So do you "respect" God with your formal wear when you worship at home or at the park? If not, why not? Is your worship still respectful when you aren't dressed in formal?

What constitutes "best" anyway? Whose standard do we use? Some say a wedding dress is "best" clothing. Should I wear one to church every Sunday? How about my mink coat? Do I wear that in the summer because its the "best" I have. Best is subjective at the very least.

"Best" to me is any clothing I am comfortable enough in to NOT focus on the clothes. If I am focusing on the clothes, aren't I in fact setting up an idol between God and myself?



I couldn't agree more.



I don't know if I agree with this. The road to hell is paved.....well you know. But for the sake of discussion lets say it is true.

Who judges effort? The same people who judge what is formal or best? I have 2 kids and a military husband. My youngest was premature and we lived in Alaska. My husband was gone a lot. Just to take my youngest out in the cold weather took MUCH effort. There were various steps I took to ensure our safety before ever leaving the drive way because only a few moments exposure to bitter cold temps would take his life.

Was I being disrespectful when I showed up to worship with baby bodily fluids on my clothing, in jeans or snow pants (in case of an accident or any reason I needed to get out of the vehicle in bitter cold temps), while I had "better" clothes in the closet?

I don't think so.

And I can guarantee you I spent hours more time in effort to get there than say someone who woke up, put on a suit, and arrived at the chapel.

By your standard though, no one saw my effort, all knew I owned better clothing, so I was being disrespectful.

That's hogwash.

Thats the whole point - who cares what they think - who cares if they saw "effort" or not - if in your circumstances at the time, thats the "best" that can be achieved, fine, no issues with that whatsoever. If you can say to yourself that you did do the best you could under the circumstances that surround you, thats all that matters.

Who judges effort? You do. There is no absolutes in this ....... its insane to claim otherwise, as I made perfectly clear. Its not a case of who judges "best", its not a competition, there is no "rules", you cant measure "respect" in absolute terms thats crazy.

Too many people judge circumstances and "dress" measured against what others may or may not be wearing, who the hell cares. What does matter in my view, is that individuals made the effort that applied in the circumstances that they find themselves - and not use the lack of "rules" as an excuse not to bother to do anything. The only judge of that is the individual, if they wish to fool themselves, thats their business no one else's.

Respect is a State of Mind, a concept, not a $3000 suit, not comparisons with what others may or may not be wearing .... the only one who can say that an effort had been made is the individual - but if the individual is using the lack of so called "rules" not to bother to even try, then they delude themselves to no effect, and in my view cast disrespect on their Faith.

"By your standard though, no one saw my effort, all knew I owned better clothing, so I was being disrespectful."

God saw. God knew.

I guess we will agree to disagree. I don't think dressing formal, whether you can or not, is one of God's rules. I think it's man made and has driven more people from church than brought them to it.

Using KFC's example above. If no one said a word to him about his clothes, do you really think he'd have felt welcome? Or like he was among family? I doubt it, so why bother coming back? Every group of people that interact have certain "unwritten rules." No one has to say a word about the elephant in the room, but everyone knows its there.

Worship is about God, but its also about fellowship, because ultimately fellowship is about God.

I wrote an article about a church I visited in Mississippi. The ministers and leaders of the church ALWAYS wear jeans, even though they have more formal attire. Do you know why? Because no matter what anyone says, clothes matter, especially in this society. So they make sure the unchurched feel welcome when they come in jeans or leather. WWW Link

Say it doesn't matter all you want....but there is a reason why the human psyche creates dreams about being in public places missing clothing or naked.

When God called a formal assembly of the people, he wanted them to prepare their outside appearance as they came before him. As they did this, they were preparing themselves to meet the Lord.

In Exodus 19:10 three things had to be done to prepare for God's appearance, one of which was to clean the body and clothes. They were told to prepare themselves to meet the Lord. Why did God make this request?

"And the Lord said to Moses Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes. And be ready against the third day for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mt. Sinai"

We see this type of thing lots of places.....Gen 35:2 says:

Jacob said to his household and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean, and CHANGE your garments."

Why did Jacob ask this?

We have to ask ourselves....does my dressing special for the Lord on the day of assembly bring glory to him or not? Does NOT bothering to care one way or the other bring him glory? That's the question.

"Whether therefor you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor 10:31

The outside is a reflection of the inside. We are to be a light and an example to others. If we don't bother or care what is that saying?

But....It's really an individual heart issue.

In our church...yes. We have all sorts of dress in our church, from barefeet to suits and ties. Probably less suits than sneakers even.

But we had a guy that came for a while with greasy hands and clothes. He had no running water in his little mobile home. He was dirt poor. My husband always made a point to grab his dirty, black hand and shake it to let him know how welcome he was. Eventually he had to go to prison because he had to pay for a prior offense...and we knew it was coming. Yet he felt very comfortable in our church. He loved coming. We always sent him home with plates of food when we had fellowships. Everyone knew his problems but accepted him anyway. When he went to jail, we had a box put up in the back for letters to go in there for him.

That sounds very nice KFC. Not like any Baptist church I ever attended. I think you are the exception and not the general rule (at least in my experience.)

Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable going anywhere dirty, but that's a personal thing, not a God mandated one.