Do you think churches should require Sunday best for dress?

Question

ya, one of my friends always dresses up and I wear jeans and a western shirt (hey, this is Calgary). He keeps hinting that he doesn't understand why people don't dress up for church

Answer 1

James 2 addresses this issue well.

"My brothers, do not practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ by showing partiality. Suppose a man wearing gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in. If you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Please take this seat," but you say to the poor man, "Stand over there" or "Sit on the floor at my feet," you have made false distinctions among yourselves and have become judges with evil motives, haven't you? Listen, my dear brothers! God has chosen the poor in the world to become rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him, has he not? But you have humiliated the man who is poor. Are not rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you into court?" (James 2:1-6)

When we require our Sunday best, we exclude "those" people from attending. Why would we want to keep people away? When someone comes to church, they should be made to feel welcome, and not made to feel looked down on because they lack Sunday best.

Answer 2

No, I don't think it should be required. There are people who have no good clothes and wouldn't be able to come at all, if that were the rule. Dressing differently on Sunday is custom rooted in reverence for God- that church is not just another place like other places, and that worshipping the Lord is worthy of the best we can offer. The world has come down a lot in the past hundred years or so, though, and people revere almost nothing nowadays.

Answer 3

NO-- I think that as long as you are there, and dressed in a mannter that is considered publicly appropriate, then it shouldn't matter-- the fact that someone goes to the trouble to attend church is the important thing, not what they are wearing. God could care less what you have on. It's the people IN the church that are judging others (which is not very Christian-like) and what they are wearing-- Jesus didn't exactly wear "church clothes" did he?? I think he wore a robe and rope sandals or no shoes-- he could care less. You won't be judged on your outward appearance in your final moments-- we should be more focused on being more accepting individuals than worrying about if someone has on their "Sunday Best"

Answer 4

I think common sense would tell you that if you're going to church, which is supposed to be the house of God, that you would want to attend in a manner that shows your respect for the place and respect for God. Dressing in jeans and a t-shirt or being all sloppy and too casual really tells a lot about a person's heart condition towards God.

Answer 5

Absolutely not.

"For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

Why are you attending the Suday service? Is it to find God or is it becasue someone told you you should. It should be to find God. If God looks at a persons heart and not his outward appearance then what profit does your way of dressign have. If clothes have any value at all for righteousness then do those people in Somalia who cannot afford nice clothes have no chance to worship God because God will not listen to them if they wear rags? Certainly not, and in fact think about what Adam wore before sin when he had a perfect relationship with God, it certainly wasnt a three-piece suit! Why then do we place this ordinance of man onto people who are searching for God? In fact when we do this we place a stumbling block in front of them, making it difficult for them to find God becasue we tell them a lie about how they must come before God.

Righteousness is a matter of the heart.

Answer 6

I tell people that my God sees me in the bath tub. What I wear doesn't matter to Him.

I honestly believe that the "dress" rule for church is a man-made thing that allows some people to feel better about themselves than the other folks. A lot of it came about because men (yes the male species) is visually oriented and seeing women in certain types of clothing causes them to have "un-pure" thoughts, so rather than bring their own flesh under control, they made a bunch of rules about what women should wear.

This is just my opinion. Thank you for letting me share it.

Answer 7

one element no longer suggested above is that if a witness isn't financially in a position to possess a fit, help will arrive from others interior the congregation, with out being asked. distinctive extra healthful swapping is going on for the turning out to be years. whilst i became into 17, i offered a pin stripped double breasted extra healthful. Why? I have no thought. certainly, I outgrew it briefly order, than it became into got here approximately to Neil. Now, Neil became right into somewhat a revolt. His mom became right into a witness, yet no longer his father. He had these days met a woman whilst his mom made him attend the District assembly at Dodger Stadium. He began examining as a results of fact of her. he's an Overseer now. He grew of the extra healthful in decrease than 2 months, than it went to Kevin. From there it went to a distinctive congregation. Of interest, the two Neil and Kevin ended being 5 inches taller than me with the aid of the time we reached 20. maximum adult males interior the congregation owned in basic terms one extra healthful. The elders would have a pair each, yet no longer something close to the form of suits I seen worn to non secular conferences here in Kansas city. At a Baptist convention, they have been merchandising $15,000 suits for the elders to placed on. there became right into a information record on it what a rack of them became into stolen. I asked a passenger from the convention why such an costly extra healthful. He mentioned that they dressed that way so as that the followers would recognize their place of value interior the church.

Answer 8

If church is not for the unsaved the poor and the weak than we got problems.

Please leave judgment at the door and if others appearance bothers you then sit closer to the front where you won't be as distracted.

Answer 9

They should require you attendance. Your not there to show off your new dress or suite, but to hear the word of God. If you get tossed out of Chruch because they did not think you were wearing good enought clothes, don't worry, because God isn't there anyway.

Answer 10

No going to meet with other christians is far more important than what you wear. only stuck up snobs would feel it important. not to say you should deliberatly go looking a mess but neither should you look down on some one who does. posible they are homeless or came strait from work.