APOSTLE EDWARD SSEWANYANA: CHRISTIAN DRESSING: PART 4

Someone does not just select clothes from the shop or from their wardrobe at random. Most people do not close their eyes as they select the kind of clothes they will wear for the day. It is always a conscious decision made on the part of the person choosing the clothes. Sometimes it is an indirect decision like in a case where clothes are bought for someone as a gift but is still the choice of the recipient to accept or reject them. Here are some of the reasons why people dress the way they do:

1. Peer pressure

“Do not be deceived; evil companionships corrupt good habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33 MKJV). The Bible shows us that when you associate with wrong people you will finally come to behave like them. Many Christians want to fit into the society and the group of friends who surround them. Not all Christians are at the same level of spiritual growth so just because they are saved is no reason to copy them. Rejection by your peers is a price you will have to pay since it is a cross you have to carry, "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). It was painful for Jesus to carry the cross. You will be mocked by friends who say that you are dressing like an aged man or woman but you have to let them go and surround yourself with those who dress decently to glorify God.

2. Worldly Influences

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD IS ENMITY WITH GOD? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). A person who becomes a friend of the world will begin copying what is in it and hence make themselves dress in ways that will make them God's enemies. Most of the time Christians who dress indecently will have first seen a worldly musician or entertainer dress a certain way and then they will assume that is the cool way to dress. They will go ahead and purchase that style of clothing forgetting that Beyonce or Britney may have dressed that way under the influence of the devil. Choose whose dressing you will love; the world's dressing or the Father's dressing, "LOVE NOT THE WORLD, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). If you hook a man through your sexually suggestive dressing you are laying a wrong foundation for you future marriage. As you grow older your physical body will begin to lose the attractiveness of youth and the man you hooked on this foundation will go ahead to seek out younger girls when you reach 40 years or after you bear children.

“But evil men and seducers will go forward to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13 MKJV). A seducer is one that by temptation or arts, entices another to depart from the path of rectitude and duty; pre-eminently, one that persuades a person to surrender their chastity or virginity. Many times you will find a Christian lady who is impatient about getting a certain Brother to propose to her. So she will dress in a manner that is intended to make the young man fall in love with her and marry her. This can backfire because most times what may catch a man's attention may not catch his heart. The young man may simply have sex with her and dump her. The seducing spirits worked through Tamar when she enticed Jacob her father in law to have sex with her by dressing as a prostitute (Genesis 38:13-18).

"And Jehovah says, Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and have walked with stretched out necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; therefore Jehovah will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will make their secret parts naked. And it shall be, instead of sweet smell, there shall be an odor of decay; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a wrapping of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty” (Isaiah 3:16,17&24 MKJV). This scripture describes women who wear certain robes for the sake of showing off and with a prideful attitude. Some may wear clothing that is indecent simply because it is expensive and has an elaborate design. Do not succumb to the pride of life, be humble enough to throw that expensive piece of trash away (1 John 2:16).

5. Demonic Influences:

"And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which HAD DEVILS long time, and WORE NO CLOTHES, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs” (Luke 8:27). Notice that the man was not influenced by God to wear no clothes but by demons. Some believers think that it is just their mind deciding what to wear but you will discover that it is the devil who makes them wear indecent clothing that will expose more of their bodies. Some people in the western world have even made it worse by promoting nudity on beaches and as an art form, however they are being inspired by devils. Do not be led by demons to uncover parts of your body that God requires to remain covered.