The Well-Dressed Christian

In Ephesians 6, we read about our spiritual armor.  Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord and reminds us that we are doing battle with spiritual forces, who wage war against Almighty God and His
children. We are instructed about the spiritual armor:
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God...

How do we appropriate the spiritual armor?  Well, for one thing we receive it by faith and as Dr. Stanley has taught, we literally, verbally "put it on."  We can thank the Lord for these components, and we can make sure that we are walking in truth - God's Word is an essential element - we must know His truth and know who we are: righteous and holy before God.  We move forward with confidence in Him, our shield of faith is strengthened the Word and our minds are renewed.  The Scriptures are powerful in order to defeat the enemy.

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Regarding walking in the identity of the new creation in Christ that the Bible says we are, Ephesians
4 states:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

I had a link to an almost two-year old article come across my Twitter feed the other day, and it caught my attention, and there are some meaningful ways that we can process the information.  It was from Relevant magazine, and the title was, What Your Pastor's Shirt Says About Their Theology.  Yes, it was a fun article, a bit irreverent, certainly satiricial.  It opens up this way:

If there’s one way to immediately know the theological leanings of a pastor it’s to simply observe what their clothes look like and make a rash, unwavering judgement.

We’ve already put together helpful guides to knowing what your pastor’s jeans and choice in coffee say about their theology, but now, after countless emails from theologically curious churchgoers around the world, we’ve finally turned our attention to shirts.

The article definitely trends to the contemporary expression of worship, including certain t-shirts, the "crazy shirt with like a thousand paisleys all over it," and the "Tommy Bahama" look. And, of course, there was a nod to the "untucked dress shirt with open collar:"

This is the shirt of choice for pastors who like to use memorable acronyms to distill complicated Biblical principles into joke-laden sermons. The look also works for dads going out for a “nice” dinner and tech executives.

And, there's the brown Old Navy polo, described as "Sensible," "Timeless," but "kind of drab."

The concept kind of reminded me of material that Jon Acuff was doing with the book and website, Stuff Christians Like.  I found a guest post from a guy named Curtis, who wrote about the youth minister style:

Fact: eighth graders have the attention span of a goldfish in a bowl of Red Bull (more on that later). In case the Wednesday night message doesn’t keep the students’ rapt with attention, his shirt will. You know the shirts I’m talking about–they contain more calligraphy than the Constitution. I think I saw a youth minister the other day with Hammurabi’s Code embellished onto it. If you give the kids 3D glasses they may even find clues to reclaim a legendary book of Presidential secrets hidden inside Teddy Roosevelt’s nostril at Mount Rushmore.

And, I also found a site called, PastorFashion.com, which was associated with Ed Young of the large Fellowship Church in Texas.  The site states:

PastorFashion.com is designed to have some fun with fashion and put it in its proper perspective – it’s a relevant tool in reaching the world with the hope and love of Jesus. This is a place where pastors (and anyone who shares that perspective) can get some tips on what to wear, how to wear it, and when to wear it. But the ultimate question isn’t “what,” “how” or “when?” It’s “Who?”

It's true - it looks like the site has not been active in about three years, but there was advice for ad-dressing...dress!

Well, the takeaway that occurred to me, and was also explored by Pastor Young, is that how we dress has spiritual implications, and by and large, it has nothing to do with outward appearance.  But, I will say that our approach to worship and being in the Lord's house should be reflected in the clothes and accessories we wear - in other words, I am a proponent that sloppy doesn't cut it in the church. And, we should have an understanding of what is inappropriate to wear in the church setting.  So, having said that, let's think about what the Bible says about how we are to be clothed.

I will refer again to Ed Young.  The site says:

Our fascination with fashion is really just a microcosm of our desire to be clothed in the ultimate designer—Jesus Christ. Until we put on the grace and mercy of Jesus we’re all stitched in sin and cut up with compromise. But In Jesus, God has provided us a seamless garment; a perfect wardrobe so that we can discover what true fashion is really all about.

The Bible refers in Ephesians 4 to putting off the old and putting on the new.  That is something very important - when we encounter old patterns of thought and actions, those should be replaced in a manner consistent with who God says we are.  We have been freed from sin, and we have been given new power in the Spirit to combat and overcome sin.  So, we put on our new identity in Christ.

And, there are elements of spiritual clothing found in Ephesians chapter 6 - the full armor of God.  As it's been pointed out, we have essentially five pieces of defensive clothing - the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, footwear that demonstrates our faithfulness to the gospel, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. Then, there is the offensive item: the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

So, the well-dressed Christian recognizes who we are and what we have in Christ. Surely, we want to honor Him by the way we dress in the church, and that is often determined by worship style and the type of service or event.  But, we, above all, acknowledge that we are clothed in Him.