Theology of Clothing (Part 1)
Amy Carmichael, a famous missionary in India, once described living for God as being a mountaineer, not settling on the low slopes, but continuing to climb the hill of hardship in order to see greater and more glorious views of God. As I reflect on my own journey as it comes to clothing; its purpose, design, and myself, I sit on a very small outcropping, looking out onto God’s glory, in awe of what He’s shown me. In writing this blog, I have been forced to reflect on the journey, thankful that God helped me find the path that he meant for me, while recognizing that each step along the way was only by his grace alone. In regards to my relationship with sin and clothing, I know I have more climbing to do, I don’t deny that. (Unfortunately, there is far more sin I need to throw off as I trek up to new heights that I may see more of God). But, one of the greatest blessings we have is the local church. Here we find other people to climb next to us on this journey. Recently, Olivia Sinclair and I had both been burdened to share our stories with clothing and God’s design for clothing as laid out in scripture. We hope that you too would be gripped by God’s Word and consider what it has to say about his good gift of clothing. We pray that we, together, would not settle for low slopes, but trek on for greater, more glorious views of God’s glory.
Clothing; A Gift and The Gospel
Last year, my husband and I gifted my 2-year-old niece a toy cleaning set. It came with a little mop, broom and duster. She looked at it, at first, confused. She picked it up and started waving the mop around and almost started using the broom as a hairbrush. We had to patiently explain to her that it wasn’t meant for sword fighting or waving around, but for being a helper and cleaning the house with Mom. Only then was she able to start getting the best use out of it. In no time, she was having a blast sweeping the porch with us. I think there is a great principle for us in this. Like my niece, as children of God, we thrive best when we use God’s gifts in the way God instructs us. Just like how we are responsible for the way we steward God’s money or spiritual gifts, we are also responsible for honoring God in how we wear the gift of clothing. Thankfully, God being the giver of clothing, as we are about to see, has instructed us on how to wear His gift in order that we may thrive according to His design. Therefore, for the Christian, clothing is not only a gift to be stewarded, but also a gospel proclamation.
Clothing as a Gift
Perhaps you are surprised I used the term gift many times to describe clothes. I was surprised when I had first heard clothing associated with such pleasantry, but the more I look at scripture, the more I am sure that this is the best description for clothing. To see why, it may be helpful to see an example from before God instituted clothing, and an example from after.
Example 1: In the Garden of Eden, after God creates man and woman declares, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
Example 2: Fast forward to today. I want you to imagine you are in your apartment, showering, and all of a sudden you smell smoke. You realize that your apartment is on fire and the fire’s spreading rapidly. You don’t think, you run; run straight out of the house for safety. Finally, once you get outside, you look down and realize that in the hurry, you forgot your clothes. Immediately, you feel your cheeks growing warm, eyes darting around looking for something, anything to cover yourself, to hide.
I give you these two examples to show that, clearly, we presently do not live in the Garden of Eden. If that were so, Adam and Eve would have no problem walking out of their houses undressed since there was nothing wrong with their nakedness. In fact, unashamed was how God created them. But there is a stark difference between God’s perfect world and the world we now live in. That difference is not that we have nakedness, but that, unlike the garden, we now exist with shame. Shame causes us to attempt to cover our vulnerabilities in order that we may be shielded from harm. Notice Adam and Eve had no shame, and remained uncovered, not because they thought their bodies looked perfect but because they were inwardly perfect. They remained uncovered, not because they were vulnerable, but because no one existed who could hurt them. They remained uncovered, ultimately, because there existed complete and total harmony between them and God.
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve experienced broken life only a chapter later. When they broke God’s law, sin was born and so was shame.
Genesis 3:7 says, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
Because they broke the covenant between Man and God, Adam and Eve became aware that they were subject to shame from God and felt the pang of guilt. No longer could they intrust themselves to each other, as they were capable of hurting one another. Fractured relationships lead to fractured vulnerability. And instinctively, much like the real world example of running out of our apartment naked, we will look for anything and everything that we can to hide our true selves. Adam and Eve reached for fig leaves. We too reach for things to hide our sin. We call them different things nowadays; self assurance, good works and half-truths. But they are all attempts to mask our real sinful selves.
Clothing as the Gospel
Thankfully God didn’t leave them, nor us, poorly covered. Verse 21 says that “the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and he clothed them”. I want to point out two wonderful things about this verse.
God clothed us with animal skins
God cared so much for his children’s sinful-selves to be covered, that he spilt the blood of animals in order to cover them. God emphasizes that Adam and Eve needed a physical covering for them to be presentable before God in their current state. This points to a greater need for a spiritual covering, foreshadowing that God would one day, spill his own Son’s blood on a cross to cover the sin and shame for us. Clothing is not a mere afterthought from God, nor should it be for us. It is a sacred covering, blood-bathed, given to us by God; the very first presentation of the gospel. A promise that he will provide a covering for his people, no matter what the cost. In gifting us clothing, God gifts us the gospel.
God clothed them fully
God saw their loinclothes made of fig leaves (probably covering their privates only) and did not consider that to be enough of a covering. So he made clothing from fur that covered their bodies, not just their privates. It set a standard for how God wants us to be: covered. Throughout the rest of the Bible, we can see stories of God’s people continuing to follow this standard, by wearing tunics and robes that covered not only their privates, but any parts near their privates such as their thighs, torsos, and chests. Today, it’s not hard to see a world that has drifted far away from this. Advertisements, gym clothes, the bathing suit industry and countless other corporations want to push the bounds of new ways to “undress” America. I fear that even we as Christians have a standard of clothing that is defined as being one step more modest than our culture, when in actuality, it should be defined by what God lays out for us in His Word (more to come in the next blog post).
Clothing is more than a tool for self-exaltation. It is more than an oppressive inconvenience. It is a good gift from God our Father who loves us. When my niece was gifted the children’s cleaning set, she did not see the beauty in it until she figured out its purpose. She was satisfied with it only when she used the gift as it was meant to be used. If we do choose to exchange our fig leaves for God’s clothing, we are following God’s design for our lives, which leads to joy, satisfaction, and worship. When we wear clothing that covers, we proclaim the truth that we live in a world with shame, but our God is restoring back for us the world of “naked and not ashamed”.
Questions for Reflection;
Have you ever considered clothing a moral issue–and not simply an aesthetic one?
What informs the types of things you wear? Is self, others, or God factored in how you dress?
If the Gospel covers our sins fully, how should this influence the way we dress since clothing is a picture of the Gospel?