I had been told all my life that you should always wear your Sunday best to church. I’ve been doing some research on this, and as it turns out, dress might not be that important to God.
It is very possible that Jesus did not have fine apparel. Jesus did not have a permanent place of residence (Matthew 8:20). It is likely he carried around all his possessions with him on his journeys. I feel fairly certain that Jesus probably only had one outer garment. Who knows – it might not have been white as the movies and tv shows would have us to believe.
John the Baptist was even more poorly dressed according to our standards. He wore the skins of camel’s hair (Matthew 3:4). If someone showed up church with the equivalent of John’s wardrobe…perhaps with a shirt and pants that he or she made, would they be acceptable for worship?
Guess what? God doesn’t care how you’re dressed. In fact He condemned showing partiality in James 2:2-4. Don’t judge someone according to how they are dressed. Don’t wear fine apparel to be showy (1 Timothy 2:9).
I am not sure why we choose to dress up for Sunday morning, and then dress down for Sunday night and Wednesday night worship services. Anytime we worship God is equally important, no matter where we are. Could it be that sometimes we get caught up in tradition with wearing ties for Sunday morning. Are our hearts right when we worship God? Are we too concerned with the latest fashion and who’s wearing what, rather that our own personal worship with God? Are we becoming too dressy on occassion and discouraging people who don’t have the lastest fine apparel from worshipping with us?
Our heart HAS to be right with God. If it isn’t, then all of our showy apparell and worship is in vain. Your “Sunday Best” might be your heart.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
My Redneck Past Keeps Nipping at My Heels
Once again, I agree wholeheartedly. The bible says to be modest in dress when going to worship. However, many churches encourage wearing ‘your Sunday best’ to worship. That, in my humble opinion, is exactly opposite of what the Bible teaches.
I also believe that Jesus (as well as most common people at the time) had only one outer and probably only one inner garment (a sackcloth). People often bathed in rivers and washed their garments at the same time. Sometimes they would simply leave their garments on the shore and bathe nude, which is how it should be done.
Biblical research has shown that Baptisms were done in the nude. How else to wash away everything that is Earthly if you are dressed?
There is way too much emphasis put on what people are wearing instead of what they are thinking these days.
Again, I agree that if people go to church to worship, it doesn’t matter to God what they are wearing.
Bob.
amen brother