On The Value And Danger Of Traditions

On the Value and Dangers of Tradition

From time to time we receive anonymous feedback in the church office on questions or concerns that members of our congregation have concerning church practices or ministries.  Recently we received some feedback that essentially was asking a question about the appropriate dress code in worship.

First off, we are grateful for meaningful feedback and dialogue about important matters pertaining to church ministry and our elders and pastoral staff are happy to engage questions.

So, with that said, there are many levels of application regarding this question.  One level has to do with what the preacher is expected to wear. Another level has to do with what the worship leaders or musicians or ushers or other ministry leaders (i.e. SS teachers, Nursery workers, greeters) are expected to wear. And still a third level has to do with what regular congregants are expected to wear.

To enter into this question we need to first note that the Bible itself has very little to say about what was worn by anyone in worship with the exception being the detailed and intricate notes about the garb worn by the priests in the Tabernacle in Exodus 28 and the exhortation to women regarding head coverings, jewelry, braided hair and fancy clothes in I Timothy 2.

The Exodus passage belongs to the ceremonial law of the Old Testament and is therefore of limited direct applicability today. The I Timothy passage was largely about women who had been involved in the fertility cult of Diana transitioning into Christianity either as authentic worshipers or frequent attenders of Christian worship services that Paul felt needed some guidance and instruction.  This NT passage then has some applicability for us when it comes to our own dress codes in worship, but again, the applicability is in many ways more by principal than exact practice. In other words, it means something like this: people should not draw attention to themselves in worship since worship isn’t about them, its about God.

There is one other NT passage that we need to pay attention to before beginning to attempt to address the question that was recently raised. It’s found in Matthew 15:1-11.

15 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” ³ He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ⁵ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” ⁶ he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. ⁷ You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

⁸ “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
⁹ in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

¹⁰ And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: ¹¹ it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

In this text Jesus is taking up the concerns raised by a number of Pharisees regarding Jesus’ disciples dishonoring the tradition of the elders.  Now, the “traditions of the elders” here probably means something more formal, like: the words and laws that have been formally written down by Jewish Elders over time and expected to be honored by participants in Judaism.

So, the Pharisees particular concern was that Jesus’ disciples weren’t going through the ceremonial washing of hands before they ate.  This washing wasn’t like our mother’s exhortations to “wash up before dinner!” Instead, this washing was ceremonial and intended to bring those who practiced the washing into line with the kosher food laws that had been instituted by the Jewish elders over time, food laws that the NT makes abundantly clear have been abrogated (Acts 10).

Now Jesus takes up the concerns of the Pharisees by telling them that they are missing the point when they insist on honoring the “traditions of the elders” and actually going well beyond the requirements of scripture, and in so doing, are actually breaking the commandments of God themselves.

He elaborates further by calling to mind the words of Isaiah and focusing the Pharisees on the matter of the heart. Without hearts completely focused on God, their worship was in danger of being offered in vain.

So, Jesus is fairly critical of the traditions when they are elevated to an improper place and used to impugn the spiritual lives of those who do not observe them in the same way as generations before.

Paul certainly agrees with Jesus but he argues, in some ways, that traditions can be honored for the sake of the higher purpose of winning people to Christ (i.e. I Cor. 9:19-23). That is, it may sometimes be wise to adopt a tradition in order to show people the way to Christ. In Acts 18:18 Paul goes so far as to take what seems to be a Nazirite vow and shave off his hair for some reason pertinent to his ministry or spiritual life.

So, the scriptures are both affirming of traditions (when they are done for higher purposes) and critical of traditions (when they are artificially elevated to the level of God’s truth).

These are excellent boundary markers for us whenever we need to work through tough questions of application regarding something like appropriate dress for worship. On the one hand, we should be sensitive to cultural values and on the other we should not allow cultural values to distract us from the matter of the heart of a true worshipper.

One test that we might apply to discern whether or not our view on something that goes on at church is a tradition or a mandate is whether the thing in view is able to be universally practiced in the church.  So for instance, should and can churches everywhere have something akin to a sermon?  The answer is clearly “yes.”  Should churches everywhere sit in pews? The answer is clearly, no. Many churches cannot afford pews and many others must meet in homes for reasons of persecution.  Should churches everywhere sing?  Yes! The Bible calls us to sing.  Should churches everywhere use electric guitars or organs?  No. Its just not possible.

So, in this illustration, preaching and singing are not matters of tradition, they are biblical mandates that can be observed in some basic sense.  Sitting in pews or using certain musical instruments are clearly traditions that vary from culture to culture and cannot be elevated to the level of mandated application.

I think the same is true for a dress code in a church. Clearly, there is no biblical mandate for how a minister or musician or greeter should be dressed, therefore we must hold this matter lightly and without judgment.  That said, the way a person dresses does carry a message of its own and should be carefully considered according to the principle of the weaker brother in Romans 14.

In terms of trying to live our ideas about dress codes out in a modern church setting, I might suggest that we wrestle with the following five ideas.

1. Make an effort to assess the heart of the person before you assess their outer appearance.
2. Recognize that overly fine dress can be just as distracting as overly casual dress. Ask yourself (if you are older) “what would the way that person is dressed convey to my grandchild? And if you are younger, “what would the way that person is dressed convey to my grandparent?
3. Assess the cultural center of the dress code in your congregation and work through the question of whether the way you (or some other person) is dressing is wildly off the mark of that cultural center. Ask the pastor or leaders of the church if your assessment of the center is consistent with their viewpoint.
4. When you get dressed for church, ask yourself whether the way you are dressed is going to be a distraction to others. Try to dress in such a way that you will not draw attention to yourself by the majority of the people present for worship.
5. Pastors should probably dress toward the higher expectation side (partly because it makes them more easily accessible to newcomers). Other folks in leadership positions should probably aim to dress in the middle to upper middle zone (in order to help new-comers of all varieties of dress feel welcome). The way congregants dress should not be managed by church leadership. There will naturally be a range of styles and this is a good thing. If we try to manage dress code for regular attenders this can actually be a detriment to the gospel in that the congregation will immediately strike a tone of legalism as measured by outward appearance.

Pastor Chris