The Standard

In this post I intend to address The Standard, but not only a dress standard. I am capitalizing The Standard for effect, so that I can separate the concept from a dress standard, though I intend to discuss that as well. In a previous post I've stated what I don't believe, but now I am going to state what I do believe. I hope that this post is clear, and that anyone reading this is not confused.

What is a standard? Historically, a standard was a type of military flag that was hoisted up on a pole above the troops that belonged to a particular division. In ancient Rome, the Aquila[1] was the standard that the Roman army flew. This type of standard implied a belonging. The standard was a marker that the soldiers used to keep track of where their division was. A standard also was a means of identification[2], identifying a group or division. So simply put a standard is a method to identify belonging. A standard allows soldiers to be directed as a group.

Incidentally, a standard also functions as a rally cry. A fallen standard bearer can have devastating effect on a regiment. If the standard falls, someone will often rush in and raise the standard, which can have a restorative effect on the regiment. It is important to raise a standard, and an abdication of raising a standard will have a very negative effect on the morale of a church. Let me be very clear, I DO NOT support abolishing standards. On the contrary, I fully support the use of standards.

Before I began writing this post, I read James 4:1-12 and then I reread it several times over. There is no doubt that we are fighting a war against sin and it's workings in us. The cost of abandoning a standard in this war is so staggeringly high that I don't even want to consider it. One part of me feels a heaviness, a burden, a sorrow because we don't fully understand the operation of The Standard. At the same time I also feel a joy because I know that the truth about The Standard can bring a freedom that is not evident right now. We must know how The Standard operates and why we should raise The Standard for it to have it's full import.

So what is The Standard for? Notice I'm not starting with what The Standard is. The Standard declares to the world that I belong to Christ. To what does The Standard apply? Whatever we find to do. In that last sentence, the operative word is do (Col 3:23). From the time you woke up today to the time you go to sleep, you will be doing things. The actions that we take can either draw you closer to Christ or take you further from Him. As I see it, there are two levels to our actions, and the best way to explain this is to address each of these levels separately.

The first level addresses what we do. Some actions are so direct, they either proclaim "I belong to Christ" or "I don't belong to Christ" all by themselves. Some actions are so extreme that you would have to be dense not to see their import. Imagine a man who decides to rob a bank for Jesus. Only a warped individual can legitimize the wrongness of this action in his mind. Imagine another man who donates his Saturday mornings to witness to the lost. I use extreme examples to make a point, but your everyday actions can be as simple as reaching out to someone in need, or holding a grudge in your heart against a brother. The actions you choose to take can either bring reproach to God or bring glory to God.

The second level addresses how we do things. I have seen people who wash dishes in a way that edifies Christ and I've seen people turn reading the Bible into a reproach. How we comport ourselves is just as important as what we are doing. You can do the right thing with the wrong spirit and be wrong. You can do the wrong thing with the right spirit and you are still wrong. Both levels, what we do and how we do it, must line up.

Some activities are either good or bad in and of themselves, some however are not. What color did you paint your walls? Do you drive foreign or domestic? Do your pants/skirts have pleats? Coffee or tea? The list of things that don't matter is endless. There is a place for personal preference in the choices that we make; we are not programmed automatons running through a pre-approved schedule of activities every day. These are the activities that in and of themselves are neither good nor evil. Some things really just don't matter all that much and can be left to a matter of personal taste, but religion has a tendency to focus on things that matter very little and ignore what is really important (Matt 23:23). Let me give an example.

In a Sunday morning service in Warren, I noticed that among the congregation, adult men wore the following colors of dress shirt: light gray, dark red, gray-green, pumpkin orange, and three shades of light blue. The rest of the men in the congregation and everyone on the platform were wearing white. Some churches teach a standard that says you must wear white shirts and that wearing colored shirts is a sin. Why is the color of a shirt the definition of what is holy or not? By the way that the Spirit moved in that service, I can't determine any difference based solely on their shirts. Additionally I'm sure that someone out there has found a way to wear a white shirt that is reproachful. Can the color of a shirt really defile a man? Jesus says that evil originates in the heart and it's what comes out of that that defiles a man (Mark 7:12-23).

There is also times when the circumstances play a part in what is right and what is wrong. I'm not talking about situational ethics, instead I'm addressing appropriate timing. We don't teach our children about sex until they are old enough to handle the information for a reason. When it comes to dress, perhaps it can be best explained by what I said about skirts in an earlier post. Sometimes, no matter how long the skirt is, it's not modest. We need to be wise about when, not just how we do things, and merciful in our judgments.

An over regimented dress standard can actually stand as a hindrance when blown out of proportion. Romans 12:1 admonishes us to be transformed, changed from what we were into something else, it is speaking about what conversion is. A convert is someone who has changed and is no longer what they once were, they are not merely an old creature with new rules. The power that changes us is what we need to preach to people who walk into our church doors, not immediately hit them with a statement like, your skirt/pants/sleeves/hair is/are too short. It sounds like I'm exaggerating for effect here, but I'm not; I've seen people approached at the first service they have attended and be badgered because of their clothing by overzealous saints because a dress standard has been taught as a higher priority than loving people. This isn't right. Remember what Christ said to us to: "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt 11:30).

Additionally, some people are just using the dress standard as a disguise. They hide behind the dress standard, playing church while on the inside no change has occurred (Matt 23:25-26). You've heard the story about a tree that is rotting from the inside out. You never know that it is dying inside until it has fallen, never to rise again. The wrong teaching of any standard can and will produce similar effects, but the lives of people are so much more valuable than a tree.

Has dress has become to the Body what circumcision was to the Jews? Has the dress standard been used in a way that denies freedom in Christ much in the same way that following the law was used in the church in Galatia? Galatians 2:4 speaks of regulations that false brothers brought in with them to enslave the Galatians, and he further admonished them not to listen to them in the very next verse (Gal 2:5). How did this happen? Peter was at fault because he was worried about what Jews would think (Gal 2:11). Read the chapter yourself, it is really enlightening. I will leave my questions unanswered so that you can think about it, but I will say this. You aren't justified by what you do, you are justified by faith in Christ (Gal 2:16).

I'll butcher another old standard to show a point:

Redeemed how I love to proclaim it,
Redeemed by the things that I do.
So here's a list of rules to follow
Do them and you'll be redeemed too.

I've heard statements to the effect that if the people are free to do what they want, they will sin. I know this might be a huge wake up call here, but if people want to sin they will regardless of a dress standard, they just might not be so obvious about it. The same people who say things like this see only two options for how people can live their lives: Strict adherence to man made rules or anarchy. Neither bondage nor rebellion sound particularly appealing to me. There is a third option that it seems to me people either don't know exists, or refuse to acknowledge: responsible freedom. Sure some people define freedom as being able to do whatever they want, but that's not freedom, that's anarchy. Freedom is about being free to do the right thing, not the wrong thing. I do not advocate the abdication of personal responsibility; freedom isn't possible without it.

Am I ignoring obedience here? No, not at all. I am saying is that we need to be obedient to Christ first, then to men. We need to understand why we are doing the things we are doing, and want to do them, that's a part of proper obedience. Submission is also vital to obedience for it to mean anything. What God wants from us is our willing informed consenting obedience, nothing else will do, and I am ready to give him this. Of course I acknowledge the validity of Heb 13:17, but at the same time if I were to do something wrong because I was submitting myself to someone, that would not absolve my guilt in the situation.

Every action we take can either bind us to or separate us from Jesus. This way is not easy, but it is worth it. We have a promise that if we want to be bound to Him and seek that out, nothing can separate us from the His love (Rom 8:35-39) or maybe a better way to understand this last phrase is nothing can separate His love from us. A person to whom Jesus is bound in this way does not need a list of rules so that he will walk a narrow way, he is walking a narrow way. We have the wrong focus of what Christianity is if we think it has anything to do with what we do anyway. We are vessels of his goodness, not our goodness, that is the difference between righteousness and self-righteousness. Christianity is ultimately about what Christ did and does for us. That's what separates it from man-made religion.

So is The Standard important? Yes. Is it more important than what Christ does in us? No. Remember, we are all mirrors, reflecting the wonderful grace of Christ by the operation of His grace in us. Certainly we want to keep our mirrors clean so that when people see us they see Jesus, but the truth of the matter is that our primary task is to make sure our mirrors, our lives point to Christ. What use is a mirror, no matter how clean, if it reflects us instead of Christ?

In closing, I want to address teaching The Standard to our children as this is something that concerns every parent and that I have often heard question. Actually not much needs to be said, merely this: Teach your children to really love Jesus and that He really loves them, and they will love The Standard. Teach them that loving Jesus is following a dress standard, and they will resent that standard.


References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquila_(Roman)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldic_standard