#ChurchClothes: Love Comes Before Holiness
Has someone from the church ever checked you at the door about your clothing before you even had an opportunity to worship or receive the love of God?
This blog series #ChurchClothes will be highlighting some of the ways that we as a church can grow in the area of love. The purpose of this series isn’t to condemn the church or discourage anyone not to go to church. On the contrary there’s two main purposes for these blogs:
So that people who have experienced ‘church hurt’ will understand that God’s love is greater than the imperfections of His people. Hopefully, in understanding that truth, they’ll be inspired to go back to church (or continue attending), and and aim to build the faulty areas of the church instead of running away from God all together.
So that we as members of the church (we including ‘me’-I am also responsible for my own behavior and am also growing, too) will understand how to better relate to the world we are called to serve. Also, so that we as Christians will learn what it means to love people while being culturally relevant, socially aware, and personally conscious of how we come across to others. This doesn’t mean that we are to be okay with sin or that we are to diminish the stance of God’s Word. Rather, it means that we are to make sure that our actions, language, and approach are Biblically accurate, loving in wisdom, and seasoned with grace.
I invite your comments below.
Alright, now on to the blog:
Years ago, I remember walking into a church service. I was new to the faith and had just given my heart to the Lord. Just some months prior, I was smoking weed, getting drunk, and having sex outside of marriage. You know what I’m trying to say—basically, I was doing all the things that most people do before the church teaches them otherwise.
Anyway, at that point, I had adopted an appearance of ‘holiness’ because I was ‘doing’ all the ‘right’ things, but I still didn’t have an intimate understanding of God’s love for me.
I was trying to be holy, before I even really knew His love.
As I walked into the church, I chose a seat toward the front. That evening I wore a sweater with matching leggings. Apparently, my leggings were inappropriate for church because my sweater only covered the top part of my backside.
Okay. Hold up. First of all, why are you staring so hard at my but to notice where my sweater is or isn’t? Secondly, aren’t you supposed to be paying attention to the service?
Oh. Excuse my rant.
Okay. Anyway, as the service began, I had two people come up to me at separate times correcting me about my leggings that I still to this day think are perfectly appropriate and too cute for that red and white sweater I had on. Oh well. I digress.
The point is that I was ‘corrected’ but with rebuke instead of love and grace.
When someone walks into the doors of the church, you never know their hurt, story, or current struggle.
Sometimes people want to go to church but they feel like they can’t afford ‘church clothes’ to look appropriate enough to fit in with the crowd.
Brothers and sisters…this ought not be so!
The loving way to approach someone would be to get to know them. Usually, if you hear someone talk for just two minutes, you can begin to get a certain idea of where they are in life and where they’ve been. If you feel comfortable enough, perhaps you could offer to take them out to lunch and to go shopping for a new dress.
Even better—-perhaps your ministry can have a ‘fitting room’ that’s designated for church members to donate gently used clothing. That way, no one can ever feel like they can’t attend church because of their attire.
Regardless of someone’s attire, we are called to serve them, love them, and care for them before we correct them. And when we do correct them, we need to make sure we’ve thought about how to be a help to them first.
No one should ever feel like their attire should keep them from getting their hearts closer to God.
Remember that you too once had your days where your cleavage was too low, your skirt was too high, and your pants sagged just a little too much.
And…even if you haven’t…well, still shut up!
Attire isn’t that important to the point where you have to make someone feel uncomfortable to hear the gospel.
Have you ever considered that perhaps they are already aware that their clothing isn’t the best choice, but they’re low on funds, really needed God’s Word, and what they were wearing was literally all they had!
That night when I walked out of that church, I remember tucking those leggings in a deeper part of my drawer and not wearing them too often after that. Fortunately, I would go on to continue to get to know God and His love for myself. Fortunately, that moment of rejection didn’t break me or cause me to think about the judgement I was already dealing with. Fortunately, I valued my relationship with God more than the imperfections of His people. So, I stuck with God. I grew, matured, and learned His ways.
Yet, many aren’t as fortunate. There are many who completely turn around and decide they’ll never enter the doors of the church again simply because of that one moment.
So…can we please get back to the heart of the gospel?
Jesus is rejoicing that they made a step forward to get closer to Him. That after years and years of tugging on their hearts, they finally obeyed. They finally walked in the church doors to get to know Him a little more. He’s not thinking about their clothes. He’s concerned about their heart. Why would you want to ruin such a precious moment?
So..if He’s rejoicing over their soul, then why are you are looking at their skirt?
And…if they really did change their outfit just because you complained, are they really doing it for God? or is it just so they won’t be judged?
I think I’ll end with this quote because Dr. Matthew Stevenson, III said it best:
Let’s just remember that when it comes to church clothes, “your heart is your Sunday best.”
