Lately I have heard a few people talking about how to dress for church. While there are a lot of thoughts on this matter, and it may sound sort of trivial, it is not really a joking matter. I know a lot of people who have been afraid, embarrassed, or just plain didn’t come to church because of this issue. They think that they didn’t or wouldn’t “fit in”, or that every one would be looking at them.
The fact is that God does give us some instruction, especially to women, in the New Testament, about how one should dress. You might think it says that women should dress to the hilt with makeup, and their best, most expensive dress, and some nice jewelry, but it doesn’t. Instead it says, “I want women to dress modestly with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”
Really, it comes down to the heart. What does the way you dress say about you? Does it say, “I am a slob and I don’t care who knows it”? Does it say, “I am rich and successful and I want everyone to know it”? Or does it say, “I am a Christian and I am here to bring attention and worship the Lord God and not bring attention to myself.”
The truth is that God could care less what you wear to church if your heart is not there. You could wear the finest suit or dress known to man and if your heart is not with the Lord you might as well be wearing old dirty rags. Your outward appearance only matters to God if it matches your inward appearance.
On the other hand, when you go to visit someone you care about, you want to wear your best for them, don’t you? If you are going to visit the president would you wear sweat pants and flip-flops? If you were going on a date would you want to make the best impression possible? If you were invited to a friend’s house for dinner, wouldn’t you at least take a shower and put on clean clothes?
When you present yourself to God, your whole presence, both inwardly and outwardly, should be a presence of humility and worshipfulness. If that means a suit and tie then that is fine. If that means a polo shirt and khakis that’s, fine too. It may even be that it means clean sweat pants and a t-shirt, or shorts and a tank top, as long as the tank top doesn’t bring attention to you. The whole idea is that you are bringing glory to God and no attention to yourself, and that you are honoring God with what you are wearing.
The reality is that the only one we should be dressing for is God. We should dress as a witness and testimony to the honor we have for him. We should dress as if he mattered most in our lives. Isn’t this just common sense?
The problem comes, once again, in the “have to” versus the “get to”. Do I have to dress up? No! Do I get to dress up to bring glory to God? Yes! So the answer is, you should dress your best to bring honor and glory to God.
The other problem is that in a sinful world others may judge you according to what you wear. The question is does their judgment matter? The answer is, No! They have no business judging you. Only God can judge you.
So the best thing you can do is to dress so that you don’t bring attention to yourself, but that all the attention goes to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That, in fact, is the essence of what Paul is telling Timothy in the reading I mentioned earlier.
In short, a Christian’s motto should always be “To God all honor, praise and glory!”
