the Word of God.
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Q. Do we need to be concerned what we wear to church? Q. Can I wear anything?
What to wear to a church can start all kinds of heated debate both inside and outside the stain glass halls. There are many subjects one can discuss when it comes down to the Christian life, but items like clothes, hair, music, etc. are the ones people take interest in. So I wish to answer them also. Once again the people take their beliefs to the far extremes on theses issues. You have the far right and the far left. The lines get drawn between legalism and license. We'll take a look at the right side first. Now for a true story. I young man was walking down the street one early Sunday morning. He may have been bare footed, a ruffed up pair of pants, and a somewhat ragged shirt. His hair needs combing and it's just a little long. As he was passing by the church he thinks, why don’t I swing in and see what’s going on. He thinks he knows God, doesn’t really agree with what he thinks he knows of some Christian churches, but is willing to give this one a try. Up the steps he walks and a usher stops him. “I’m sorry, but your not dressed appropriately to enter the church”. The young man wasn’t the type to get his feelings hurt, and just turned around and left. Later he would have dealings with this church because of a job that he worked at. He never said anything to anybody from the church, but he did mention it to others he worked with, when they showed up at his job. This was a major denomination that I won’t mention, because there are a lot of denominations that have churches in them that would do this. Also this person, years later, would come to find others in this denomination that wouldn’t ever deny anyone entrance. This one church had slandered their fellow churches, and in some ways all of the Christian faith by what one man did. I’m sure this man thought he was doing what was best for the Lord, after all this young man should have had more respect for God, then to show up like the cat dragged him in. Should this young man have had more respect then to show up like that to enter a church, probably. He did have better clothes, shoes, and what would it take after all, just to comb his hair? But he didn’t know much better and was a little cocky. Was the usher wrong to stop him, you bet he was, that usher should have known better. You don’t stop a man from entering a church because he doesn’t meet your by-laws or dress code. I wonder what they would have done if Jesus had showed up, as what most people have in their minds, he looked like. After all he had no place to lay his head and slept in his garments, more then likely one pair of sandals, just the one outer garment. Would he have been turned away? The usher was performing his role, providing a service to the Lord. But was it right? The church was what is known as “legalistic”. It claimed to be a Grace based church but had more rules for their membership then a law book. You need to remember that what you may feel with all your heart, may not be what God wants of you. The heart is deceitful, we need to go to the Bible to find what He expects of you. A church that knows the meaning of God’s word doesn’t need a dress code. If they are teaching God’s word the way they should, the people will dress, in a matter of time, in a respectful manner. It may not be what you will feel is respectful, but that should be of no concern to you. You need to worry about what your wearing first, then what your brother is wearing. When you see a priest or minister in the black suit and white collar, that isn't a requirement. The Bible tells us to be humble, not to have a worldly outlook. The suits started like the monks robes, they were meant to be low cost and humble. At one time raw fabric like what the monks robes were made of was cheap. Black was once the cheapest color in linen and finer cloth. They started as a way to save money for better proposes, and to not be flashy, but to be humble. Checking on line, a Baptismal robe, simple white, is 95 dollars. The fake dickeys for under a robe is $39, tabbed black shirts around $40. These were the cheapest. Start adding all the accessories and your up to 150 to 200 dollars. Your choir needs purple robes no doubt. The shawls around the shoulders, how about belts? You could feed a mission for some time with what it cost to dress a large choir. What was meant to be cheap and humble is now fairly expensive and showy. The congregation doesn't need suits, and the church personal doesn't need uniforms. It's clothes that make the man, it's God that makes the pastor. If you need a outfit to be taken as a man of God, your message might be lacking. Now that we have looked at the far right side. Lets take a look at the far left. Man can never find middle ground. Either we live by the law or we swing the pendulum to the extreme left. Christian living requires thought. What is God telling people? To find that, you look to the Bible, all the Bible not just what supports your personal beliefs. You may think that there isn’t proper attire for church. And you would be right, to a point, God doesn’t have a uniform (except for the Priest of the Temple, and Christians aren't performing Temple service...no not even the Mormons). Very seldom does a church need to enforce a dress code, if they teach the word of God right. Most churches don’t teach the Word right, so we need to cover the other extreme. This is called “license”. License is taking Gods Grace to a unnatural extent. God expects us to have standards, not to enforce on others, but standards that we hold ourselves to. Can we be lost for not having these standards…no. Do we damage our faith and how seriously the world takes us,…yes. Lately I have seen women show up to church in tube tops and mini-skirts, men showing up in t-shirts with beer logos or improper sayings on them. Some churches are even promoting this with a “come as you are” type sales pitch. Everyone should come to church as they are. That means sins and all. You don’t need to be prefect, if you wait for that you’ll never go. And no church should turn away the girl in the tube-top or bubba in the bud shirt. But the "come as you are" should not be beach wear either. What’s inside is more important then what’s outside. But if you have been a member of the church for some time, you should start to feel maybe I can do better. Why? I’m glad you asked. If your wearing tube tops, or cocktail dresses, or any clothes that promote your sexuality you maybe leading a fellow brother to sin. You may say that he shouldn’t be looking at you in that way, and you would be right. God even told the Priest to wear undergarments when doing the Temple services because they would be going up and down stairs (Exod. 28:42). A well taught mature (in his faith) Christian man shouldn’t be distracted. The element of sex shouldn’t come to mind, but the best church has people of all different levels of maturity. You may have a man who has a problem with lust, and is going to church to be delivered of that mind set. Just because someone is saved doesn’t mean they aren’t going to have problems. Once saved we change in position for our salvation, as far as God’s concerned. But we still have the same “flesh” and for some that takes awhile to get a handle on. Can God change the mind and subdue the flesh, you betcha. Do most people trust God enough for Him to do it, no. So yes you can be saved and yet YOU still deal with sin. The key word here is YOU, God can deal with anything, YOU can’t. But as this man deals with his sin, is it fair for someone to put a stumbling block in front of him? No, we are to take into consideration what is best for our fellow brothers and sisters. Are you committing a sin by wearing those clothes if you have no intent to seduce anyone, no. Is wearing those clothes going to cause you to lose your Salvation, no… nothing you do can cause that. What you have to consider is if what your doing is helping a weaker member of the Family to falter. If it is, try what you can to change what you’re doing, so to help them. Whether it’s a sin or not isn’t the point, the well being of the weaker member is. “I could wear a gunny sack and some men are still going to look” you might say. You are right, but have done all you could? That’s all God asks of his children. Men the beer shirts, suggestive sayings, Copenhagen hats and such aren’t right either for the same reasons. Men… and women (more so if they have been a Christian for a while) are role models to the younger members. Men, boys look up to you. Today with so many dysfunctional families out there, you may be the only positive role model these boys will see. If they see men they respect, they will copy them. They have enough bad role models on the outside, let them see good role models at least at church. Alcohol is a subject that we’ll cover on it’s own. Needless to say it doesn’t need any more promotion then it gets. Same with smoking which is never good. Boys will take their cues from grown men. They are wired this way. Men we are to take our cues from our Father in heaven. Let them see Jesus in the way you act, at least at church. If you do smoke, or drink, or act in rather worldly ways, at least you can show that God is a reason not to precipitate in those behaviors while at church. I don’t mean pretend you don’t do them, for God hates a hypocrite, I mean show there are reasons higher then this world system worth changing for. Teaching a child to be a hypocrite is one of the worst things we can do. Admit to the child or fellow Christian, that these are habits you have problems with, and with the Spirits help, are working on. It will show you are human and can admit you are wrong. Another area men have trouble with. And also work on making the change. Show a child or new Christian that God can change you, it’s a powerful statement. Another thing guys, lets admit it, we aren’t the gold standard of fashion. You tell a woman that she doesn’t look good, or her clothing isn’t appropriate for the setting, there’s a good chance she’ll wear something different next time. If a woman is wearing something that is provocative to church, most of the time it’s because she feels she looks good. Tell her that maybe some men would be lead to stumble because of what she wearing, and her response many times is “pigs, what’s wrong with them”. Most women don’t go to church to turn on men. But society has sold them an idea of what is acceptable, and they don’t think it though. Men on the other hand feel they are overdressed in a button up white shirt and dress slacks. The man who shows up in a beer shirt and loose fitting jean shorts causes headache for the woman who got her husband to dress half decent. Those women will haft to hear on the ride home “what’d you get me dressed up in this monkey suit for, while everyone else gets to wear what they want”. I’m not saying you have to wear a suit, most of the time I go in jeans. But they can be clean. Maybe a shirt that doesn’t look like you’ve slept in it for three days under your car, after a rock concert. I shouldn't need to mention this but just for the record, the Bible tells us not to wear the clothes of the other gender. Men wear men's stuff and women wear women's. All the way back to the Old Testament this was covered (Deut. 22:5). And to clarify this a little more, that doesn't mean women need only to wear dresses. At the time of Jesus both sexes wore tunics. They were of knee to ankle length. But how they looked and how they wore them was different. Even though the tunics themselves were almost the same, they made sure they were different for each gender. Just in case you didn't notice, men and women are not the same. God likes it this way. Lets tie this up. Take a look around your church next time, Do you have a fair mix. Do you have the couple with the suit and the long flowered dress sitting next to the couple with the jeans? Neither couple thinking any less of the other? That's a good sign. If all your men look like they stepped out of a Brooks Brothers catalog and the women from Saks. You may be a little right of center. On the other hand if the congregation looks like they just left a Jimmy Buffett concert, you may be left of center. How do you cure this? If your in the pews, wear what you wish as long as it's respectful and clean. If your behind the pulpit, look at your messages and make sure your preaching a correct message of Grace, and it will take care of itself. If you're asked to leave because of your clothes, leave, you don't need that church.
P.S. That long hair young man that was turned away from the church is fine. It took him a number of years to get over the resentment of "churches", but he finally did. I came to a understanding that the usher was wrong to turn me away (and I could have been dressed better). As far as the church that turned me away, a couple of years later it burned to the ground. Never to be rebuilt (it's either a Perkins, a bank, or condos now, I can't remember were on that block it was). It's a shame because it was a pretty one, but so are the lilies, that are here today and gone tomorrow. |
Last modified: 12/15/07For a FREE downloadable KJV Bible click here. Opinions or questions: Mail@SimpleBibleAnswers.com
Re:22:18: For I testify unto every man
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto
these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
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