The fickle world of fashion is difficult to keep up with. One week, plaid is in, the next week plaid is for the fashion illiterate. Fashion tips help shape this culture. If fashionistas declare tight clothes are in, teens will flock to the malls and buy “spray-on” clothes. In a few months, the heads of fashion will turn and the fashion conscious will inundate malls again. Fashion shows and magazines abound for the fashion savvy people who want to keep up with the changes and cycles. However, amid the temporary trends of fashion, there are some fashion tips that remain true and classic, regardless of time, place, or person.
Heavenly Fashion Tips
Here are two heavenly fashion tips that everyone needs to heed. By following God’s guidelines, we will always be in style—his style. These may not impress the world, but they will please God.
The first tip comes from the book of Jude: “Save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” (Jude 23). Jude gives the proper attitude toward sin, hatred toward the “garment stained by the flesh.” This hyperbole shows how sin contaminates everything in our lives. To obey the gospel, someone must turn away from sin—repent (Luke 13:3; Acts 3:19). His attitude toward sin must change from love (1 John 2:15-17) to abhorrence (Rom 12:9). Jude uses the word “garment” to represent a person’s lifestyle, in this case, the lifestyle of sin.
The idea of setting aside one’s old clothes at a time of spiritual renewal was not new to Jude’s readers. When God told Jacob to return to Canaan, Jacob went and prepared his family for the journey. “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments’” (Gen 35:2). There was a new life waiting for Jacob and his family, and a new life meant a new attitude toward God and righteousness. To help keep the new life before the eyes of his family, he told them to put away the old clothes of their old lives.
A healed leper signified his cleansing by burning his old clothes and wearing new garments (Lev 13:25).
A Godly Attitude
Hating sin is a godly attitude because God hates sin (Pro 6:16-19). Hating sin, and everything associated with it, we must come to his grace. Through baptism, we crucify and remove the old-man-of-sin cloak we once wore. By hating those garments, we keep ourselves in the love and mercy of God (Jude 21).
What to Wear
Paul reveals a second fashion tip from God: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:26-27). The first tip tells us what to avoid wearing. This tip tells us what to wear. We are to put on Christ. This means that we put on his lifestyle, wear his example, allow him to have complete reign in our lives. Paul made it clear, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).
What is the initial step of putting on Christ? Baptism. In baptism, we remove the old sin-stained clothes and put on the new cloak of Christ. Look again at Paul’s statement, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). By continuing to walk in the light of Christ, we stay clothed in him.
Paul sums up both fashion tips in the book of Romans: “Do not be conformed [fashioned] to this world…. Be conformed [fashioned] to the image of his Son” (Rom 12:2; 8:29). That is, don’t look like the world, look like Christ. As the fashion industry chases the latest trend, Christians embrace in the classic, timeless styles of God. Do not be caught wearing anything less than the Divine Label of God.
Preaching Minister
