Our culture in the United States has gotten much more casual over the past few generations. This affects our work, speech, relationships, and the way that we dress. The trend toward more casual attire has made its way into the church as many Christians do not “dress up” very much (if at all) when they assemble for worship.
Does this matter?
On one side, you have some who insist that Christians need to wear their “Sunday best” and dress formally as if they were going to a funeral or to meet the President. On the other, there are those who argue that it does not matter what clothes we wear to worship because God sees the heart; therefore, they claim it does not matter to Him what we wear.
Which of those sides is correct? Or is the right path somewhere in between? The Bible contains some principles and examples that will help us determine what to wear as we assemble for worship. Let us notice a few points together.
No Specific Dress Code Is Given in the New Testament
Jesus commissioned His apostles to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). When Peter went to the house of Cornelius, he acknowledged that God would welcome people from “every nation” if they would honor and obey Him (Acts 10:34-35). This means that when these disciples from every nation were taught “to observe all that [Christ] commanded” (Matthew 28:20), they were able to follow His instructions. The teachings contained in the New Testament about our assemblies and how we conduct ourselves in them are able to accommodate different cultures and customs from different times and places.
Even so, there are principles to help us determine how to dress. We must exercise wisdom in deciding what to wear when we assemble for worship.
We Profess Something with Our Dress
There is a principle contained in Paul’s instructions to women to dress modestly:
“Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness [professing godliness, KJV]” (1 Timothy 2:9-10).
The way we dress makes a statement. Fashion designers, retailers, and fashion-conscious consumers recognize this. Clothing is designed, advertised, and worn in such a way as to convey some message. Clothes send a signal that the person wearing them is respectable, smart, wealthy, rebellious, dependable, fun, artistic, or any number of descriptors. However, Christians often want to act as though the clothes we wear say nothing about us or our priorities. This is naive. When it comes to what we wear to worship services, how we dress sends a signal.
- To our brethren – Besides worshipping God, we assemble in order to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds” and encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25). This means we should not dress in a way that disregards or distracts our brethren. We should not dress to impress others, but we do need to be mindful of them and avoid dressing in a way that suggests they are unimportant to us.
- To potential visitors – Paul spoke of the possibility of “unbelievers” entering the assembly of the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:23-25). Their assemblies were to be conducted in a way that would help point these visitors to the God we worship (1 Corinthians 14:25). They were not to cause distractions by conducting the assembly in a disorderly manner (1 Corinthians 14:27-30, 40). We can apply this principle to our clothing and not dress in a way that distracts visitors from God and His word.
- To ourselves – After his sin with Bathsheba, David prayed and fasted for seven days, appealing to the Lord that the child born to them might be spared (2 Samuel 12:16-17, 22). When he received the sad news that the child had died, he “arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes” (2 Samuel 12:20). Doing these things – including changing his clothes – was a signal to others and to himself that the time of mourning was over. We should dress for worship in a way that signals to ourselves that this is a special time to show honor to God and to offer Him the praise He deserves.
- To God – We know that God sees the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), but that does not mean He is unconcerned with how we present ourselves as we come before Him. When the people gathered at Mount Sinai, although He could see their hearts, He still required them to dress in a certain way (Exodus 19:10-11) [we will discuss this more in a moment]. We must show “reverence and awe” as we approach Him to worship (Hebrews 12:28). The clothing we choose to wear should reflect that attitude.
That being said, we still do not have anything resembling a “dress code” in the New Testament. Men are not commanded to wear a suit and tie, nor is there a specific prohibition on wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Likewise, there is no passage in the New Testament that requires women to wear dresses and condemns them for wearing pants. There are still other principles we must consider.
In deciding what to wear when we assemble for worship, we must exercise wisdom as we consider how best to apply the principles we find in the Scriptures. Before we discuss some of these principles, let us notice two examples that will help us answer the question about how we dress for worship.
Examples of Clothing Worn to an Assembly
The first example is not an assembly of the church, but the occasion when the Israelites assembled at Mount Sinai after their deliverance from Egypt. God gave instructions to Moses that he was to relay to the people so they could be prepared to “meet God” (Exodus 19:17) when He came down on the mountain.
“The Lord also said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, “Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.” When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.’ So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments” (Exodus 19:10-14).
These people had just escaped bondage in Egypt and were now in the wilderness. Obviously, they did not have many provisions or extra changes of clothes. Yet the Lord expected them to make an effort to present themselves in the best way possible. This included washing their clothes so they could appear as best they could in their present circumstances.
The second example is the assembly that James addressed in his epistle. We are not told specifically what they wore, but the text gives us some clues about how they were dressed.
“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” (James 2:1-4).
This passage is the only one in the New Testament that describes how anyone was dressed in an assembly of the saints. Interestingly, the clothes described were not worn by any of the church members, but by two visitors – one “dressed in fine clothes” and one wearing “dirty clothes.” The latter man is said to be “poor,” so we might reasonably assume that the first man was rich, especially since he was presenting himself in a way as to appear rich. The brethren were also certainly treating him as if he were rich.
Except for specifically identifying one man as “poor,” James said nothing about these individuals, except for how they appeared, which was based on the way they were dressed. The poor man clearly did not fit in based on appearance, suggesting that Christians were not accustomed to dressing that way when they assembled. Of course, there may be situations like this one in which someone has no other option as to what he wears. Other times, a Christian may work doing manual labor and, due to his schedule, must come straight from work to the assembly of the church, so he arrives in dirty, ragged clothes. James instructed the brethren not to make “distinctions” or “become judges with evil motives” in such cases. However, it is clear that in the assemblies of the church at that time, it was the exception and not the rule for someone to attend dressed in that way.
On the other hand, it appears that the visitor who wore “a gold ring” and “fine clothes” also stood out. However, unlike the poor man, the brethren gave this man “special attention” and offered him a “good place” to sit. This is telling. Not only did it mean they were wrongly showing favoritism (which James rebuked them for), but it also meant they were not dressed in the same fancy clothes that he was. That does not mean they were not dressed “nice”; it just means they were not dressed to try to impress others or draw attention to themselves.
Principles to Consider
After considering the examples of the Israelites at Mount Sinai and the Christians to whom James wrote, and recognizing that our clothing sends a signal, how do we decide what to wear when we assemble with the church for worship? There are a few principles we need to keep in mind as we choose what clothes we wear.
- Modesty – We often think of modesty in terms of not exposing parts of our bodies that should be covered. That is important, even as we consider how to dress when we assemble for worship. But modesty is more than that. Paul explained that women were to “adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments” (1 Timothy 2:9). We should not dress in a way that would draw attention to ourselves as we assemble to worship and honor God.
- Respect/reverence – We are to approach God with “reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28). The Israelites did this at Mount Sinai, in part, by washing their clothes (Exodus 19:14). The clothing we wear as we approach God says something about our attitude toward Him. We should be intentional about what we wear and not think of our assemblies as something common.
- Consideration of others – We worship God in our assemblies, but it is not only a personal interaction between the worshiper and God. We are also there for one another. Our assemblies are for the purpose of “encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:25). We do not want to send a signal – whether through our words, actions, clothing, or anything else – that someone does not fit in because of how they appear (whether rich or poor).
- Culture – Everywhere we go, there are cultural norms that are universally accepted (or nearly so). These will be different from place to place (urban/rural, affluent/poor). Different countries have different standards for what types of clothing are expected in certain situations. These differences in culture are not to be a barrier to the gospel or a hindrance to one faithfully serving Christ. Paul said, “I have become all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22), and we do the same when we adapt to the culture around us. This includes how we dress. It is undeniable that cultural standards of dress in the United States have become more casual since the mid-twentieth century, yet that does not mean that cultural standards no longer exist. We can ask: How would someone in our culture dress to display modesty, reverence, and mindfulness of others? Whatever that looks like in every culture is the baseline for how we should dress when we assemble for worship with other Christians in that cultural setting.
Conclusion
The New Testament does not tell us specifically what to wear when we assemble for worship. If it did, it would likely resemble clothing typical of the Roman Empire in the first century. Yet the teachings of the apostles were meant for the whole world (Matthew 28:19-20) and would be passed down from generation to generation (2 Timothy 2:2).
We are to dress modestly, demonstrate reverence to God, and show consideration for others. We must recognize that opportunities to gather with other Christians to worship God are special and not common. We should also recognize that our clothing sends a signal to our brethren, potential visitors, ourselves, and God. We need to take all of these factors into consideration as we decide what to wear when we assemble with the church.
When we put all of this together, we do not come away with a list of specific rules (such as the men must wear a tie). However, the general tenor of the principles and examples in the Bible certainly suggests that our reverence for God and the importance of the assembly should lead us to dress up more than we would for most other occasions.
