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MODEST DRESS |
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When I was growing up, I recall Sunday morning worship service as being the one day of the week that we all wanted to look our best. We were going to worship God. Do you remember having “every day clothes” and “Sunday clothes?” Our best or “Sunday clothes” were worn to worship services, weddings, and funerals. Today it seems we have forgotten worship services in our dress, but weddings and funerals seem to be doing very well.
The following article, written by Dave Oakley of the Sunset Church of Christ in Carlsbad, New Mexico, addresses the subject of modest dress much better than I could have done. Let me share this article with you.
“Whoa! Stop right there. You are not planning on wearing that short skirt to church, are you? A father asked his teenage daughter as he followed her out the door.
“Oh, Daddy,” she answered, “They won’t let us wear them to school.”
“Why?” he asked, “What is wrong with it.”
“Uh… it is too short. It wouldn’t pass dress code.” Answered the daughter.
“Wait a minute,” said the father, “You mean you plan to go to church in a skirt too short to be allowed in school?”
And therein lies our dilemma. Teenagers, and older women and men are wearing shorts, skirts and shirts to worship services which will not pass the dress code for our local high school. When we assemble to worship, we are appearing before our Lord in a special sense. Jesus said, “I will declare your name before my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” (Heb. 2:12). The Apostle Paul recognizes the sanctity of the worship assembly in I Timothy and I Corinthians 14.
One Christian said, “If I had the opportunity to be introduced to the governor of our state, I would put on my finest clothes. Should I do less to come into the presence of the King of Kings?” Until recently the world recognized that clothing which is proper for one occasion is completely out of place in another.
The Apostle Paul wrote to young Timothy, “Likewise I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments; but by means of good works which benefits women making a claim to godliness.”
Modesty is defined by Webster as “Decorous, decent, not extreme, unpretentious.” It is possible to be fashionable and still be modest.
Maureen Reagan, the past president’s daughter, when asked about her conservative hemlines, said “I sit on a lot of platforms and I don’t want to have to worry about where my dress is.” This woman is conscious of the fact that she was in the public eye and was not indifferent to her influence.
As elders we don’t want to draw lines, and measure hems, but we feel that shorts and short skirts are out of place in the worship assembly. Immodest dress is inappropriate for men and women.
Before the expulsion of demons and healing of the pathetic Gadarene Demoniac, Legion, Luke describes him, “there met him a certain man of the city, who had demons, and for a long time he wore no clothes, and abode in the tombs.” Sometime later, after his healing encounter with Jesus, the beloved Physician describes the same man, “they found the man, from whom the demons were gone out, sitting, clothed and in his right mind, at the feet of Jesus.”
When sanity was restored, he was clothed. When he sat at the feet of Jesus, he was clothed. People in their right minds are going to dress sensibly and modestly when they are under the influence of Jesus.
- Dave Oakely -Appropriate dress for assemblies of the church shows our
Reverence to God. Cutoffs, jeans with holes, t-shirts or jackets with inappropriate messages, tank tops, etc., should only be worn if that is all we own. God expects the best we have. Remember the Israelites were condemned for sacrificing weak and sick animals when they had better to offer.
Walter Bishop, Bud Butcher, Bob Craig, Charlie Turner
Elders, Church of Christ at East End