The way in which we clothe ourselves sends a message to other people. Some may not like that conclusion, but it is still true anyway.

In Proverbs 7:10 we read of "a woman with the attire of an harlot." If you dress like a street-walking woman, pardon me if I conclude that you are either offering sex or you present yourself in that fashion because you have little self-respect and little concern for the damage that you are doing to your reputation and the reputation of your family.

"Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21, NKJV). Tunics were clothing items that basically covered the body from the shoulders down to the knees. God was sending a message to Adam and Eve, as well as to you and me, by the way that He clothed the first pair: keep the shoulder-to-knee flesh covered. Under the Law of Moses, priests that had their thighs uncovered were counted as being naked (Exodus 28:40-42). That is something for the priests of our era, Christians, to contemplate (1 Peter 2:9,10).

When you consider the clothing that you are going to wear in front of others (those people that are not your spouse), do not think only in terms of how long your clothing hangs or how much it covers while you are standing straight up. Sometimes clothing that is not problematic when we are standing straight up becomes too revealing when we are in a different body position. What about when I sit down? What about when I am seated and cross my legs? What about when I bend over to take a drink at the water fountain? What about when I am working in my front yard and stoop down or get down on my hands and knees to work?

I will tell you in all honesty, there are some places where I would not want to be assigned to pass the Lord’s Supper. Why? Because I would not want to have to look down the pews at the uncovered thighs or cleavage of another man’s wife. People can have improper thoughts about us even though you and I are covered from our ankles to our chin, but we need to make sure that we are not in any way a stumbling block to others by revealing to them what only our spouse should see. That goes for males and females alike, as God has no double standard of morality.

And what of the sloppy attire that has become so prevalent in worship, especially among brothers? When it comes to dress for worship, methinks that the God of heaven is surely not due less respect than we show in the clothing that we choose for "special" social occasions such as graduations, weddings, funerals, etc. If you are serious about how you approach God in worship, take a gander at Malachi 1:6-8. It just might get your attention.

If wearing the attire that harlots wear would naturally cause people to make a conclusion about the wearer of such, then would not coming to worship dressed like a slob cause others to conclude that the wearer is a slob? God deserves better than that, does He not?

-- Roger D. Campbell