We must pursue a renewed understanding of clothing. We should feel shame in revealing our nakedness outside the marriage bed. We should not shy away from the daily reminder of sin and refuse to follow the world’s attempt to rebelliously get rid of it.

“When I see what you’re wearing, your theology is showing.”^[1]

Does that statement leave you in dumbfounded confusion?

I don’t know about you, but last I looked in my closet, none of my clothes outline the finer points of total depravity or eschatology. Maybe a couple of indirect Scripture references. But these hardly detail my doctrinal beliefs in their fullness to whoever crosses my path on a given day.

Would I be correct in assuming you are not probably much different?

So, what does this pastor mean when he can tell our theology by the clothes on our back?

In the last article we explored how clothes have become a means of self-expression. Just as the world uses it for rebellious reasons, our clothes communicate something about us as believers. It reflects our understanding of who He is, who we are, and the gospel implications communicated by what we put on every day.

Typically, when we think of the Bible and clothing, the command for women to be modest in 1 Timothy 2:9 comes to mind…at which point every girl in the room groans and guys tune out.

However, a biblical theology of clothing goes back to the very beginning in Genesis 3. We need to start there to understand why we are clothed and thus reveal the huge problem with our society’s move toward becoming less clothed.

Oh, and by the way, this applies to girls AND guys.

Why Clothes?

The world likes to believe “our desire to wear clothing first emerged not because we felt shame…but because clothes were seen as magical, offering protection against the ‘evil eye.’”^[2]

Let’s line that premise up next to the measuring rod of Scripture.

Nakedness was a part of the “very good” creation.

Before sin entered the world, “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). The word ashamed means “feeling shame, guilt, or disgrace; feeling inferior or unworthy; reluctant or unwilling to do something because of shame and embarrassment.”^[3] None of that existed in Edenic paradise. Adam and Eve did not need to try to create some magic or mystery around their physicality. Their perfection gave them an innocence in which they could see the full beauty of each other’s body without shameful thoughts about themselves or one another. They had no capacity to turn their sexual desire into something evil.  Therefore, “in the state of innocence and primitive integrity, nakedness was man’s richest clothing.”^[4]

(How’s the world’s viewpoint holding up so far?)

One act of disobedience ended man’s innocence and purity.

The subsequent verse begins the story of the end of the perfect creation. Have you ever noticed the first result of their sin? “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” (Gen. 3:7). Their nakedness became shame and their lack of clothing immodest.

Adam and Eve insufficiently attempted an immediate solution by making their own clothes (Gen. 3:7-10).

The Hebrew term for loin coverings in verse 7 implies that their fig leaf fashion may have only covered their private parts. Yet, it did not remove their guilt. When they heard God walking in the garden, they hid because they felt shame over their sense of nakedness. Contrary to worldly thinking, from that moment on, nakedness outside the marriage bed has always been associated with guilt, shame, and judgment (Dt. 28:47-48; Is. 20:2-4; 47:2-3; Jer. 13:26; Eze. 23:10; Mic. 1:11; Heb. 13:4).

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