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PROGRAM D-8347
What is an appropriate dress code for a Christian girl/woman? Let me assure you that I’m not talking about a Christian uniform—we aren’t required to look alike, and each of us can use our own individuality and creativity as we choose our wardrobes.
However, we do have biblical guidelines which we need to understand as we determine what our dress code will be. The following is what we learn from the Bible about clothes and God’s principles concerning them.
God invented clothes. He clothed Adam and Eve after sin entered the Garden of Eden. At first, Adam and Eve never had to wear clothes. Nakedness was not shameful, and clothing was not necessary. But they immediately recognized the need for covering their bodies after sin entered the picture. It was the first effect of sin—shame and a need to cover up their nakedness.
God’s dress code from the beginning has been to cover our nakedness. God designed clothing to cover the whole body, not just the private parts. Clothes were not for revealing the body’s shape or drawing attention to body parts; rather they were intended by God to take attention away from the body.
Here are two other passages that define what the Christian dress code should be:
I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hair styles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Timothy 2:9-10)
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hair styles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. (1 Peter 3:3-4)
The principles we find here are as follows:
- We should dress modestly, with decency and propriety.
- We should not wear clothes or accessories for the purpose of trying to draw attention to ourselves or to “show off.”
- Inner beauty is far more important than outer beauty, and it should be far more highly desired than outward things we do to look good.
Now our challenge is to understand what it means to dress modestly, which I will examine next. Meanwhile, I would encourage you to think about your own dress code and your own definition of modest dressing.
