STANDING FAST IN GOD'S FAITH

We will start off our lesson with these scriptures.

1 Corinthians 16:13 - Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 - Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

There are of course many truths that we should stand fast on - that only stands to reason. God has the ten commandments - He has the ceremonial law and He has many do's and don'ts throughout the Bible.

Man has this ridiculous attitude that laws are made to be broken as an excuse for doing what they want despite what the law says.

There is one big law that God expected us to uphold and live by and that law is to believe the doctrines and practices that He has laid down - and the method used He has laid down.

This includes salvation itself of course - it includes baptism, The Lord's Supper, what we call the Doctrines of Grace and many more doctrines you find in the Bible.

But my intention today is not to rehash these doctrines I have just mentioned, I have already gone over them in previous lessons.

What I want to talk about today is our daily appearance before ourselves as Christians as well as before the world. We should know that in 1 Corinthians 5:17 it says we who are born again/saved are new creatures, and if we are new creatures we should think differently than the old creature we were.

This means that our whole way of life will change - the way we think will change and of course with our change in thinking our actions and way of life will change with it that will reflect our change in the way we think.

This means our likes and dislikes will change to correspond to the lifestyle befitting Christian living - the way God's word says our lifestyle should be. We will never while in the flesh become perfectly transformed to God's perfect lifestyle, but there will definitely be a change for the better. Our old nature is still there and will continue to buck that change as long as we are in this fleshly body preventing us from ever becoming perfect.

What I want to talk about today is how we should dress and how we should present our general appearance including our hair length.

I know this might be a contentious subject but bear with me and hear me out. I will try to stick strictly to what the Bible says about this subject and stay away from personal opinions unless that opinion agrees with the overall teaching of the Bible.

I am not going to go over all the doctrines we should make sure we hold to that would take a lot more time than I have in sermon or two. In fact even what I will have to say will take a long time to say it - longer than the usual 40 minutes of the normal sermon. So we will not dwell on salvation, the doctrines of Grace, eternal security, or even the church. We have already studied into them so will not go over them again.

What I want to point out today is our appearance. What does God say about how we should dress or what our overall outward appearance should look like?

As you have noticed men and women do look different. It is not just our physical appearance that is different by any means. Our voice is different, our character is different, our nature/demeanor, that is our hand, foot, head motion is different which makes our likes and dislikes differ. Our physical strength is different.

A man's physical strength may be greater than a women's yet their inward strength is greater. What I mean by that is a woman can put up with more hardship than a man. Any-one who deals with family matters will tell you if there happens to be - for instance - a problem child or a physically challenged child that is very hard to deal with by the parents - it is usually the so called "man" of the house that cuts and runs - unable to cope with the problem even with the two parents dealing with him - leaving the mother to cope all by herself. Some "man" eh?

And of course we know that men grow beards and women don't - and of course there is other differences that definitely make men and women very different people. These differences are controlled by God, we have nothing to do with any of this.

What I want to deal with today though is our appearance WE control. God controls all these other characteristics of men verses women but I want to mention what in our appearance we control.

And what is that? I am sure that is not a hard question to answer. We control how we dress - our hair-do and our make up, that is - adding oils and other makeups to enhance our physical beauty.

Yes, God does have things to say about these things when it comes to His people.

Lets take a look at - Deuteronomy 22:5 - The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord they God.

I think that is very clear - no cross dressing in either direction. The woman is not to dress in clothes looking like man's and a man is not to dress in woman's clothing. This cross dressing is an abomination to God. Abomination is something that is sickening or nauseous to you. So you can see what God thinks of this cross dressing.

Why is there to be no cross dressing? God must have a reason for these restrictions like everything else He does..

Let's stop and think over what I said a few minutes ago about the obvious differences between men and women. God makes a distinct difference between man and woman in every phase of our being - don't you think it only logical he wants us to maintain that distinction when it comes to the parts where we control our appearance. I believe that is exactly why God makes these rules such as what we have just read. He wants us to maintain that distinction in man/woman appearance.

Now we are going to get into this controversy. Does this teach as many churches especially in the southern United States that women can't wear lacks of any kind - even around the house?

We have to be very careful here. Slacks that make you appear masculine looking may not be appropriate - even worn around the house - God can still see you and its Him seeing us that should concern us.

On the other hand slacks that are definitely designed for the women's body is just as appropriate as the robes Jesus wore that at first glance may have looked like women's attire - but they weren't. The robes worn by men had plain distinctions from the robes worn by women. And that distinction is what is important - not the type of clothes it is.

And we should keep that distinction between men's clothing and women's clothing. Not just pants/slacks but in shirt/blouse or even underwear. If one part should be distinctive, they all should.

There is one other thing we should consider and that is how much of our body should clothes cover. In this case it makes no difference if you wear slacks, dress, skirt blouse - the question is, is what you are wearing modest as stated in our scripture verse we read earlier? Let's also read the following scripture -

1 Timothy 2:9-10 - In Like manner also, that women adorn themselves in MODEST apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

1 Peter 3:3 - Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

I would also suggest you read the surrounding verses in both these scriptures because they give some good advise in our relations with God.

Notice here that there are two ways you can interpret modesty.

A) how much of our body does clothes cover and how much of the contours of our body shows through the clothing - in other words how tight is our clothing. Immodesty of course is the showing off of the bodily curves and the flesh. Modesty is the covering of the flesh and contours. God wants us to wear modest clothing - the more flesh covered the better.

B) Is how flashy your clothes are. I believe you should dress clean and be nice looking even the best you can dress if for no other reason than to show respect to the rest of the church and more importantly to Christ who is present in all church services. But stop short of being flashy which would draw attention away from Christ to your self.

If a person is poor and can not afford good clothing that should not stop them from coming to church, come in the best you can. In James 2:2 we find the following -

James 2:2-4 - For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

Again you should read verse 5 for more information but we won't go there at this time.

In a previous scripture we are also told not to come to service in costly array. This includes men and women, although women I think might have a greater problem along these lines than men adorning themselves up to make them selves super beautiful, but in some cases men do too.

Men dressing in our standard suits of any cost I think would be ok. It is hard to tell how much a suit costs unless they are exceptionally costly like a tuxedo or something. But where it would become overdress would be like you see the actors wear with the silver studded shirts or covered with those little silver flecks - I don't know what they are called but I think you know what I mean. These shirts alone cost in the excess of 1000.00 each.

Now that is flashy. I think that would be inappropriate in church where mostly poor or middle class people attend. Why? Because it would make the poorer dressed people uncomfortable and may cause them to loose interest in coming to such services - especially as stated in James 2:2 anyone might treat the better dressed people with greater respect. And admittedly it is hard not to isn't it? So why temp people by dressing so much better than the average person there? You are just showing off!

Another reason for not dressing flashy is it attracts attention to you. We do not go to church to worship people dressed flashy, we come to worship Jesus Christ. People dressed in flashy clothing would be too distracting from the person of worship - Jesus Christ. And I don't think He would appreciate that.

So our rule of thumb should be - do things in moderation. Don't make yourself under dressed or poor looking like a denomination I used to be affiliated with did - but do not dress flashy/overdress either - trying to make yourself look like something you are not. Either way is just attracting attention to yourself and is not what God wants. Try the middle road - moderation.

What about dress, skirt or slack length? Is it alright to have either of these articles of clothing above the knees?

The only answer I can give is - I don't know. The Bible does not say exactly how low our clothing should go - men or women.

I personally have come to accept knee length for dresses, skirts or pants/slacks. But that does not mean God has. The only reason I have is because there is no definite length given plus this is the length I have seen on people most of my life so have gotten used to it. But has God? Remember - dress modestly we read in scripture earlier. The more flesh that is covered the better.

If we were to look back in history we might get a different viewpoint on this subject.

Stop to think on this. How long were the robes worn by both men and women both in the Old Testament and the New Testament times? I think if you were to study this matter you would find that robes went right to the ankles.

The same is true when dress and skirts came on the scene in most countries especially where Christianity was the prominent faith.

This held true right into the early 1900's. It was about 1920 that skirt, dress lengths started getting higher than the ankle and up to the knees. This period of time was called the roaring twenties and the dirty thirties.

When I came along in 1940 the dress length was pretty well established at knee length. That is what I grew up seeing all about me - knee length dress etc. Since then people in Paris or London has controlled the custom of what the dress length is ranging from the ankle to almost showing their rump. Since then dress length has been going up and down that range between ankle and rump like a yo-yo - up, down - up, down.

So I will end this discussion with this - knee length MAY be acceptable to God - BUT - every inch below that would make Him that much happier.

Now to tackle another controversial subject. Hair length for both men and women. There is no doubt that God does mention this subject in His word. Let's read what He has to say in -

1 Corinthians 11:14-15 - Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

Here it gives specific instructions for women to have long hair while men are to have short hair - can't deny that point.

But the question this brings up is - how short is short and how long is long?

To answer that lets go back to the point I brought out right at the beginning of this message. God intends for man kind to have their distinctive differences in appearance according to their gender. Men looking masculine and women looking feminine.

We have already pointed out that in those parts of our being such as our physical appearance like our voice - these are the parts God controls - and He makes a very distinct difference between men and women in every phase of our being.

Now we are discussing the parts WE control. We already covered how we dress and make our self up on the surface.

Now to another part that we control in our appearance - our hair. Should men's hair be kept almost to the skin as some claim or let it hang lower than shoulder length? I even heard a pastor tell one of their members to get a hair cut when in fact it was not all that long. I thought for a minute I was back in the military again!

I already mentioned what we should consider when talking about hair length. That is - whether long hair makes men look feminine or short hair make women look masculine.

I don't think there is any doubt that long hair DOES make people, whether man or woman look like a woman - I don't think anyone will argue that point if they have eyes in their head anyway and the least bit observant. And I think you will also agree that short hair makes a person, whether man or woman, look masculine.

That is ok as long it is women with the long hair making them look feminine and it is the man with the short hair making him look masculine. But it is wrong in God's eyes for the reverse - men wearing long hair making them look feminine or women having short hair making her look masculine.

But again the problem - just how long is the hair on men when it starts making them look like a woman - feminine?

I think by the time a man's hair touches his shoulder he is starting to look like a woman - his features are feminine. Might not if he has a beard or mustache - but even then if you can only see his profile - like looking at him from the rear or can't see his beard or mustache, a man with hair touching his shoulders does look feminine, and of course the longer it is the more feminine he looks.

Even a man with an Afro hair cut does not fall into this category of being make to look like a woman. It is only when the hair lays over the head and reaches down to his shoulder that he looks like a woman.

So how short should a man keep his hair according to our theory that God does not want men looking like a woman. The answer as we just studied is that men's hair should not reach his shoulder. How far above his shoulder the better - even to baldness. Stop and think on that - Is not baldness a phenomenon of men? How many bald women do you see? When it does happen it usually is not a welcome occerance!

Now, the women and their hair - how long/short should they have their hair? The case with women is the exact opposite to that of men.

Long hair of course makes women look feminine and of course that is exactly what God wants. So the longer a woman's hair is the better. As we read in our scripture reading long hair is a glory to her. So the longer the better even to floor length.

But how short can women's hair be cut and still hold to her feminine looks - or maybe better put - when will short hair start making her look masculine?

As stated previously - short hair makes a person look like a man - or masculine. That is ok for a man - but not for a woman.

We also already stated for a man to look masculine he should keep his hair length above his shoulder, and the higher above his shoulder and the closer to his scalp the better - the more masculine he looks.

It is the same for women. But we don't want women looking masculine according to our theory of God not wanting women to look masculine? Right?

So the answer is simple - to keep a woman looking feminine hair wise, she should keep her hair longer than shoulder length.

Have you ever seen a woman with real short hair, just as short or shorter than mine is right now? I have and they do look like men. You have to take a real close look to see the real gender of her. I have seen news anchor women on TV with real short hair wearing tie and suit and all that goes with it. It was impossible to tell the gender until she spoke.

Then out of that masculine looking figure came God's distinction she could not change - a woman's voice. And how ridiculous she sound/looked in the mix up of looks and sound coming from her. I do not understand why women want to look like a man - or visa versa. I don't think the job she had was man only, so there was absolutely no excuse for her cross dress.

So I conclude by saying this. I see nothing wrong with women wearing slacks as long as those slacks (a) covers her thoroughly (b) are designed and made for the female body and does not make her look like a man. This is also true of blouse as well.

I would rather see a woman wear a nice pair of slacks of women's cut than to see them in dresses or skirt that does not cover them properly - are immoral.

That is more important than the type of clothing she wears. Remember - Jesus himself wore a robe that to the unlearned eye would look like a woman's attire.

But there was distinctive differences which made the difference and made it ok, so if there is distinctive differences in man/women attire whether slacks/pants, shirt/blouse, coat or robe or whatever, then there is nothing wrong with that attire for a woman to wear.

What about my own preferences? I would prefer women to wear dresses out of respect - not commandment - to God and their church. Slacks or even pant suits are not considered or accepted as dress up attire by women by the general public. Go job hunting dressed in slacks/blouse or pant suit and you will not likely get a job. Personnel people doing interviews with you by their own admission feel insulted if you come to an interview dressed in slacks/blouse or pant suit. They insist in a decent dress. Can we dress less for God the mighty creator of the universe and our Saviour.

However - I would never say anything to anyone about how they are dress as long as they are dressed morally decent.

How they dress other than that is between them and their God. It may show just how close - or poor a relation they have with their God by disrespecting Him in the way they dress - but that is their business - between them and God. I will preach it as I am today as we should, but leave the fruits between the individual and God.

God bless.