Serving God on the Outside and Inside

I was looking up quotes online the other day, and I saw a quote that kind of caught me off guard. It said, "You don't have to look Christian on the outside, just on the inside." It sounds all good and dandy, right? Christians being able to dress and appear how they want, as long as they are faithful to God on the inside? 

After thinking about this quote for a moment, it kind of hurt me that people actually do believe that statement. If we are living for God on the inside, our outside is ultimately going to match. We aren't going to want our appearance to look ungodly, because that is going to represent just that to the world; ungodliness. If we aren't dressing for God, we are dressing for the devil. This might sound extreme, but I have found this to be true in my own life. 

I have spoken about my troubles with dress before, and its something that is dealt with everyday. I find that if I choose to wear something modest, my relationship with God grows because that is what God tells us to do in the Bible. If I choose to wear something immodest, I feel embarrassed, and it brings about the wrong attention and it disrespects God. If I wouldn't wear it in front of the people at my church, I shouldn't be wearing it at all. I don't want the wrong attention from people. Instead, I want to represent God in my appearance, and I want others to be able to see my faith to Him; not for my own glory, but to glorify what He has done in my heart and life. 

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 thy God."

God states that no gender should dress as the opposite. God made us each a certain gender for His glory. Women are meant to dress appropriately in clothing meant for the woman, and men are meant to dress appropriately in clothing meant for the man. If a person is dressing in the opposite gender's clothing, they are going against who God made them to be, and it is a sin. 

Leviticus 19:28 - "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD."

Marks. This is speaking about any marking that a person may make on themselves that they were not born with. This can include cuts a person has made on themselves, tattoos, etc. God states that these markings are of the devil, for the dead, which is the followers of the devil. God made each of us in His image. Would we go to a museum and draw on something painted by Van Gogh? Of course not, so why would we want to ruin God's art when He made us?

1 Corinthians 3:17 - "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are."

1 Corinthians 6: 19- "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

1 Corinthians 6: 20- "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

In each of these verses, God states that we are the making of Him, and we are to treat our bodies how He intended. When God made us, He intended to make us out of the image of Himself; perfect. Though, our sin takes over, and takes away from that image. When God saved the world from sin, giving us the opportunity to accept Jesus as our savior, He gave us guidelines on how to treat our body, and they should be followed. If we want to represent God and encourage others to see His greatness, we have to show others what He is all about. We can't dress like the devil, and expect to encourage others in Christ. We have to represent God from the inside and outside if we want others to see Christ who lives in us. 

Modesty is the Best Policy

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" -1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Our bodies are not our own. They belong to God, who made them in his image. As a Christian, we are to represent the God who saved us, in not only our interior selves, but exterior as well. God is holy and true, and He should be reflected in our own lives and to the world.

I put together this collage because I wanted to show people that it is possible to dress modern while being modest. The Merriam Webster Dictionary describes modest as "not too proud or confident about yourself or your abilities : not showing or feeling great or excessive pride." When we show our bodies to the world, we are being prideful of what we have. We are taking pride in our bodies, rather than who we are on the inside. The clothing that we wear has the ability to give someone the wrong impression about us. I'm not saying that what other people thinks necessarily matters, but modest dress could be a great aspect to our testimony.

I think that we all judge people on how they dress. We shouldn't, but it comes naturally to us. Normally, if we see a girl with a long dress on, we will infer that she is a Godly person, but if we were to see that same person in short shorts and wearing a belly shirt, we would think of her completely different. Clothing has the ability to either help or hurt us. Modest dress will show the world that we are following God, which will bring the right kinds of people into our lives. While immodest dress will lead to the wrong crowd, which will ultimately destroy our testimonies for God. Ladies, if a guy only likes you because of the way you dress, he's not in it for the long haul. The right, Godly man will come along one day and see that you're living for God through modest dress, and love you for who you are, rather than what he sees.

It is so easy to get that modern style while also wearing the right amount of clothes. As you can see in the collage that I made, you don't have to wear turtle necks and skirts covering your ankles in order to be modest. You can show your shoulders, you can show your legs, you can wear clothing that is slightly tight, and it's still modest. Something that I've found to be true is that if you're going to wear shorts or a tank top, it's best to make the opposite article of clothing more modest. For example, if you wear a tank top, make your shorts/skirt longer, or if you wear shorts/skirt above the knee, put a more covering top. There's so many options to dressing modest, and they are out there for us to discover.

I've struggled with modest dress for a long time. I thought that I had to wear a fewer amount of clothes to fit in. I was completely wrong with my intentions altogether. I shouldn't want to fit in with the world. I should want to fit in with God's people. I think the most important thing you should ask yourself before walking out the door is, "Would I wear this in front of my pastor?" I do this many times, and I think it's quite effective. If we wouldn't want our church family to see us dressed in a certain way, we shouldn't be wearing it. So, let's take the initiative to dress the body that God gave
us with respect. Let's show the world that God is within us, and He is holy.