Pastoral Position Paper - Chris Comis

Part V: New Covenant Fulfillment

The first hermeneutical principle we need to keep in mind when we come to the newer covenant, is that the new covenant is not the annihilation of the old.  Jesus tells us this in Matt 5:17-19, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  The time of the new covenant is the fulfillment of the old covenant, not its destruction.[i]  We are now living in the post-70 AD fulfillment of the old covenant.  We are living post-holocaust, but also post-Pentecost.  We now have the Spirit of God dwelling in us (and in the midst of the Church) with greater power and efficacy in order to guide us into all truth.  All this to say, when it comes to applying old covenant examples/principles to new covenant life, we should be much better at applying these to our lives than any saint in the old covenant administration (this theme of “much better” is one of the main points of the book of Hebrews about new covenant life).

Jesus is great at helping us to keep the Law and the Prophets in perspective.  And He does quite a bit of this in His Sermon on the Mount.  So what does Jesus have to say about clothing here?  Quite a bit actually:

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt 6:25-34)

So here we see Jesus giving us a proper and healthy perspective on clothing.  But notice, the fundamental heart issue here is one of worry.  We should not be worrying ourselves to death about food, clothing, and shelter – or indeed, about life itself.  There is a kind of life which is more than any or all of these things.  A kind of life which is more, but it isn’t less.  Nowhere in this passage does Jesus say that life is some inner mystical experience that can be obtained without food, clothing, and shelter.  Life (and specifically eternal life) is so much more than the everyday worry we all face when it comes to trying to figure out what we’re going to eat for breakfast; what we’re going to have for dinner; what we’re going to wear in the morning when its 20 degrees below.  Eternal life is so much more than the bare essentials of bare existence, but not less.  And worrying about obtaining the bare essentials will only add to our troubles, not relieve them.

We need to notice the driving principle behind all this – we are to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  This is not a suggestion, but a command.  We are commanded by the Lord Himself to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  But notice the little promise of blessing tacked onto the end there: “and all these things shall be added to you.”  These things will not be taken from us.  It’s not as if the kingdom of God and His righteousness will have nothing to do with such earthly matters and concerns.  Quite the contrary.  God in His kingdom and righteousness will bestow these things upon us.

So what are the implications of this?  First off, God’s kingdom and righteousness should be the bedrock, the foundation, for the food we eat and the clothing we wear.  In other words, this doesn’t mean that the only food and clothing at our disposal must now be immaterial and invisible.  As if we no longer need earthly food and clothing; and all we need to live and survive now are ethereal hot dogs and pants.  God’s kingdom and righteousness are very material and very visible.  We know this because Christ Himself was very material and very visible, and He was the embodiment of God’s kingdom and righteousness.  So our food and clothing must also be very material and visible because these too have been added to us on the basis of God’s kingdom and righteousness in Christ.

So what is the big point with all this?  We must primarily pursue God’s visible kingdom and righteousness in Christ, and we must also pursue the visible food and clothing which is the fruit thereof.  But we are to do so without worry.

Part VI: Practical Fulfillment

So practically speaking, what exactly is kingdom clothing?  If there is such a thing as righteous clothing, then is there also unrighteous clothing?  How can we know the difference?

I think before we can answer these questions concerning the particulars of clothing, we need to consider the more all-embracing issues of the heart.  Paul tells us in 1 Tim 6:6-8 that, “[G]odliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”  Contentment is the big ‘C’ on the eye-chart for Paul when it comes to issues like clothing (the little ‘c’ on the eye-chart!).  We must learn to be content with the clothing God has given us.  This ties in well with what was said earlier by Jesus about not worrying about our clothing.  So Paul is just elaborating a bit on what Jesus already taught us.  Contentment is at the heart of godliness.  Godliness is what we live for as subjects in God’s righteous kingdom.  So contentment with godliness is also at the heart of what we ought to be striving for when it comes to our clothing.  So here are some really basic questions every Christian needs to be asking themselves when it comes to clothing issues:

·        Am I content with the clothing I have?

·        Do I constantly want clothing beyond what I actually own, or can even afford?

·        Do I covet other people’s clothing?

·        Am I constantly seeking to make a connection between my clothing and my godliness?

·        Am I seeking to adorn myself with clothing which also adorns God’s kingdom and His righteousness?

So the big point we need to glean from what Paul says here is that no matter what kind or style of clothing we put on, if it is not put on with godliness and contentment, then it becomes just as polluted as our hearts.  This goes just as much for the suit-and-tie look as it does for the baggy-pants and Motley Crew t-shirt look.  Godliness and contentment is the heart of the matter.  But this is not the same thing as saying that godliness and contentment are all that matters.  The kind and style of clothing we put on does matter.  It matters like the rings a husband and wife put on, and which are a visible extension of their marriage covenant.  Like wedding rings, clothing styles are not symbolically neutral.  Just as wedding rings point to a covenantal reality beyond themselves, so do clothing styles.  Clothing styles connect individuals and whole cultures to greater covenantal allegiances.  So the question is not whether your clothing style connects you to some allegiance greater than the clothes themselves, but which allegiance do your clothes connect you to.

So this is where the rubber meets the road with the whole clothing issue.  When it comes to particular styles of clothing, how can we really know what is godly versus what isn’t?  How can we really know what is of God’s righteous kingdom, and what isn’t?  This is where lots of wisdom and care are needed.  This is also where lots of patience and long-suffering are needed.  These are not easy questions to answer, but nonetheless, they are questions we as individuals and as a church must wrestle with and learn how to answer.[ii]  Notice that Paul does just this for Timothy in his first epistle to the same.  He tells Timothy, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing.” (1 Tim 2:8-9)[iii]

Paul is giving Timothy instruction on how and what to instruct women on concerning their clothing.  He starts out by giving Timothy some general principles to go by: adornment, modesty, propriety, and moderation.[iv]  But he doesn’t stop there with the general principles.  Notice what he goes on to do.  He goes on to mention some very particular styles, physical substances, and price tags.  It’s one thing if Paul had simply mentioned some general abstract virtues and left it at that.  General virtues are much more malleable in the minds and hearts of sinners.  “What is the inner essence of modestiness anyway?”  “Does propriety mean my skirt can be 3 inches from my knee cap instead of 4?”  “What if the price tag says $99.99, rather than $100?”  Paul knew the vain-wranglings of the human heart, and how every human heart has a team of covenant lawyers that like to debate the inner essences of things ad nauseam.  Men (and women) will argue with anything in order to get their way.  So what does Paul do?  He goes on to list some very particular “no-nos”: braided hair, gold, pearls, and costly clothing.  Now as modern evangelicals we look at this and say, “Paul, your just reverting back to your pre-Christian days of pharisaical religiosity.  How dare you give the women of your day a list of things they ought not to be wearing.  Who do you think you are?  You male chauvinist pig-dog!”  Here’s the point: Paul understood his culture and his audience well enough that he could actually put together a list of clothing items that were to remain off-limits for the ladies.

So how should we apply Paul’s little list of “thou shall not wears” to our day and age?  This is a great question and one we need to wrestle with.

First off, I don’t believe we are required to woodenly apply Paul’s list of “no-wears” to our day and age.  Paul was seeking to apply wisdom to the cultural context of his day, and therefore sought to apply A-M-P-M wisdom to the particular clothing styles of his day.  For some reasons not totally clear to us, these particular articles of clothing violated A-M-P-M wisdom.[v]  So how should we then live in light of knowing all this?  We, as a Church and as distinct local churches, need to learn and grow in our A-M-P-M wisdom.  Overseers and elders need to become as “fashion savvy” as Paul was, so that they can apply wisdom in this area – so that they can come up with lists of fashion dos and don’ts.  But of course, the standard for what is fashionable versus what is not would be the same four “fashion virtues” Paul gave to Timothy.  Only the particular application of these virtues would be different.