How We Dress Matters - The Doctrine of Clothing Considered

Church and Family Life Podcast

As Christians, we’re not free to dress as we please. Because we’ve been “bought at a price” we’re to “glorify God in [our bodies]” (1 Cor. 6:20). We learn this lesson from our first parents. Adam and Eve dressed their own way by covering their loins with fig leaves. Yet God viewed their effort as inadequate and designed more substantial clothing, using skins from a dead animal. The doctrine of clothing thus points to the substitutionary atonement of Christ: He removes our filthy garments and replaces them with robes of righteousness.

In this podcast, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm, joined by special guest Jeff Pollard, break down the doctrine of clothing, explaining that it’s about far more than modesty. If Christ has purchased us with His blood, how we dress matters. To paraphrase Abraham Kuyper, “There is not one square inch [of our clothing] over which Christ . . . does not cry, ‘Mine!’” Ultimately, our clothing isn’t about us and what we like. It’s about giving ourselves to the Lord to bring glory to Him in how dress.