Holiness is in the heart — not the garment

THE EDITOR: In the present furore as to the holiness of certain garments I would like to make the following comments: Recently one young lady was overheard lamenting that she did not have “church clothes” in which to attend church. Holiness has literally become a garment that can be taken off and put on at will. Now one can purchase some “holy clothes” at a store on High Street and array himself on religious occasions like “Solomon in all his glory.” When he returns home, away from the public eye, he can take of his holy garments and hang it in his closet. But holiness is a heart condition! “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) Therefore holy or sacred garments are only so in the eyes of men and women.

Long ago the prophet Joel said: “And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God...” (Joel 2:13). This was uttered against the practice of the ancient Jews of ripping their clothes and putting ashes on their foreheads as a sign of repentance for their sin. Soon enough, though, it was being done by those who were merely putting on a show of disgust for sin while continuing secretly in it. But God cares not for rent garments but for broken and contrite hearts. This is the true spirit of holiness. The biblical Scribes and the Pharisees loved to go about in long flowing garments. They even disfigured their faces to appear unto men to be fasting and praying and inscribed portions of the Holy Scriptures on their garments but all the while in their hearts they nurtured the deadliest sin of all, the mother of all sins — pride. The Lord Jesus said this to them: “...For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess ... cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also ... for ye are like unto white sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23: 25-28).

Our Saviour also spoke of those who will come to us in “sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). In associating garments with religious quality we commit a grave error, for clothes does not always make the man or the woman. In so doing we leave room for the hypocritical, the so called “wolf in sheep’s clothing” to creep in unawares. The original purpose of clothing is to cover our nakedness. When we change the purpose to indicate other things such as holiness, sinfulness, chastity etc we run into trouble and become angry when no one has wronged us but our own judgement. If we are going to judge others in clothing or indeed in any other matter we would do well to heed the advice of our Saviour in John 7:42 “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

SYLVAN JAMES
Debe