Heavenly Clothing

We spend a lot of time thinking about clothing. How does it look? Does it fit right? Is this the right outfit for the occasion? And buying clothes can be a major task—cost, choices, fit, style, the fact that nothing fits the same after it’s washed. What did Jesus say about clothes?

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:25–34 NIV)

Jesus doesn’t want his followers to worry about food, drink, and clothing. If God provides for the birds, surely, he will provide for his children. On the surface, Jesus seems to be referring to daily necessities in this life and that application should not be discounted.

But the ultimate fulfillment is in the future. Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done” then he says, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” So the focus is on the coming kingdom. Hence, our heavenly Father will meet all our needs forever in his kingdom. This means when Jesus mentions clothing, much more is included than merely a new shirt and new socks. This conclusion is supported by Jesus’s reasoning:

• Flowers clothe the grass of the field.
• King Solomon in all his splendor was not clothed like the grass of the field.
• If God provides such splendor to grass, will he not much more clothe you?

Do you get it? If King Solomon with all his magnificent clothing cannot be compared with the flowers of the field, how can our clothes be any better? This logic points us to something beyond mere earthly clothing.

Paul says it this way:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Cor 5:1–5)

According to this passage, our mortal body and fading clothes are like nothing compared with the heavenly dwelling we will inhabit. Indeed, in comparison we are currently naked. God designed us to transition from our “earthly tent” to “our heavenly dwelling.” What is this “eternal house in heaven”? What is “our heavenly dwelling”? In Philippians 3, Paul writes:

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (vv. 20–21)

When we look at Christ’s resurrected body, we are seeing our future. We were designed to transition from a lowly body to a glorious body. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes:

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (vv. 42–44)

Our transformed bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. What is “a spiritual body”? James Ware says Paul is not referring to the body’s composition but to the source of its life. He translates verse 44 as, “It is sown a body of the soul, it is raised a body of the Spirit” (Final Triumph, 322). A body of the Spirit is a body “animated by the Spirit of God” (327). Ware cites Thomas Aquinas who says, “the divine glory given to the soul will overflow into the body” (332). Anthony Thiselton concurs then adds a future element:

A ‘spiritual body’ is a mode of being which is animated, sustained, and characterized, by the Holy Spirit. It is dynamic and ongoing, for the experience of the Spirit is ever new and ever fresh. Because it is characterized by the Spirit, it will not merely be static perfection. Certainly life dictated by the Spirit can never be dull or boring! Who knows what new things might occur? (A Shorter Guide, 47)

Near the end of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes:

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (vv. 50–53)

Groaning for our resurrected bodies is a part of seeking first God’s kingdom.