The Best You’ve Got?

It started back in the sixties.

I was a teenager. The winds of change were beginning to blow through, and many of our congregations were about to experience a remarkable paradigm shift.

When the dust settled, some of the debris began to take root and grow. The call to “dress down for church” was embraced with jubilant naiveté in the adolescent community. But it didn’t stop there.

It also resonated with an abundance of open minded adults, having been pursuaded to let their hair down as well. While many elders and pastors simply remained silent, others jumped right into the boat:

“C’mon man, Jesus doesn’t care what you wear, He just looks at your heart!”

I bought it too. Whenever I found it convenient enough to attend Sunday morning worship service, I’d throw on whatever reflected the nature of what was important to me at that particular time in my life.

Not only that, I’d also bought into a nagging suspicion that dressing up to worship Jesus Christ somehow ran against the grain of what He taught! And it’s no wonder. That was about the time a popular artistic rendering of Christ’s earthly image emerged, depicting Him as a long-haired, passive hipster who appeared to reject traditional standards of attire.

So, is there actually a Biblical model for how I should dress when it comes to corporate worship?

I think so:

“The Lord also said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments. And let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” [Exod. 19:10-11] [my emphasis]

[Hebrew: קָדַשׁ (qadash) to consecrate, to be set apart; from the Greek Septuagint: ἁγνίζω (hâg-nî’-zō) to purify]

Let them be ready…

But consider also that, historically, clear-thinking people have always dressed themselves in a manner that showed respect for the event or person they chose to honor by their attendance. In other words, what people wore when they were doing something used to speak to the significance of the reason for their presence.

So…it would seem that the occasion of gathering to worship the Lord would demand an attitude of offering the very best I had to give in every aspect of that function.

Unfortunately though, there’s another aggravating effect in play today as well. The “dress-down” mindset that has prevailed for more than fifty years has become validated by the incalculable worth of personal autonomy. That’s actually just one more rotten seed that initially blew in and eventually found soil to grow in.

How ironic it is that the Lord does indeed look primarily at my heart. But it’s not just my conduct that’s a reflection of that. My appearance is too.

I wonder what He thinks?