Why do we wear clothes?

Have you ever wondered, “Why do we wear clothes?” This is an interesting question, and we can find the answer in the Bible.

I was in a meeting once and I said to all the people, “Why are you wearing clothes today?”

Someone put up their hand and said, “Because it’s cold.”

I said, “Well, what happens when it’s hot? Does that mean that you all take them off?”

They sort of looked at me rather strangely.

Do you realize that the meaning of clothing goes back to the book of Genesis.

Adam and Eve were naked to begin with, before there was sin in the world. God gave clothes to them later, AFTER they sinned.

After Adam sinned, God made garments of skins and clothed Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). To do this, God must have killed at least one animal (possibly more).

Why did God do this? Look at Hebrews 9:22, where we’re told that ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission’ [of sin]. God was illustrating to Adam and Eve that there had to be payment for their sin. In covering them, He was showing them that there had to be death and bloodshed to take away their sin.

The clothing of Adam and Eve is a picture of the Gospel. It is very possible that the animal that God killed for the coats of skins could have been a lamb. This would symbolize Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So, when God first gave human beings clothes, it was the first blood sacrifice as a temporary covering for sin, which was a picture of what was to come in Jesus Christ—the Lamb of God who would take away our sin.

The fact that God gave clothes because of sin means that there is a moral basis for clothing, and thus there are also standards. The Israelites sacrificed animals over and over again, but the blood of bulls and goats can’t take away our sin (as we’re taught in Hebrews).

This is because man is not just an animal; he is not connected to the animal kingdom. Man was made separately from the animals; he was made in the image of God. Therefore, we needed a man to die for our sin, which is why God sent His son Jesus Christ to become one of us, to be our relative, so that He could die on the Cross and be raised from the dead to save us from our sins.

You see, when we understand that sin distorts nakedness and that men and women were created to respond to each other in particular ways, it also means that there is a standard of clothing which must be in accord with a moral basis as to why clothes were given in the first place.

The more society abandons the book of Genesis and the foundation that God created, the more you will also see people rejecting clothing standards, or even clothing itself.

So why do we wear clothes? The answer is in Genesis. God gave clothes because of sin.

Text author: Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis. Text copyright © 1995, 2002, Answers in Genesis —a Christian Answers Team Member