In Bible class last Wednesday night we were talking about things that produce divisions in the church. Not the basics or matters of fact but rather matters of opinion, i.e. divisions that come from man and not from God. Things like the order of worship, having a kitchen in the church, etc. One topic that came up was a dress code. The teacher wasn't advocating a dress code, just pointing out that some churches have a dress code and some don't. For some reason, that struck a nerve with me. My comment was "let's suppose we did have a dress code here, would a poor carpenter from Nazareth be allowed in?"
After class, I started thinking about my reaction to the idea of a dress code. Again, no one was advocating a dress code; it was just a topic of conversation. So why did that strike such a nerve with me? I did have some personal issues on my mind that day (that probably didn't help) but I didn't react to the other topics like that. So what was it about the idea of a dress code that bothered me? After mulling it over, I realized that my reaction was based on past experiences:
(a) I grew up around people who weren't as fortunate as me. One of my friends always wanted to come to my house instead of me going to his house because he was ashamed of where he lived. Another friend lied to me about his dad's job because he didn't want me to know his dad was a garbage collector. I could've cared less about where they lived or their dad's job but I knew that they were very self-conscious about these things so I never brought them up.
(b) A few months ago, a guy was walking through our church parking lot and started talking to me about God. We had a really good discussion and I invited him in for worship. He said he wasn't dressed well enough to go in. I told him God doesn't judge by external appearances but rather by your heart. Still, he refused to come in because of the way he was dressed. His clothes weren't that bad but you could tell by them he wasn't as well off as most of the people at my church.
There are some other experiences I could relate but these two are enough to illustrate my point. Poor people are painfully aware of their poverty and sometimes people in fancy clothes only heighten their awareness and embarrassment. Therefore, clothing that was intended to show respect for God can actually (although unintentionally) push people away.
Romans 14:21 tells us "it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble." In other words, put yourself in the other person's shoes and consider their needs in everything you do. So am I saying it's wrong to wear a suit to church? No. Is it wrong to dress your best for church, whatever that may be? No. What I'm saying is this: consider the other person's situation and don't put any barriers between them and the gospel, whether it's what you wear, what you eat, or anything else you do.
