Everybody’s different! Did you ever pause at the grocery store or on the street corner to observe people—the way they look, the way they act?
Some folks are tall and “spindly” like August cornstalks. Others are short and compact.
Some scurry along as if they were late to some important engagement. Others act as if they have nothing to do and nowhere to go.
People’s personalities are different too. A few will smile and greet you. Most, however, seem to be wrapped up in the world of their own thoughts.
For all their differences, though, most people are basically mimickers of others. Most noticeable to the casual observer is what people wear.
There was a day when people slavishly followed the latest dictates of the prominent fashion houses. Nearly everybody copycatted whatever was “in.”
Now things are different. You see just about anything. You observe maxis to minis, “muscle” shirts to faded, torn jeans. People dress as they want.
For all their pretended independence and nonconformity, most of our modern self-made fashion designers only copy. Maybe it’s the latest fad or the garb of the newest rock or country group.
People still seem to be helpless slaves to any novel idea. Somehow it’s easy to do what one’s peers are doing—to be swayed by the crowd. Few seem to be stable enough to think for themselves.
What about Christians? Are Christians tempted to just imitate others, without really thinking through what they do, without knowing why they do the things they do?
Do we dare to stand up for a principle when the easiest way is to sheepishly follow the crowd? Few of us are born leaders. Most of us, especially young people, are followers of someone.
Take the way we dress. Do we follow any whim or do we let Christian principles guide us? Do we ask first, “What will God have me to do?”
The Bible is not silent regarding what we wear. You would expect the Bible to speak to something so basic to our lives—and it does speak.
Adam and Eve were the first people to have problems with dress. After they sinned, they made some makeshift clothes out of leaves-sounds almost as flimsy as some modern “clothes”! God, from whom they were trying to hide, wasn’t satisfied. He made more substantial clothing of animal skins—these protected and covered.
Here is God’s first principle of dress. Clothing should be modest, covering the body well. Through the Bible and through history “undress” has been associated with immorality and decadent societies.
Dress—plenty of it, that is!—offers us double protection. It protects us from the elements. It also helps protect us from becoming victims of sexual abuses and temptations.
Man’s sexual drives are aroused by “undress.” These drives are God-given, good and right, in marriage. But they mustn’t enter “public domain.”
Someone has said, “You are what you wear.” I don’t quite agree with that, but I’m sure this restatement is true: “What you wear reflects what you are.”
People’s dress patterns seem to reflect the spirit of the age. Humankind in general are not sure about many things. They don’t really know why they are here or where they’re going.
The Christian has a stable guide—the Word of God. He knows his purpose in life. His dress will reflect his inner stability. The Bible clearly defines the Christian’s priorities, not just in dress, but in every area of life.
“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
What must guide every part of our lives? The perfect will of God. What is that perfect will? “Be not conformed . . . but transformed.” How? By the “renewing of your minds.”
Has Christ renewed our minds? Are we living the transformed life? Let’s take up the standard of modesty.
-by Roger Berry