Dress Code | UMC YoungPeople
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23
November 2016

Dress Code

By Alick Mvula

Almost everywhere I go I hear this saying: “God looks at the inside, he is more concerned about the inside.” I believe many young people have misinterpreted what this statement. In my home country, Zambia, my friends tell me, “What matters is the inside because God never looks at the outside.”

We can go on the whole day exhausting scripture that backs the belief up that God does not care about what’s one the outside. This motive has led youth today to dress how they feel like, put on what they think is ‘cool,’ and always point back to the biblical perception of how God sees us.

Quite rightly so, God chases the heart, he looks for the heart that is pure, Jeremiah 17:10 tells us this: “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve”.

David wrote a Psalm “Search me, God and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts” Psalm 139:23. God is definitely pleased with the heart; however this does not give us the right to dress how we want.

We must be witnesses in everything we do, not just in our works or singing, but also the way we present ourselves to the world.

In as much as God wants our hearts to be right, our dressing should represent Jesus, because we are called to be imitators of Christ. We as Christians have been given freedom, and we should not abuse it; God loves us and wants us to do the right thing. We must be witnesses in everything we do, not just in our works or singing, but also the way we present ourselves to the world.

We should dress modestly, decently and appropriately. Always bearing in mind that we are represent Jesus, we should be role models to others.

“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You’re not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body”. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Does our dress honor God? Is it acceptable? We should bare these kinds of questions even as we go out every morning to be witnesses of the Lord. Should we neglect the care of our bodies or our appearance, just because God is pleased with our hearts? Should I put on clothes that are indecent? Dirty?

We must know that we are to glorify God with every aspect of our lives.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you sometimes overlook how you dress?
  2. How do you fight the pressure to dress in a way that does not represent Christ?
Young Adult devotions by Alick Mvula.