Why
2009 July 5
What is the biblical basis for the practice of dressing up in nice clothes to go to a ‘church service’?
4 Responses
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What is the biblical basis for the practice of dressing up in nice clothes to go to a ‘church service’?
Why do you need a Biblical basis?
Shouldn’t we have a biblical basis for the things we do at church?
(Just thinking about it today and wondering what the origin of the practice was)
But do we? For anything that we do in church? Where in the bible does it say that we should have rock music, or have a board of directors, or take communion, or have an offering? I’m only pushing because I think you can find the concepts for some of what we do, but I think tradition plays a much larger part in most church services whether we like that or not. I would guess nice clothes comes from a number of locations, and probably has roots in Jewish practices, as well as customes adopted throughtout the churches history. I think the better question is the one you asked: should we our interpretation of scripure dictate how we do church, and to what degree to we do only those things found in scripture. I still like my original Q: why do we need the biblical basis?
I think it goes back to the Jewish traditions of deference and respect. Out of respect for God and His house we make ourselves presentable. It is part of the preparation for worship. We don’t anoint ourselves with oil and such, but we do take a shower and put on nice clothes.
Not all traditions have a literal Biblical reference point though. In any case, you won’t go to hell if you turn up for chuch in cut off jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt.
At least I hope not.