OUR EXAMPLE
With the worldly holidays drawing close, we as Christians should remember that not only do we come to worship God on the Lord’s day, but to help encourage one another. We CAN’T do this if we’re dressing in worldly attire. By this I mean, we are to give God our best, just like in Matthew 22:8-13 where those allowed to come into the wedding, should’ve dressed for it.
Matthew 22:8-13
8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
When we come together to worship God, we should be focused on God only and we should have separated our minds from the world at that time (Romans 12:2— 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.) And if that isn’t enough reason, and it should be, we need to remember we’re examples to those we’re around. Especially the young, not only in age, but in spiritual growth as well. These ones are coming to serve God and learn more about Him. If they are seeing us dressed to support a worldly holiday, WE have now put a stumbling block in front of them that shouldn’t be (Romans14:21— 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. & 1 Corinthians 8:13—13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.). Their focus is on God and then they see us supporting a time of year by what we wear, and as humans do from time to time, minds and thoughts could start to wander because WE’VE put the hazard in their way. It’s easy to say they should be able to separate these things, and it might be for the one wearing such things, however it’s easier to not wear it to services and thus it helps all out, by us dressing to worship God, and others by not having a stumbling block in their way, where they should be safe from the world for a time. Just something to think on.