Question:
Why should how I wear my hair make any difference to God? Why should it make any difference to Him whether my hair is cut or not, whether it is short or long, whether I look masculine, or whether I look feminine? Why should it make any difference? Why should He be concerned with what I wear? All He is concerned about is my heart. Isn’t that really the truth?
Answer:
The Bible (which is God’s words to us right out of His heart) tells us that God does care, and that there are several sound and solid reasons why it does make a difference to Him. If we loved God, we will want to listen to what He has to say, and then do those things that please Him and avoid doing those things that displease Him.
True, He is primarily concerned about your heart. But if your heart is as it ought to be, you will want to obey what He tells you to do in the words of the Book He has given us.
His Word says that it is disgraceful in God’s eyes for a man to have long hair. (I Corinthians 11:14)
His Word says that God has given long hair to a woman for a covering and a glory. (I Corinthians 11:15)
His Word says that a woman must not pray or speak in church without her head being covered (I Corinthians 11:5) with long hair (verse 15)
His Word says that a man must not pray or speak in church unless the covering (of long hair) has been cut off (I Corinthians 11:4)
His Word says that God’s churches have no custom contrary to this teaching. (I Corinthians 11:16)
Why did God make these rules about hair? The study of typology explains this. Man is a type of Christ, woman of the church. Long hair is symbolical of subjection. For a man to have long hair is to symbolize that Christ is not the head of the church. For women to cut their hair is to teach that the church need not be subject to Christ. So you can see that God considers this a very important matter.
If we are real Christians, not just lukewarm, professing church members, we will respect God’s express desires in this matter and want to please Him in every way.
Boys will keep their hair trimmed above their collars, their ears showing, clean shaven, and sideburns well trimmed.
Girls will let their hair grow long without trimming or thinning.
God’s Word also teaches us how we ought to dress. His Word tells us that any immodest clothing such as mini-skirts are out (I Timothy 2:9)
His Word says that it is important to Him that men dress like men and women dress like women (Deuteronomy 22:5)
His Word in the same verse tells us that for girls to wear slacks or other mail-copied articles, or for fellows to wear frilly, feminine-type clothing is an “abomination” (a hateful and detestable thing) unto the Lord. This also goes for uni-sex style clothing, alike for both fellows and girls.
God is concerned about our identification – about whether our dress identifies us with His church or with the world. God does not want us identifying with the ungodly. Any Christian who dresses to appear like the world identifies with them, and God said that “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15)
If a man doesn’t want the sheep to think him a wolf, he shouldn’t walk among the flock on hands and knees with wolfskin on!
There is a Christian custom (I Corinthians 11:16), and God’s people should dress according to that custom. The question we should ask is, Does my dress say, “I belong to this world?” or does it say, “I am separate from the world, I belong to God?” Your dress identifies you with the group you most like, the godly, or the ungodly.
May our hearts be so in love with Jesus that we will desire to please Him in our dress, in the way we wear our hair, and in every other way too.
