God’s Not Mad Over the Short Shorts, Halter Tops, or Profanity

You cannot give away what you don’t have. And you cannot treat other people right if you think God is treating you wrong.

God’s Word makes all this clear to us in 1 John 4:9-10:

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

What a great truth. You don’t first of all love God and then He loves you back. No. God loved you first. So, you must, first of all, receive the love of God—then you can love God and love others.

If you think God is dealing with you based on your performance, you’ll wind up reproducing that same thing and give other people what they deserve. You’ll be as mean as a snake.

I heard about someone recently who had gone through some kind of religious school. They turned from a sweet person into a mean person. That’s what religion does because that’s what they’re teaching that God is—“God is a harsh God.”

At some Bible colleges, if men don’t wear sleeves down to  their wrists, they’re “going to hell.” One school I know of would  kick a person out for wearing a crimson shirt because it’s “the  color of the beast.” That’s just legalism. God isn’t mad at you because of the way you dress.

Hair, Jewelry and Makeup

People who say, “You can’t wear makeup or put on any jewelry,” base it on 1 Peter 3, which says:

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold (1 Peter 3:3).

They say, “You shouldn’t fix your hair fancy or wear any gold like jewelry.” Well, if they would just keep reading, this verse goes on to say:

Or of putting on of apparel (1 Peter 3:3).

Does that mean we aren’t supposed to wear clothes? Of course not! This whole passage is simply emphasizing, “Don’t put your focus on the outward part.”

I’ve seen Pentecostal women before who put on five layers of powder so it wouldn’t look like they had rosy cheeks. Since their cheeks were naturally rosy, they went to all this effort just to look bland and ugly. Personally, I believe that if your barn needs painting, paint it. If it needs two coats, give it two coats! But that’s not what this passage is talking about.

A Holy Life

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us (1 John 4:11-12).

If you’re thinking, Well, I want God to dwell in me and His love to be perfected, so what do I have to do? We have to love each other! No, this is saying just the opposite. If you would receive the unconditional love of God, and let that love dwell in you, you’ll wind up loving other people automatically.

Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John 4:13–16).

We could just go on and on with this. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, the book of 1 John will look like you have to do these things and then God responds. But it’s actually saying just the opposite. It’s saying that if you truly knew God, you would wind up living a holy life.

Actions Are Evidence

Living holy doesn’t earn us favor with God, but it does evidence His presence in our life. Someone may come to me and  say, “Oh yeah, I know God. He and I are tight. I fellowship with  Him and love Him with all of my heart. We’re best friends!” Yet they don’t trust God in their giving; they are lying, stealing, and committing adultery—and I’m not talking about an isolated instance. It’s their lifestyle. If they’re just living like the devil—they can say whatever they want, but I don’t believe it. Those things don’t reflect God in a person’s life.

“But, Andrew, isn’t that undoing everything you’ve said?” No, it’s a perfect balance. Our holiness doesn’t make God love us. But if God’s love is dwelling in us, and we’re dwelling in it, His love will cause us to live holy. “Living holy” doesn’t mean that you’ll live by all the principles and standards of some religious sect. Everything they say is “holy” isn’t necessarily holy. But God’s love will cause you to love Him and love people.

If you say, “I really do know God. We have a great relationship,” yet you’re as mean as a snake—you don’t love others, you never do anything for anyone, you don’t think about anybody else beside yourself, you can see people in need and not even care—confess what you will, but the Word of God says:

Whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? (1 John 3:17).

You can say that you love God, but the truth is you can tell by your actions whether His love is really dwelling in you or not.

Religion or True Christianity?

Instead of thinking, I have to earn the blessing of God by doing these things, you need to recognize that living properly, treating other people right, loving your mate, and so forth are all byproducts of relationship with God. If you have a temper, and you fly off the handle, don’t say, “O God, help me quit this!” and  start trying to treat other people right so that God will love you. Instead, reverse it and say, “Father, I recognize that the reason I’m like this is because I don’t really know You. I haven’t really received Your love. I’m just treating people the way I think You are treating me. Lord, I need a revelation of Your love for me!” If you would take the truths we’ve talked about in this study— that all of your sins have been paid for, that God’s not angry with you, and so on—and meditate on them, the Lord would reveal His love to you. Once you fall in love with God and His love begins to flow in your life, it’ll cause you to live holy. You will have your “fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom. 6:22).

Holiness is the fruit—not the root—of salvation. This is where religion has gone wrong.

Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

This is one way you can tell if it’s religion or true Christianity. Religion always focuses on the external person. They’re always trying to get you to clean up the outside—fix this and quit doing that—because that’s what mankind looks at and deals with. They don’t really care about the heart. As long as you come to church, pay your tithes, and dress the way they want you to when you’re there, they don’t care what you do during the week. It doesn’t matter if your heart is right or not. Religion just deals with the external, but God deals with the heart.

The Lord wants to come in, touch your heart, and reveal His  love to you. If that ever happens, the rest will be taken care of.

Short Shorts and Halter Tops

Jamie and I pastored this little church in Childress, Texas for a while. One day, we took a small group out to the park for a picnic. While there, we came across a family—a husband, wife, and their two-year-old daughter—who had been living out of the back of their pickup. It turned out that they had just left the nudist colony where they had been living for the past three years. They were totally broke and had run out of gas in this city park where we were having our picnic. So they came over and begged us for some food.

We gave them something to eat and began sharing the gospel with them. They hadn’t taken a bath in days, so some of our people opened up their home and started helping them get cleaned up, gave them some clothes, and other things they needed. Anyway, we led this couple to the Lord and they became born again. So they started coming to church.

Now this woman was well endowed and nice looking. Since they’d been in a nudist colony for so long, all she had to wear was short shorts and halter tops. That’s all she had, so that’s what she came to church in. We sat in a semicircle during the services so you couldn’t avoid looking at her because we were all facing each other. During praise and worship, she’d go to bouncing, jumping, and praising God. It just left little to the imagination.

This was causing some problems with the other people in the church, so several of them came to me demanding, “Aren’t you going to tell her that she needs to put some clothes on?” I answered, “We didn’t tell her that before she became born again. We didn’t throw a sheet over her and tell her that God wouldn’t save her if she didn’t put some clothes on. Give her some time. She just became born again. Let her enjoy the fact that God loves her. He’ll show her some things. But in the meantime, I’m not going to sit there and condemn her.”

So we allowed this woman to keep coming to church. Not too long after that, she came to one of Jamie’s Bible studies. The woman stood up and told these ladies, “I have never owned a dress in all of my life. I would really like to have a dress. Would you all pray with me?” They not only prayed with her, but within an hour after that Bible study she had a dozen dresses that were all up to her neck and all the way down to the floor. She came to church that night showing off her dress and just praising God. “Look what the Lord did!” She never had anyone tell her, “God’s angry with you. He doesn’t love you because of the way you dress.” It worked out.

Now, most people would sit there and say, “Cover up!” instead of just letting God love her and speak to her over time. She and her husband had just been miraculously saved. Although great things were happening, it takes a little while to turn your whole life around. Religion just wants to deal with the external. We want to put them into our clothes, make them as drab as we are, and make them over into what we think they should be so that we feel better. But we don’t care what’s going on in their heart. The Lord isn’t like that.

God was more pleased with that woman coming to church in her short shorts and halter top than many Christians who have never dressed that way. Why? Her heart was right. She was in love with Jesus and worshiping Him. God looked at her heart and said, “Awesome!”

“God Is the Best Blankety-Blank!’

One time, while I was preaching in Phoenix, a woman in the audience, was so excited she was literally bouncing up and down on the front row. Between sessions, I went over and talked to her. She’d just been born again a little over a month, so I asked her to come up and give her testimony.

She stood up in front of the group, and every third or fourth word was profanity. She blasted, cursed, and damned everything. She said words I didn’t even know! She was just up there talking about, “God is the best blankety-blank thing that’s ever happened to me. This beats sex! This beats drugs!” She was just saying things that would make a sailor turn red.

When the people started reacting, she looked at me and asked, “Am I saying something wrong?”

I answered, “Nope. You’re doing great!” So she finished her testimony.

People came up to me afterwards and said, “Why didn’t you tell her to stop and not do that?” Again, that’s just religion. I’m not saying that we should use profanity, but God was looking at her heart and she didn’t realize that Christians didn’t talk that way. When I went back there the next year, this woman came up to me and said, “I’m so sorry! I was just born again and I didn’t know Christians didn’t talk that way. I thought everybody talked that way!” She had learned.

God was more pleased with that woman testifying about how good He is, even though she was using profanity, than He is with many Christians who would never use that terminology. They may have the right religious form, but they don’t know Him. They aren’t excited about Him. God looks at your heart!