What Do You Want?
Our desires shape who we are inside, our hearts. (Matthew 6:19-23) Our hearts determine our actions and how we present ourselves. (Matthew 15:10-11, 17-20) Does this not also apply to the way we dress? “Success” is defined as a “favorable or desired outcome.” Dressing for success, then, is clothing ourselves with whatever will help us achieve the outcome we desire. The question we all must ask ourselves, then, is “what do I want?”
What Should You Want?
We were created by a God of purpose (Isaiah 46:8-11) and in His image. (Genesis 1:27) If we were created in the image of God, who does things with purpose, should we not also act with purpose? Peter reminds us that if we are to act in accordance with God’s purposes, then we must be holy as He is holy in all of our conduct. (1 Peter 1:14-16) If we are to be true to the image in which God created us, our clothing ought to be purposeful selections which demonstrate holiness. Perhaps what we choose to wear is not aligned with how God would clothe us. This has apparently been an issue for man since the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:7, 21) However, we can choose to submit to God’s will for us.
Clothed With Christ
Paul reminds us, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27) If I want to succeed in shaping my heart in such a way that will manifest in holy actions, then I must submit my will to God’s will. This life of obedience begins by being baptized into Christ’s saving blood, redeemed for a new life lived by faith in God (Galatians 2:20), at which point Paul says I “put on Christ.” In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” If we are aiming to please the Lord by being holy in all of our conduct, reflecting Christ in all that we do, then dressing for success becomes “dressing to be holy,” rather than simply “dressing in whatever way physically pleases us and others.”
Being Wholly Holy
In Proverbs 7 we read of an immoral woman, described as being “dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.” This passage does not say that this woman was a prostitute, just that she was dressed like one. Desiring to commit adultery with a man who was desiring her forbidden company, she dressed for success and succeeded in seducing this foolish man. Is there any truth, then, to the idea that I can dress however I want as long as I am a Christian? No, the fact is, as a Christian, I should dress however God would want me to dress, and my clothing choices reveal something about what is in my heart, just like my speech and other actions. The sad reality is there are some men and women who wear the name “Christian,” but do not act like they are clothed with Christ. There are those who seek to be holy as God is holy in...well, most of their conduct. And when it comes to clothing, perhaps it does not seem as important to them to be set apart from the world. As the weather gets warmer, the people of the world begin to shed their clothes like the animals from which some believe they evolved. They will flaunt their bodies and welcome the glances, stares, and double takes. They will essentially welcome both wanted and unwanted advances and make many provisions to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. These people are dressing for fleshly success, but what about you? Will you be one of those people, or will “you also be holy in all your conduct?”