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?

Jesus never made any idle threats.

But He always demanded accountable behavior from His disciples. A good example of this can be found in the dusty files of Bible passages you’ll probably never hear anyone preach about:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace upon the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but [a] sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother, and a man’s enemies [shall be] the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.” [Matt. 10:34-39]

Now what could be more unsettling to the Christian spectator than this?

Because the world regards the bond created by human blood as definitive. Putting family first is indeed a noble concept. On the other hand though, Jesus simply won’t allow any biological connections to trump the relational dynamic that needs to exist between the members of His Body or between any of those disciples and Himself.

He can’t.

It’s said that blood runs thicker than water, but the Spirit is the water that cleanses me. [Mk. 1:8; Ac. 1:5; Heb. 10:19-22] The only role blood plays in that process is that Christ’s was spilled in place of my own. The apostle Paul also reminded the church of God at Corinth that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God. [1Cor. 15:50]

It may be difficult to swallow, but it’s not hard to understand. When I choose to give up my life for the Lord, I begin to see things from a different perspective. I build a new life with new relationships. But that doesn’t mean I have to abandon my previous ones.

I just have to learn how to prioritize. Until I do that, I’ll never understand why Jesus said what He did.

I’ll also realize why losing my life for Him is a lot more difficult than dying.

Competing for love is a natural consequence of living.

And the fiercest contests have always revealed themselves in human relationships. Love is the binding agent of familial and romantic ventures. It’s what makes the world go round.

And God is the authority on it.

If I want to know how to love, I look to Him. And if I want to know who or what to love, I can get that from Him as well. But if I truly want to follow Jesus Christ, I have to be able to recognize some of the things I shouldn’t love too.

The “disciple whom Jesus loved” warned his readers:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride developed as a result of life’s possessions, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, [and] also its lusts, but the one who makes a practice of doing the will of God remains in the age [to come].” [1Jn. 2:15-17]

Our congregations are filled with men who claim to be disciples of Christ but are wholly unaware of how the forces of this world are enticing them and their families to participate in questionable behavior. On the other hand, the *F. A. T. man is defined by his willingness to be taught, for the Deceiver’s tactics are subtle but effective.

*[Faithful, Available and Teachable]

God’s men must act together as a herd of deer or a pack of meerkats. Somebody always has his head up, looking out for the others who are taking care of business.

And the business of discipleship in Christ is always a heads-up game. Falling for deception is bound to happen from time to time, but of no consequence if I’m willing to quickly climb back up on the horse.

Love is the Lord’s creation having no limits.

But the world exploits its potential.

Some actually believe that sovereignty is a political construct that’s incompatible with being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Freedom has its basis in the Word of God and cannot logically be separated from it. There is, however, a dimension of liberty that’s often neither recognized nor appropriated. The First Amendment to our Constitution reads:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” [my emphasis]

To “petition the government for a redress of grievances” is a handful of fifty-dollar words often used to define a civil lawsuit.

However, there’s a reason filing a suit is commonly considered to be off limits to the Christian community. Both the apostle Paul and Jesus Himself were clear about how those in Christ’s Body are to handle disputes among themselves. [see: Matt. 18:15-17] We’re never to seek a remedy for injury or loss from one another outside of our provision to self-adjudicate through His ἐκκλησία–or assembly. [see also: 1Cor. 6:1-11]

But nothing in the Bible prohibits the administration of justice at common law.

What if the authority God has appointed [see: Rom. 13:1-7] begins to violate His laws or oversteps its jurisdiction? Sure, Jesus said to give to “Caesar” what belongs to him.

But everything doesn’t belong to him.

That’s why sometimes it might become necessary to seek legal recourse against the God-ordained institutions we’ve created to serve us—or the private entities they’ve been known to protect. Our cheeks aren’t available for them to slap.

Of course, we might very well bring glory to His character by submitting to the oppressive conduct of a neighbor. [see: Matt. 5:39-43] But am I to ignore unwarranted oppression from what was created to govern or profit honorably in His behalf?

What shall I use as an excuse on that day for allowing His scales of justice to be tipped to accommodate lawlessness?

Accountability is that thing we either love or hate.

It’s the two-edged sword we choose to wield willfully or avoid at all costs. Its significance is forced on the young boy, but its shackles are loosened as he grows. At some point, he finds himself free to consider voluntary the things that were once compulsory.

But it’s not like some painful rite of passage.

Choosing to become accountable is the stuff of masculine maturity—especially if one claims to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It becomes etched in the mind of the morally cognizant man. And one of the most rewarding ways he demonstrates that is to have his family, his friends and his God hold him accountable through the covenant of marriage.

Marital commitment is more than just a credible tradition. It’s a burden a man chooses to take upon himself, knowing that, as he does, he consummates not just the institution itself, but also God’s mandate to help secure stability in both his family and his community.

It’s a self-imposed shotgun wedding—one where he’s looking down the business end of a double-barrel Winchester as he repeats his vows.

On the other hand, if he needs to have a back door, then he’ll make sure it’s not loaded.

It’s unfortunate that the significance of a binding marriage covenant has become so marginalized today. And it’s contagious. As co-habitation becomes increasingly constrained upon an unwilling populace, tolerance begins to resonate within it.

So, how can we show the world that irrevocable commitment is the only true adhesive holding a marriage together?

Perhaps first by preventing any disrespect or contempt to thwart the best of our intentions. If you ever actually considered taking some of John Lennon’s advice, this would be the time. While love isn’t ALL YOU NEED, it’s what must be most visible to anyone watching you out of the corner of his eye.

Trust, confidence and truth will follow.

Before anyone can set the bar of accountability where it needs to be, he has to be convinced that’s it’s really there.

A man fits everything into boxes.

When it’s out of the box, it has his full attention, but when he puts it back in, it’s out of sight and out of mind. Women hate that, but it seems to be an inherent male characteristic.

Boxes provide a means to define, separate and categorize, store and protect and, eventually, locate and make use of whatever seems conducive to living.

But is it always wise to think outside of them?

That might depend on who you ask. Artists and advertising agencies would probably think it is, while mechanics and surgeons wouldn’t. But, for the man who claims to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the question is, how should he make the best use of his boxes?

It’s all about sizing and prioritizing.

For too many years, I kept Christ’s box buried somewhere in the stacks of them I’d accumulated for myself. It took a while to find it when I needed it because it looked just like all the others. As a result, my life was incomplete and disordered to say the least. Every expectation I sought from any box usually lacked significance and rarely materialized.

So, I decided to quit living like a boxymoron. I decided, first of all, to give God the biggest box I could find.

But it wasn’t all about what I needed. It was about what His box deserved. Nothing in any of the other boxes accomplishes what His does. Nothing in any of them loved me enough to die in my place so that I might live again in the age to come.

Nothing even came close.

Every box I create for myself now automatically goes into His box. I have to go through His to access any of mine.

And if it won’t fit in there, I get rid of it.

Any faithful disciple of Jesus Christ will testify to the trials of being one.

He knows there are barriers to cross. But if I don’t actually comprehend why His “good news” is so good, then I probably won’t be able to appreciate the truth about the highest one.

And that truth is clear: The hope of a future resurrection of the righteous dead is the very foundation upon which every other part of our faith is built. So It doesn’t surprise me that much of what’s taught in our congregations today is steeped in tradition rather than Biblical accuracy.

Why? Because it’s also something which was predicted. [see: 2Tim. 4:1-4; see also: Col. 2:6-8]

Good news can hardly be considered good unless it makes sense. But guess who’s trying to make his lie believable?

The Great Deceiver isn’t hanging out with lost souls. He and his cohorts are hard at work in our congregations, fellowship groups and Bible studies, obscuring the truth of what Jesus and His apostles taught about what life actually is. There are a lot a ways to attack the truth. But he knows there’s only one silver bullet that completely shatters the potency of Christ’s good news:

Diminish the relevance of the miracle we look forward to—His raising of the dead.

Of course, not even Satan can deny what’s written, so the best approach is to try to convince us that we’ll never die at all. [see: Gen. 3:4]

But if some conscious part of me never dies, why would my resurrection be such a big deal? This is a popular mindset today. The problem is that neither Jesus nor His apostles ever taught such a thing. Fortunately, the serious Bible reader can easily refute this lie with any number of passages taken in the proper context.

The hope of Christ’s disciple’s isn’t God’s marvelous, undeserved saving grace.

His hope of a resurrection is the result of that grace.

Raising the dead is a miracle that we can only understand from a limited perspective. But that only makes it more miraculous. When the Lord God raises the dead, the barrier of death shall be abolished for the righteous who sleep.

That’s what makes the good news good. But if that barrier doesn’t really exist, then the idea of a resurrection isn’t necessary at all.

No barrier=no accountability=cheap grace.

No way.

It’s only human to make a mess of things.

The problem is, we’ve become conditioned to try to fix them by seeking remedies from the people we’ve elected to serve us—not clean up after us!

The result? We’ve raised up “kings” for ourselves, some of whom rule justly. Others, not so much. It hasn’t helped that, by the design of soft men having been elected into these positions of authority, we’ve also created a couple of generations of passive males.

But even though He’s been known to clean up our messes, God has always wanted to be the only King of His people.

Yet time and time again, they’ve demonstrated that they’d rather be ruled by kings of their own choosing. It’s like a recurring epidemic with devastating consequences. The Scriptures record the first major outbreak in the book of Samuel:

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations…” [1Sam. 8:4-5; read also vss. 6-18] [my emphasis]

So that’s exactly what God told Samuel to do. He gave His people what they wanted: Saul. [see: 1Sam. 9:15-17] But not without first admonishing them.

And I find it interesting that the things the Lord warned His people about through Samuel are the same things we’re witnessing today from the “kings” we’ve put in place. He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you…” [1Sam. 8:9]

Perhaps a short, paraphrased list would best illustrate the similarities:

1. He’ll conscript your children to operate his affairs and serve him. [vss. 11-13]
2. He’ll appropriate the best of what you produce to increase his wealth and purposes. [vss. 14-15]
3. He’ll entice your employees and commission them for himself. [vs. 16]
4. Then he’ll confiscate your personal property for his own benefit. [vs. 17]

Sound familiar?

What’s the most unsettling part of this reality? Is it that too many of His people are allowing their integrity and sovereignty to be violated? Or do they simply not realize they’ve unwittingly become enslaved to the modern day Saul—a tyrannical, global financial apparatus which consistently defiles God and everything He stands for?

SAULmonella may not be fatal but it’s certainly contagious. However, the good news is that I don’t have to live with it.

I can listen to and learn from the only True King.

What keeps me alive if I never learn how to stay that way?

Only a fool would deny that the Lord has kept him safe in situations when he’s been vulnerable. But it’d also be foolish not to try to learn how to provide for my safety using the knowledge and wisdom He’s given me.

A man stranded in the wilderness will likely perish if he never learned how to survive in that predicament. On the other hand, it’s also hard to imagine that God would actually prevent him from accumulating the knowledge needed to survive there either.

But if my concern is to not perish for the lack of knowledge, then perhaps building a genuine relationship with Him might be the key:

“Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land...My people are destroyed* for lack of knowledge.“ [Hos. 4:1, 4:6a] [my emphasis]

[*Masoretic text translation; the Greek Septuagint reads literally; “My people are made as not having knowledge”]

However, I’d do well to remember that the essence of any relationship is sustained by an act of the will. But free will isn’t just a mechanism for decisions made in faith. It also lubricates the wheels turning the train of knowledge and experience.

In other words, acquiring knowledge is always the result of a choice.

According to the prophecy of Hosea, no knowledge of God can exist outside of a sincere relationship with Him—one which reveals itself through faithfulness as well.

If I learn certain survival skills, my odds of surviving certain circumstances increase. If I [could possibly even] learn everything I need to know about God, then my odds of perishing are bound to decrease. But survival skills don’t necessarily demand the sacrifices of a relationship.

The true knowledge of God does.