Considering Clothing
Another thought-provoking article popped up recently in the Theology section over at CT.1 The subject of this brief piece is clothing and its place in post-Fall human experience. The author, Robert Covolo, starts:
Before becoming a PhD candidate at Fuller Theological Seminary, I served for 12 years at a church in Long Beach, California. A number of my congregants worked in the fashion industry. From them I learned that programs on fashion—fashion design, merchandising, and a body of literature called fashion theory—were popping up all over.
When I looked for a Christian response to the fashion industry, I didn’t find anything. There are books on Christianity and film, Christianity and literature, Christianity and psychology, but I couldn’t find anything on Christianity and fashion.
In independent Baptist circles, discussion of clothing typically concerns modesty issues. Modesty no doubt expresses the fruit of the Spirit in many ways, but clothing is more than modesty. Covolo briefly alludes to various points in the Bible concerning clothing. His remarks betray a theological bias we wouldn’t find comfortable. Nevertheless, he does note this, an area I think we can agree:
But not all values put forth by fashion are reconcilable with Christianity. One of the parasites that feeds and fuels fashion is late-modern expressionism. I’m talking here not about the value of expressing yourself, but about making self-expression into an entire way of life. As Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor pointed out, self-expression has become the highest good for many people, pursued with a religious zeal. This new form of late-modern Romanticism teaches us that to not “follow your heart” is to diminish our humanity.
We often talk about our “me-first” society. One way this philosophy manifests itself is in the attention-getting clothing people choose. The philosophy desires (almost demands) of us, “Look at me! Look at me!” — “Look at me” is the antithesis of modesty. One can be covered from neck-to-knees (as one pastor expressed it to me), yet still be immodest.
Modesty of spirit ought to be the Christian’s daily garb. The clothes we wear and the way we wear them reflect that spirit. But more than this, this article prompted me to check something in the book of Revelation. Have you ever thought of the place of clothing in the future?
The Lord Jesus, as John sees him in chapter 1, is clothed (Rev 1.13). The Lord describes overcomers of Sardis as clothed in white (Rev 3.5). Jesus urges the people of Laodicea to buy white garments so they may clothe themselves (Rev 3.18). The elders around the throne wear robes of white (Rev 4.4). The martyred spirits crying before the altar in Rev 6 receive white robes (Rev 6.11). John sees a great multitude clothed in white robes (Rev 7.9, 13, 14). The angel identifies them with “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” A warning in Rev 16.15 says, “Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.” We find the Bride of the Lamb likewise clothed in fine linen, clean and white (Rev 19.8). Likewise we see the armies in heaven, who accompany the lamb (Rev 19.14). Finally, John pronounces a blessing on the saints in the eternal state, “Blessed are they that do his commandments [wash their robes], that they may have right to the tree of life” (Rev 22.14).
I point out these passages to note that the saints wear clothes, especially those clearly in the eternal context, not in an earthly context at all (the elders of chapter 4, the saints before the altar, chapter 6, and the saints in Rev 22). Have you ever thought about this? Though the Lord restores much in the millennium and even more, it seems, in the eternal state, he doesn’t restore this:
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Though the Fall is overcome, much is restored, for all eternity the saints appear to wear clothing. Is this merely symbolic of redemption and the righteousness of Christ with which we are endued? Or did Adam lose so much at the fall that God leaves this one reminder of his grace for us to persist in through eternity?
Either way, the thought ought to motivate us now to that manner of life described in 1 Tim 2.9 of godly women, and surely the same modesty of life applies to Christian men as well.
1 Tim 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
1 Pt 5:5 Likewise, ye younger [men], submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
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