Christmas Clothes

Clothes are an important aspect of life, with the average British household spending £22 a week on them (with the credit crunch, this is actually the lowest clothes spend in seven years). Clothes are an especially big deal at Christmas, when more of us dress up, and when many people give and receive clothes as presents.

Clothes often serve a very practical purpose but they are also socially important. Uniforms are worn to identify their wearer with a particular role or institution, and for all of us clothes are in some measure an expression of who we are. Clothes are vital markers of social, ethnic and national divisions.

The bare truth, Genesis 2:25-3:13a
The word “Naked” appears four times in this story:
2:25 They were both naked and were not ashamed. There was an unabashed, childlike innocence – a lack of self-consciousness – which meant that they were not even aware of their nakedness.
3:7 The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. Suddenly self-consciousness consumes the couple.
3:10 “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” Self-consciousness leads to fearfulness, and hiding.
3:11 “Who told you that you were naked?” God asks where this embarrassment and fear has come from. Why are they now hiding from God?

From this moment on, humanity has had a problem – a self-consciousness that leads to fear and hiding. Adam & Eve tried to solve the problem by sewing fig leaves together. God, in his grace, solved the problem more effectively by giving them clothes of skin. And ever since we have been dependent upon God’s grace to solve our problem.

Since that day clothing has become central to human identity. Our clothes are a lifelong denial of what we really are, for we enter the world with nothing and leave it with nothing (Ecclesiastes 5:15), and we use clothes to try to hide this.

Image management
Great effort is expended by companies, politicians, and celebrities on image management, but since the Fall we have all been doing this. Once full self-disclosure was possible – to one another and to God. We were unabashed and innocent, but now we are self-conscious, and need to hide aspects of ourselves. Clothes are a chief means of representing ourselves to the world.

As one woman’s magazine psychotherapist put it, “In our choice of outfits, we can’t help showing something of our hidden selves… [we have a] fear of and longing for change… the unlived in our lives.” Clothes are a way of presenting ourselves to the world and of hiding ourselves. We are self-conscious, and there is a gap between us and God – a gap that can’t be filled by clothes, or anything else but the grace of God.

So how should we think about clothes?

1. Wear clothes
Clothing – like money & food – are one of life’s necessities (1 Timothy 6:8). Our aim is not to be naked again (since God provided clothes for mankind public nudity is in fact rebellion against his plan for us). We need clothes, and we should wear appropriate clothes for the occasion.

2. Trust God
As clothing is a basic life necessity we should expect God to provide us with what we need (Matthew 6:30). If you need clothes – ask!

3. Be generous
Giving clothes is an important work of the kingdom (Matthew 25:34-36; James 2:14-16; 1 John 3:17). Our faith needs to be displayed in action, and clothing the poor is an important part of this.

4. Soul focus
The inner man is more important than externals, so we ought to give more attention to the condition of our soul than the state of our wardrobe (1 Peter 3:3-4).

We also need to have an awareness of the impact of what we wear upon others. This means we need to dress in a way that is modest, and that does not cause offence.

5. Anticipate eternal clothes
At the resurrection we will be fully and finally clothed. Until that moment there is a sense in which we feel our nakedness – our vulnerability, our incompleteness. So in this life we need to live in the power of the Spirit, anticipating what will eventually be ours (1 Corinthians 15:53, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5).

6. Be clothed with Christ
Our clothes should not be the primary means by which we get our sense of identity. Instead we need to clothe ourselves in Christ, and be shaped by him. It must be Jesus who defines our identity, more clearly and more profoundly than clothes ever could (Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27). Being clothed in Christ transcends social, ethnic and national divisions, so regardless of the clothes we wear we can live in unity with other followers of Jesus.


Application Questions
• What do your clothes say about you?
• When do you feel most self-conscious? How do you use your clothes to try and overcome this?
• Why are clothes so important in our culture?
• In what way does our cultures clothes obsession reveal our need of the gospel?
• What will it be like to receive our eternal clothes?
• How are you helping to clothe others?
• What does it mean to be clothed in Christ?
• If you are a parent, how can you help your children to have a godly attitude towards clothes?