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It was
testimony time in church and one woman who went abroad
for a short visit told her testimony. She informed the
church that God prevented her from committing a ‘sin’.
She told that, her host s there gave her jeans pants
wanted her to wear. But she said that she insisted on
wearing ‘sari’ and did not indulge in ‘a sinful thing
such as wearing a jeans’. I also heard about the story
of a young pastor. He used to wear dhoti and go around
doing ministry. One fine day a missionary who was
visiting the city gifted this pastor several sets of
pants and shirts. So, the pastor wore those clothes and
people started saying all sorts of stories about him.
Some said that he has become ‘worldly’ other said he was
‘arrogant’ and so on. These incidences happened many
years back.
I was attending a Christian retreat for youngsters and
there was talk on holiness. To my surprise, the first
point on holiness the speaker raised was about dressing!
I was absolutely annoyed when she started defining
holiness in terms of necklines and hemlines. Well, it is
one thing to be dressed modestly but how can we consider
this as a yardstick for measuring holiness? Does our
dress alone define our holiness? I have heard preachers
preaching about the ‘importance’ of wearing white
clothes! Some churches insist on wearing white and
white, others on black and white and some time back I
even noticed people groups of people wearing saffron.
They say one should not wear black or red color clothes
made of silk or embedded with sequins and so on.
Now-a-days it is even fashionable in the western ‘Green
Churches’ to speak against wearing leather, fur and silk
calling it unholy!
After listening to this cacophony of voices from the
pulpit, youngsters are confused; some are so confused
that they give up going to churches! Others are forced
to rebel, when they rebel; they go against all sorts of
authorities. Some end up insensitive to these issues and
end up with a ‘don’t care’ attitude. Some are genuinely
concerned and want to know if the claims are correct or
not. I have met several people who ask if it is wrong to
wear such and such a dress. Does God really bother
about what we wear?
I think that God does bot her about what we wear; after
all he is the one who made the first pair of leather
coats. When He found out that Adam and Eve were dressing
themselves with leaves God thought that it was
inadequate and gave them better clothing! Jesus himself
said “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the
lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his
splendour was dressed like one of these…” These
instances tell us that God does bother about our
clothing; He wanted us to be dressed well!
The past decade has brought and popularized a new breed
of ‘attitude T shirts’ with catchy slogans and phrases.
Many of these phrases carry an idea which could be
political, social or moral. However, there are several
with obscene gestures with filthy and coded words
glorifying lifestyles and values which are contrary to
the Scriptural values. One need to be careful while
choosing these shirts and I encourage you to think
before wearing one! Why should our backs be used as an
advertisement board for someone else’s filthy idea?
It is very important that we dress modestly keeping the
local customs and culture in mind. Many of us have
confused our cultural dress codes and try to
spiritualize everything and start judging others. It is
very important to note the purpose of clothing and to be
sensitive to the local culture in our dressing. It
should not be used as a weapon of attention seeking.
Youngsters who do so should be counselled and not
judged. One need to clearly understand that wearing one
colour or type of dress will neither make one holy or
unholy. If that were so, becoming holy would have been
so simple! It would be nice if one dresses decently and
avoiding all extremes. To the best of my knowledge,
there is no other dress code for the followers of
Christ.
Let us learn to glorify God through all our deeds!
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