Norma Lauby, of La Mesa, California, was browsing in the ladies’ department one day with her son who was just learning to read. Trying to read all the signs he could, he came upon one in the maternity department. “Look, Mom!” he said excitedly as he pointed at the sign. “They’re even making clothes for eternity now!” (Norma Lauby, La Mesa, CA, “Heart to Heart,” Today’s Christian Woman)
Well, I doubt that the department store chains are making clothes for eternity, but God is. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God has provided just the right clothes for eternity, and He wants us to start wearing them today.
I’m sure as you got ready this morning, most of you asked the question: What do I wear to church today? It’s a very appropriate question, and somewhat controversial, because some say, “I want to wear my best for the Lord.” They’re the ones who dress up every Sunday in the best clothes they have out of respect for the Lord. They have a genuine desire to honor the Lord.
Others say, “God accepts me just as I am, so I don’t need to put on a show.” They’re the ones who go to church in their everyday clothes, also out of respect for the Lord who looks on the heart, not the outward appearance. These people have a genuine desire to be authentic before the Lord.
I suppose there is a third group who really don’t care how they look before the Lord, so there is no telling what they might wear to church (if and when they go).
There are various opinions about the appropriate dress for church, but there is only one opinion that counts, and that’s God’s opinion. Does God have an opinion about what we wear to church? Does God care how we dress before Him? Well, you might be surprised to learn that He does.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy 2, 1 Timothy 2, where the Bible talks about the public worship services of the church and tells us what God wants us to wear to those services. First, he addresses the men.
1 Timothy 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. (NIV)
Men, God wants us to WEAR HOLINESS AND PEACE TO CHURCH.
God wants us guys to come to the place of worship wholly devoted to Him and without strife and dissension. God desires that we come to church with a holy love for Him and for one another.
In the 3rd and 4th Centuries, and even to some extent today, the popular image of holiness was solitude, silence and severity. The really (quote) “holy people” back then were those who lived like hermits, wandering in the desert alone – fasting, praying and having visions. Some of them went to extremes: eating nothing but grass, living in trees, or refusing to wash.
Then Pachomius, an Egyptian soldier, came to faith in Christ through the witness of some Christians in Thebes. After his release from the military, around A.D. 315, he was baptized. Now, Pachomius was serious about his new faith and determined to grow, so he attached himself as a disciple of Palamon, an ascetic who taught him the self-denial and solitary life of a religious hermit.
But Pachomius began to question the methods and lifestyle of his mentors. How can you learn to love if no one else is around? How can you learn humility living alone? How can you learn kindness or gentleness or goodness in isolation? How can you learn patience unless someone puts yours to the test? In short, he concluded, developing spiritual fruit requires being around people – ordinary, ornery people. “To save souls,” he said, “you must bring them together.”
So Pachomius began to gather people together in communities where holiness was developed not in isolation, but in rubbing shoulders with flawed, demanding, and sometimes disagreeable people. As a result, followers of Pachomius learned to take hurt rather than give it. They discovered that disagreements and opposition provide the opportunity to redeem life situations and experience God’s grace. Thus began the monastic movement in the 4th Century. (Marshall Shelley, “Developing spiritual fruit requires being around ordinary, ornery people,” Leadership journal, Spring 1993; www.PreachingToday.com)
You see, holiness is not being pure and pious all by yourself. It is learning to live with and serve disagreeable people, even in the church. It is growing in love for the Lord and for others as we come together “without anger or disputing,” and that’s what God wants us men to wear to church.
God is not concerned so much about what we wear on the outside. His concern is the character we display, which comes from inside the heart. Specifically, God wants us to wear garments of holiness and peace in the place of prayer.
Do you know? That’s exactly what God wants the women to wear, as well. Ladies, when you come to the place of worship, God wants you to...
WEAR HOLINESS THERE.
He wants you to put on good works. He wants you to dress with godliness just like the men.
1 Timothy 2:9-10 I also want – a better translation would be “in the same way,” i.e., just like the men - I want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (NIV)
Again, God is not concerned so much about what the ladies wear on the outside. His concern is the character they display, which comes from inside the heart. God is not impressed with expensive clothes. Rather, He wants the ladies to wear good deeds to church that are appropriate for those who profess to worship God.
Specifically, God wants the ladies to dress sensibly. Verse 9 says “modestly, with decency and propriety” – literally, with good judgment. Ladies, use good judgment when you come dressed for church. That’s all God wants.
Notice, He doesn’t give you a long list of things you can and cannot wear. He doesn’t say, for example, that you cannot wear makeup or jewelry to church, or that you have to wear hats and dresses. No! You have the freedom to wear whatever you want, as long as it shows good judgment.
You even have the freedom to dress beautifully when you come to the place of worship. The Greek word for “modestly” in verse 9 is the word kosmio, from which we get our word “cosmetics.” It speaks of putting things in order and making someone or something look beautiful. God is not opposed to women wearing beautiful clothing.
He just wants you to dress sensibly, but don’t dress sensously. Don’t dress to attract the attention of men. Verse 9 says, “not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothing.”
That’s the way Ephesian prostitutes dressed in the 1st Century. According to one commentator, “They wore their hair in numerous small pendant braids with gold droplets or pearls or gems every inch or so, making a shimmering screen of their locks” (Hurley, p.199). It was sensuous dress, designed to attract the wealthy gentlemen of Ephasus; therefore, it was very inappropriate for church in 1st Century Ephasus.
In our culture, braids and pearls don’t have the same connotation. If this were written today, it would probably say, “Don’t wear low-cut tops or short skirts.” The point is don’t wear anything designed to attract the attention of men. Dress sensibly, not sensuously.
But even more important than your dress is your doings. Above all, ladies, just like the men, God wants you to wear good deeds (verse 10). He wants you to behave in such a way that is “appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” In other words, your walk should match your talk. You SAY you worship God. Then your life should reflect that worship. What you do is more important than how you dress.
Marian Liautaud is one of the editors for Christianity Today, International. Recently, in an editor’s blog for Today’s Christian Woman, she wrote about a morning when her husband, Dan, watched her put on blush and eyeliner as she was getting ready for work. He asked her why she wears it.
She explained that she feels more “finished, more put together,” when she has on blush and mascara, but this only led to further questions which exasperated her.
So the next day, she embarked on a 30-day experiment. Without telling a soul, Marian committed to wearing no make-up to see what kind of reaction she’d receive from the people in her life. She was sure people would judge her unfinished appearance with disapproval, or they’d ask her if she was feeling sick.
“The first week was the hardest,” she said. She avoided making eye contact with people, and every time she saw herself in a mirror, she instinctively reacted with disgust.
To make up for her insecurity, she decided to go on the offensive. She started to concentrate on smiling as much as she could and initiating conversations with people so she could learn more about them as a way of taking the focus off of her.
Somewhere during week two, she began to realize that how she looks has nothing to do with who she is. And at that moment, she decided to begin to accept herself just as she is.
She writes, “I’ve experienced such freedom in not wearing make-up, mainly because I feel released from the struggle to be pretty.” (Marian V. Liautaud, “The Skin I’m In,” Today’s Christian Woman Editor’s Blog, 7-9-09; www.PreachingToday. com)
Instead of focusing on herself, she began to focus on others, and there found real freedom. Ladies, that’s how God wants you to come to church. Don’t worry so much about how you look. Put on the makeup if you want, but don’t let your looks become the focus.
Instead, reach out to people and focus on their needs and interests. Let them know you care about them more than yourself, and you will be beautiful not only in God’s eyes, but also in the eyes of those you help. Ladies, just like the men, wear holiness to church; wear the good deeds of compassion. And then, just like the men…
WEAR PEACE TO CHURCH, as well.
Clothe yourself with harmonious relationships, and put on a submissive spirit.
1 Timothy 2:11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. (NIV)
This is very similar to what God said to the men in verse 8. There, He told the men to come to the place of prayer “without anger or disputing.” Here, He tells the women to learn “in quietness and submission.” It’s the same thing; only one is stated negatively and the other positively.
Men and women, both, are to come to the place of worship with an attitude of reverence and mutual respect. We are to come in peace.
That’s what the word “quietness” means. It’s the same word used in verse 2, where we are instructed to pray for our governing authorities so we can live “peaceful and quiet lives.” The word means to be at peace, to be settled down, to be undisturbed and not unruly.
Specifically, God wants the ladies to come ready to learn (vs.11). Now, in Bible days that was radically countercultural. In those days, only the men were allowed to receive instruction; only the men were allowed to learn in the synagogues. But in the church, God says, “Let the women learn too. Let the women receive instruction.”
Often, Christianity has been accused of putting women down, of treating them like inferior beings. But the opposite is true. Wherever Christianity has gone the status of women has been elevated, and this is a prime example. Women, along with the men, are to “learn in quietness and full submission.”
So ladies, when you come to church, come ready to learn, but don’t come with a desire to dominate. Don’t come with an attitude of power and control.
I’m reminded of the story of the perfect man and the perfect woman who met and got married. One Christmas eve, they were driving down the highway and noticed a man stranded by side of the road. This was no ordinary man. It was Santa Claus!
Being the perfect people they were, they offered Santa a ride, because he was in a hurry to get his toys delivered. Alas, the roads were slippery and there was a terrible car crash. Two of the three people were killed. One survived. Do you know who that was?
It was the perfect woman, because everyone knows that Santa Claus and the perfect man don’t really exist. (Ann Landers, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 1996; Bible Illustrator #3875, 8/1997.10)
I’m afraid that’s the way some women view themselves – as nearly perfect, or certainly more perfect than some of the men in their lives. So they feel a strong need to take charge and set the men straight, because they think they know so much more than the men. This would be especially true in the 1st Century church, where for the first time women were allowed to learn right along side the men. But God makes it very clear…
1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent (NIV) – i.e., not argumentative.
This is certainly not a prohibition against women speaking in the worship services of the church. There are several cases in the New Testament where women taught men even in the context of the local church. In Acts 18, Priscilla, along with her husband, Acquilla, took Apollos aside and “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). In Acts 21, Philip the evangelist had four unmarried daughters who were well known prophets in the church (Acts 21:9). In 1 Corinthians 11, women are given the opportunity to prophesy (i.e., to proclaim God’s Word) in the public worship services of the church, provided they do it under the proper authority (1 Corinthians 11:5-10). & In 2 Timothy 1, Timothy himself was instructed by his mother and grandmother.
Let me tell you, it’s a poor man who will not listen to a woman sometimes. And women certainly taught men on several occasions in the New Testament, so 1 Timothy 2:12 here cannot be a call for absolute silence on the part of women.
Rather, the context makes it clear that the “silence” here refers to refraining from attempts to dominate the conversation and take control of it. In fact, the original Greek word for “have authority” is found only here in 1 Timothy 2:12, and it literally means “to control in a domineering manner.” One standard Greek lexicon suggests that the verb be translated “to shout orders at,” “to act like a chief toward,” or “to bark at” (Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament).
It’s not that women cannot talk to men or even teach men in the church. God simply wants women to refrain from “shouting orders at men,” from “barking at men,” or from trying to “control men in a domineering manner.”
Why? Because that’s not the way God created men and women to relate to one another.
1 Timothy 2:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. (NIV)
God created Adam first, then the woman, and when that order is reversed, i.e., when a woman dominates a man, then there is chaos.
1 Timoth 2:14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. (NIV)
When Adam failed to take the lead (or the initiative) to protect His wife from the serpent, she was deceived. Then when he let her, who was deceived, dominate him (or lead him into sin), he lost her completely. A power struggle developed between them, and their relationship was broken by sin.
But even then, God provided salvation for Eve and all her children.
1 Timothy 2:15 But SHE – it’s singular in the Greek. The NIV has wrongly translated it with the plural “women.” But SHE (i.e., Eve) will be saved through childbearing if they (i.e., if the children) continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. (NIV)
This is a reference to the promise God made to Eve right after she had fallen into sin. In Genesis 3:15, God told her that one day her seed would bruise the serpent’s head. One day, one of her descendants would fatally wound that old serpent and gain the victory over the devil who had brought so much pain in the world through his deceit. But that child would have to “continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”
So we begin to read the Old Testament looking for such a child, but none of them measure up – not Cain, not Noah, not Abraham, not even David, and not any of the kings that follow. None of them continue in faith, love and holiness. All of them fail at one point or other in their lives, and we lose all hope of such a deliverer until we get to Jesus Christ.
We read the Gospels and we discover that He was the one who finally lived a sinless life. Then He died on a cross where He cried out, “It is finished.” That’s because He had just bruised Satan’s head on that cross. He had just rendered the devil powerless and gained the victory over sin and death forever. Then, after He died, He rose from the dead to demonstrate His victory to the entire world. Jesus was that promised “seed of the woman” who continued in faith, love and holiness.
Now a right relationship between men and women can be restored, and we don’t have to try to dominate one another any more. There no longer needs to be a power struggle between men and women, if we live in dependence upon Christ.
God did not create us to dominate one another. He created us to live in harmony with each other, and that’s the way He wants us to relate to each other in the church.
What do we wear to church? Well, for both men and women, God wants us to wear holiness and peace to church. God wants us to take off the anger and disputing and put on the good deeds of love for one another. Those are the clothes that matter, not the fancy clothes we sometimes wear on the outside, but the attitudes we show which come from the inside.
Many years ago, an evangelist by the name of Yakov arrived at a village in Serbia. He met an elderly man there named Cimmerman, and Jakov began to talk to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman abruptly interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. He reminded Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, where church leaders had plundered, exploited, and killed innocent people.
“My own nephew was killed by them,” he said, and angrily rejected any effort on Jakov’s part to talk about Christ. He told Jakov, “They wear those elaborate coats and crosses, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore.”
Jakov replied, “Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track: they recognize your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?”
“I would deny it,” said Cimmerman.
And Jakov countered, “‘Ah, but we saw your coat,’ they would say.” But the analogy annoyed Cimmerman, and he ordered Jakov to leave his home.
Even so, Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ with him. Finally one day Cimmerman asked, “How does one become a Christian?”
Jakov taught him the simple steps of putting his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Cimmerman got down on his knees and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, “Thank you for being in my life.” And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.” (Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God? Word, 1994; www.PreachingToday.com)
My friends, let’s wear His coat well wherever we are.
