Clothes Makes the Church Man
Posted by Rey
So I was at church and the preacher took off on a tangent about clothes. His point went something like this: 1) We wear our best clothing when we are near Important People. 2) Jesus is Important. 3)Jesus says “when two or three are gathered there I am with them” (Matt 18:20). 4) That means whenever we’re at church, Jesus (who is Important) is there. 5) Therefore we should wear our Sunday Best any day we go to church.
Misuse of the Bible verse aside, I don’t think his logic carries on two levels. One, the statements all fail under examination and two if the statements were right they don’t go far enough. I’ll start with my second point.
If a man is a Christian and his wife is a Christian and they live at home, that’s two gathered. (Of course, someone could say that the switch is “gathered…in my name” but one could argue that a married couple before God are underneath Christ’s name anyway). According to the misuse of the verse Christ is there. Therefore husband and wife should wear their Sunday Best everyday, including evenings if you allow sleeping in front of an Important Person.
On my first point, the statements are all fail because we don’t only dress up for Important People. We dress up to impress people, to make ourselves feel better, to make sure that people don’t think less of us and sometimes so that we don’t stand out in a crowd. Holding the misuse of the verse as correct that would imply that we don’t only dress up because Christ is Important but we can dress up because we want to impress Christ, we want to make ourselves feel better in front of Christ, we want to make sure that Christ doesn’t think less of us and maybe we don’t want to stand out of the crowd of like-dressed individuals before Christ.
In each of those cases we can’t say that Christ would be impressed, that we would feel better in light of our sin before Christ, or that Christ thinks any better or worst of us because of how we dressed. I flesh out this last point a bit more at The Bible Archive.
7 Responses to “Clothes Makes the Church Man”
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October 23rd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Outside of Christmas and Easter where I wear a suit, more out of a sheep mentality, I dress business casual to church. If I can wear jeans and a polo shirt to the office, I can wear it in church. God sees our SOULS, and you can’t get more naked, so whatever fabric we drape over our meatbag bodies wouldn’t make a difference.
HOWEVER, while I don’t think God cares how we dress, there is the other side in the clothes representing our attitude, where we’d dress up not to match or impress fellow church goers, but because it symbolizes our respect. At an extreme, I think if we showed up in pajamas or say torn jeans hanging off our ass with like Spider-man boxers showing, that sends a message of disrespect. I think you can convey a negative message if you flat out don’t care, moreso than sending a positive message by wearing a full-blown suit. I think as long as you’re neat and clean, in that you took the TIME to care, that says enough.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I think you’re point is actually a Biblical point as well. It’s not that we’re to wear our best, it’s not even that we’re to wear our worst: we’re just not to call attention to ourselves either way since it detracts from the point of meeting together. Pharisaic respect and juvenile disrespect are equally worthless.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I’ve been to churches where I felt like all that was really going on was a pageant: people dressed up in their look-at-me clothes, exchanging pleasantries and putting on a show. I’d rather go to church with people wearing jeans and t-shirts if they’re really there out of a serious commitment to living as a Christian.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
I haven’t been to church for a weekly mass in quite some time. I show up for weddings and funerals, so I inadvertently dress well for those occasions.
In retrospect I think Jesus, God, the angels and saints don’t look at your dress to be impressed. They look at your actions.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
You sucked me into a religious discussion Rey… how could you!
October 25th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Nothing wrong with a little religious discussion especially when your contribution is a good one.
Darrell: great point.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:32 am
I wholeheartedly agree. In our churhc you’ll see people who run the gamut of dress. I don’t have a problem with anyone on the extremes since I know that there are people who are dealing with “pharisaic respect” and “juvenile disrespect” issues and we all sin. Hopefully the brothers and sisters around them are helping them with this. I myself tend to wear what I find comfortable for that day.
Quick story. One early spring sunday I wore nice khaki shorts and a short sleeve three button job to church. Not a problem right? Well I was up front helping to lead worship and after church the pastor told me that someone had complained and he asked me not to wear shorts in the future. I didn’t stay on the worship team long after that. We stuck around until we moved to another town, but it doesn’t surprise me that that church folded up not much later. Not that there aren’t successful pharasaic churches, but they’re usually dead on the inside.