I found an article recently that indirectly deals with a major concern of mine. The article has to do with the way we dress in church. It’s called Dressing Like A Tourist. The author of it moderates his comments so the commenting appears to be all one sided at this point. I decided to keep the commenting going here at the Requiest.
The major concern of mine has to do with immodesty in the church and with the exhortation of Romans 14 as applied to immodesty.
The Bible has a lot to say about clothing. As a matter of fact if it wasn’t for sin I imagine clothing would not even be necessary.
Now aside from the people who judge us based on what we are wearing we must first begin with a judgment of ourselves based on the principles of Romans 14. Perhaps what I’m wearing does not cause me a conscience issue as far as my relationship with God is concerned but ought I not at least ask the question is what I’m wearing placing a stumbling block before my brothers and sisters especially in the context of worship?
To be more blunt does my clothing reveal that which it was intended to conceal. What was the original purpose of clothing? Adam and Eve discovered they were naked and they sought to be clothed…. to be honest I don’t quite understand this however God’s remedy was not to say “Don’t worry about it I only look on the inside”… He put clothes on them.
I’m not as concerned about sloppy verses neat… I’ve seen some folks dressed to the nines in their finery who were immodestly provocative in the way they were dressed … my concern is for those in the congregation who perhaps because they are weaker are made to stumble by the freedom some feel with regard to the clothing (or lack thereof) they permit themselves to wear. How would Paul respond to this? Would he say “I won’t wear belly button rings, halter tops, less than opaque skin-tight shirts or spandex slacks for the sake of my brethren!”
How are we in the church to address this issue without being labeled judgmental legalists on the one hand while not being wimpy about exhorting, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness on the other?
Of course this is one of those ancient debates that create a continuously vicious circle.
I was raised in a modestly well off Catholic church. We had BIG everything. Big building, Big parking lot, Big rectory, etc.
Right across the street is (still there) a little AME church. Where we could probably fit 600 people they’d be hard pressed to fit 60. The one thing that always stood out to me, was how well dressed they all were. I mean every man down to the littlest tyke had on a suit, and every woman had on a full dress along with a gorgeous hat.
But I have to wonder, who were they trying to impress? Most of these folks barely had enough money to pay their bills every month, but they’d pull out all the stops when it came to dressing for church. I can easily flip this discussion in that case to whether or not that’s being a good steward of their finances?
I think like you the biggest question is whether I’m causing a stumbling block for my fellow church members. And – going out on a bit of a limb – I think that can to some extent be based on the church itself.