By: David F. Gray

QUESTION -- Our styles are so different today from Bible times -- how can we really know how we should dress? Does the Bible give specific guidelines as to how a Christian should dress?

ANSWER -- There are six main lines of teaching in the Bible on the subject of Christian's dress. In brief they are:

(I) VANITY --God is concerned that we not be vain in our dress. The divine admonition is, "...that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." 1 Tim. 2:9. God hates pride. Pride is a lie. It makes the flesh which is nothing to be something. Pride results in a two-fold curse: First, man loses his spiritual perspective and fails to see his utter need to depend upon God for everything. Thus he begins to live to himself and as a result cuts himself off from God. Second, man becomes self-righteous and is lifted up. Therefore, any clothes which vaunts the ego, whether jewels and plumes, snazzy jet-set styles, or hip-styles Hippie attire, is contrary to Scripture.

(2) CONFUSING THE SEXES. -- God is concerned that we don't dress so as to appear like the opposite sex. God reveals His feelings about this in Deut. 22:5: "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." Some argue that in Bible days both men and women wore long robes. True, yet the injunction was made. There was, you see, a clear distinction in the styles. They were not to try and become, appear, or feel like the opposite sex.

There are several reasons for this: First, it confuses the distinction God ordained between the sexes (not just physically, but emotionally). Also, it can be temptation for homosexuality which God hates and forbids. Lastly, it gives occasion for rape, adultery, theft, etc.; in short, fraud.

Today, both men and women wear pants. The motive for women wearing pants is rebellion (now called "women's liberation") , and to confuse the sexes. To wear unisex pants or dress, or for men to dress feminine, or for women to dress masculine, is loathsome to God.

(3) IMMODESTY. -- God wants our bodies to be covered. When God made man in the beginning he was covered with the glory of God's shekineh (Psalm 8:5. Crowned: literally, encircled or compassed about). When sin came, Adam and Eve saw that they were naked (literally "stripped". Gen. 3:7) , so God slew animals and clothed them (Gen. 3:21). His plan is for our bodies to be covered. One of the signs of insanity and demon possession is that the victim wants to tear his clothes off (Luke 8:27).

Our generation manifests the diabolical influences at work in our society by the frenzied plunge to nudity being displayed everywhere. But when Jesus healed the naked demoniac he immediately clothed himself (Luke 8:35). Immodesty, particularly in women, kindles the lustful base nature in men by goading, teasing, enticing them to sin. The man may be guilty, but the woman is not blameless. This is how David fell into sin (II Sam. 11:2). This must never be the case in God's church, where women (and men, too) are commanded to dress in "modest apparel" (I Tim. 2:9).

(4) IDENTIFYING WITH THE UNGODLY. God is concerned about our identification about whether we are identified with His Church, or whether our dress identifies us with the pagans and the ungodly. Isaiah Chapter 2 and 3 are devoted to dealing with Israel, which had taken on the ways of the Philistines and the heathen from the east" whose land was "full of idols" (Isa. 2:6-8). Israelitish women had adopted the dress and the ways of these heathen: "... the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet." (Isa, 3:16). In the following verses the Lord spelled out the articles of dress which they had copied from the idolatrous heathen, and pronounced His judgment upon them.

God does not want us identifying with the godly! This principle is largely lost sight of by many. It's not whether a beard or hip-style pants is bad, but who and what it identifies the wearer with. The old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together", certainly is applicable here.

When the Apostles were "let go, they went to their own company." Which company is your company? What company do you identify with, dress like, fit into; the ungodly, or God's church? A hippie was once asked what he believed and stood for. Pointing to his beard, long hair, and weird dress, he said, "I wear my hair and beard this way, and dress this way so that everybody will know where I stand, that I am against the establishment; I am an anarchist and a revolutionary, I'm against the pigs, I am for pot, for freedom of sex. My dress, my beard, and my life-style ought to tell you that." If a man doesn't want sheep to think him a wolf, he shouldn't walk among the flock on hands and knees with a wolfskin on. If a Christian wore a beard in the l8OO's he would not appear to be a hobo, thug, anarchist, or sinner, since most men wore beards. But today if a Christian grows a beard, his spirituality and motives are immediately in question. Why? The answer is quite simple. A person doesn't decide to change his appearance so drastically without reason. His dress identifies him with the wrong crowd. The little maid told Peter, "Thy speech betrayeth thee". So does your dress. It betrays which crowd you want to be identified with. Any Christian who dresses to appear like a sinful group identifies with them and is under the same condemnation Israel was under in Isaiah 3.

The Apostle Peter's Pentecostal message was not only Acts 2:38, but it was also, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation". (Acts 2:40). Are you saving yourselves from this rebellious generation when you copy them and identify with them? Where does your dress fit in best? Does your dress fit in with the company of godly, Holy Ghost filled saints, or with "Jesus freaks" (hippies on a "Jesus trip" whose lives are not transformed in harmony with the Word)? Holy Ghost people dress according to Christian custom, we are told in I Cor. 11:16. Does your dress say, "I belong to this word"? or does it say, "I am separate from the world, I belong to God. I am not ashamed of my company, the people of God". Your dress identifies you with either the godly or the ungodly.

(5) COSTLINESS. God is concerned that we do not waste money on our apparel. "Costly array" is condemned in I Tim. 2:9 just as immodesty is. This is the basic reason why "adornments" of gold, pearls, and other costly ornaments are condemned. While this principle is akin to the first one (vanity) , it has also a very important additional involvement.

We are stewards of all we possess. That is, God has entrusted us with what money and goods we have to use for His glory. We are not to consider these things ours to do with as we like. Rather, God says, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills...for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof".(Psalm 50:10,12). "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." (Hag. 2:8). To take these things then, and use them to buy costly ornaments to adorn our flesh is a gross misuse of our stewardship. They are entrusted to us to advance the Kingdom of God.

Say, how many souls that could be in heaven will not be there because you bought a car twice as expensive as necessary or purchased jewels or costly clothing to wear instead of investing the money in the business of winning souls? What right have we to "consume upon our own lusts" that which God has entrusted to us to use for His glory when a world of souls is dying that was so dearly purchased with the precious blood of Jesus?

(6) TYPOLOGY. God is concerned that we do not violate the types (symbolical meanings) of Scripture. To the unlearned in God's Word, symbolism may mean nothing, but the Bible makes it very clear that God is concerned that all types be executed perfectly.

For example: When Moses violated the type by striking the rock twice instead of striking it once and speaking to it once, God refused to permit him to enter the promised land. And Moses did not even know it was a type! God had intended it to symbolize Christ, smitten once for all on Calvary, and now is but to be spoken to in prayer, and the water of life will spring forth to quench the thirst of our souls. But that type was broken by Moses, and Moses suffered his greatest loss.

The plain commandments of I Cor. 11 dealing with the hair of both men and women have to do with this principle. Man is a type of Christ, woman of the Church. Long hair is symbolical of subjection. For a man to have long hair is to symbolize that Christ is not the head of the Church. For women to cut their hair is to teach (by typology) that the Church need not be subject to Christ. If to keep long hair is more important to a man than the Body of Christ, it becomes an idol. An idol is anything between God and man that is held in more esteem than God who is worshipped. Thus disobedience to the commands of I Cor. 11 becomes idolatry. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (I Sam. 15:23). Keeping these six divine guiding principles in mind will keep us in the will of God and answer questions relative to our dress today just as they did in Bible Times.

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