When most people think about clothing, they think about “modesty.” And, they think about women, not men. Yet such an outlook widely misses the mark of what Scripture teaches on dress. In this podcast, Scott Brown explores the doctrine of clothing given in the Old Testament, showing how God gave clothing to cover our nakedness and shame, to reflect purity, to display glory and beauty, and to declare the distinctions between men and women. 

Today I want to talk about the doctrine of clothing. Mainly in the Old Testament, I want to turn to the New Testament later on. But Here's why I want to talk about this. When most people think about clothing, they think about the word modesty. When they think about the word modesty, they think about women.

And they don't think about men. But if you study the word of God from Genesis to Revelation, you quickly realize that the doctrine of clothing has much more to do than just women. In fact, most of what the Bible says about clothing isn't focused exclusively on women. It's either focused on men or both. And so it's really important to go back to the beginning.

You go back to the beginning in Genesis, Chapter 3 is the first mention of clothing in the Bible. And of course, that is the scene of Adam and Eve putting on their own fig leaves, their own way, kind of clothing themselves in their own righteousness. But God then sacrificing an animal and clothing them with a tunic, clothing them from the neck to their knees. It was very different clothing than what Adam and Eve were clothing themselves with. But the doctrine of clothing is a picture of justification by faith alone, where God covers over the sins of sinners.

And that theme runs through the whole Bible, but it's even more complex and more beautiful than that. And here's one reason this is so critical. God gave us clothing for a purpose. And it's not just to proclaim our look or to be attractive for ourselves. God actually made clothing for something far, far greater and that is to declare meaning.

And like in Genesis chapter three, the meaning is that God covers nakedness. It also means God covers shame. That's why God created clothing, to cover nakedness and shame. But that's not all. We learn from the priests that God created clothing for beauty and glory.

And we, you know, the New Testament Christian is a priest. We are a kingdom of priests. And so the things that are resident in the clothing of the priests has meaning for us today. We don't dress exactly like that, but the principles are there. Clothing in the Old Testament also was to declare the distinction between manhood and womanhood.

There's a way that men dress, there's a way that women dress, and it's actually shameful for men to dress like women and women to dress like men. That's Deuteronomy 22 verse five. Clothing, also in the Old Testament, is meant to declare the distinction between what is pure and what is impure, the clothing of a harlot. And so you have this rich meaning in the Old Testament. But here's what's so remarkable to me.

God created clothing to declare the message that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and He came to take off their filthy rags, their filthy clothes, and to clothe them in beautiful garments that declare His glory. So that's a brief Old Testament doctrine of clothing. Scripture Applied is a production of Church and Family Life. Visit churchandfamilylife.com for more resources.