How to Dress for

Have you noticed how people are dressing immodestly today? The clothes are getting tighter, shorter, or even skimpier. The sad thing is that it is creeping slowly into the church. Have you been to a church where you have seen women wearing short dresses or low-cut necklines? I have and it’s a sad day that happens. If we don’t like it, do you think God loves it? When we show up at worship with immodest dress, we are disrespecting not only ourselves but God. God doesn’t like us to be immodest, and most of the time I see immodesty in women “In like manner also, women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness, and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array” (1 Timothy 2:9).

Nowadays, the majority of people don’t want to dress up for church. I remember growing up when I didn’t want to wear a dress to church, my dad would ask me, if you were going to meet the President, would you wear a dress? I would always say yes, and my dad would say then shouldn’t you wear one to church for God who is more important than the President? My dad is right, God is more important than anyone.

When we dress up for worship, we are honoring and revering God. “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him” (Psalms 89:71). When we are at worship we are with God, we may not see him but He is with us. In the Old Testament, God tells them how to dress. In Exodus 19:9–11, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai”.

When we are in the midst of God, we should want to look our best. We should wear clothes that fit us, that are not short or low necklines. We should look our best I am not saying we have to be decked out but we want to show that we respect and revere our God our Father.

What we put on communicates something to God, to others, and to ourselves. As we can see in Exodus 39:1–43, the children of Israel were told what to wear. And in 1 Chronicles 15:27, “And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen”. As we can see even David dressed up this way to honor God.

What we put on communicates something to others. When you dress immodest you are conveying your loose morals. What we wear shows the importance of what we are doing for the day. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”, (Proverbs 4:23). Casual dressing shows disrespect to God when we can afford better clothes or if we would wear better clothes to other occasions like weddings or funerals. Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”

What we wear affects us. What we wear conveys something about us. When we go to worship, we should pick clothes that convey respect to God. We need to dress modestly when we are before God our Father. Not everyone can afford the same clothes but just make sure that the clothes are washed, without holes, and are modest.

In conclusion, when we go to worship we need to show reverence towards God. When we come together on the Lord’s day, we are coming before the Lord our God who created us. Dressing nicely is a small sacrifice to show respect to God. Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” This is not talking about going to worship as soon as you get out of work or having to go to work as soon as you get out of worship.