ON CONFORMITY AND NON-COMFORMITY

 

In vogue at the present, maybe worse now since the day of Louis the XIV^th, is everyone doing their own thing and presenting their own image to the public. (see Louis in the figure below.)

If Louis was alive today, he would be a spectacle. Everyone would notice him immediately because he is dressed so gaudily, even androgenous!

He meant to stand out above the citizenry who dressed more appropriately for their class and professions. Imagine the local blacksmith dressing as if royalty; it is hard to even imagine!

Louis wanted himself to be the center of attention. So much so that he spent much on his wigs and wardrobe. Real men, as seen by most, would want to look masculine and rugged. Louis was admired by many, so much that many dressed like him, but they were more trying to identify with royalty than this vain old man.

Vanity is “inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance” (Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1982). Do you not think that Louis just might have inflated pride in both himself, and his appearance? The best guess is that Louis was a vain man.

It is likely that beneath that wig was either one or three things: a balding head, gray hair, or perhaps even lice or disease. Rather than fix what they had, since they could not, they concealed it. Louis, although covering his true appearance was still an old, balding gray-haired man beneath the façade!

What real men do is deal with it. What true woman do is deal with it. This portrait was the French monarch’s way of death becoming him, in the same manner as the modern movie, “Death Becomes Her.”

Louis was dying and so was the House of Capet. By the time the XVI^th came along, his grandson, he was mere “Citizen Louis Capet” during the First French Republic. The pomp of the royal house was circumcised and with the Revolution, sans coulottes was the style, and further royalty were reimaged as mere citizens.

The Capets all lost their pomp. Like prideful Lucifer in the beginning, their “Image” was cast out of “paradise.”

However, this commentary is neither about French royalty nor even Lucifer; it is about society today. Today’s society is little different than at any other time. In fact, mankind’s problem is not even Satan but themselves. Satan is weak and has no power to force anyone to do anything. Each man (and woman) is in it for themselves. However, everyone is born with the pompous nature of Lucifer, even Louis the XIV^th. You and I are as well but most often not to that degree.

During the 1980s I was General Motors High-Tech representative, and I played the part. When visiting my contractors and assembly plants, I would always wear a dark three-piece suit as was the custom of that time.

One day as six of us were on the elevator, I noticed that all of us were wearing black three-piece suits, and it struck me that we all looked like penguins. We had all conformed, not to society, but to the business model. Our clothing made a statement about us; that was shouted loud and clear; we work for the biggest corporation in the world, and we are important! We were all as pompous as Louis the XIV^th.

I had conformed to my world, but to society, we stuck out; our importance was overly exaggerated because of our manner of dressing.

Soon, I changed my apparel to nice khakis and sports jacket. In a short time, I was only wearing khakis, a button-down shirt and a necktie.

That was ordinary dress of that era. I had gone from Louis the XIV^th in dress to “Citizen Herrin.”  I no longer conformed to my world but was reformed to a less noticeable image. My apparel matched my self-estimation. I was not a GM executive at all, but mid-level manager. I was one of the ordinary. To this day, I still do not seek to stand out from the ordinary.

Let us put this in more perspective. Let us say that today is beach day. If a woman dresses in a teensy-weensy tiny bikini, they will stand out. Surely, some women do that to be noticed and noticed they are. No longer is the beach the center of attraction; they are!

Or suppose that same woman wears extremely modest garb like many Muslim women do at the present. No longer does the beach stand out but the woman does as well. It draws as much attention as the tiny bikini.

However, if the same woman dresses both modestly and unobtrusively, she will go unnoticed.

On the other hand, if all the women someday dress immodestly, a woman should not conform to them because they would all be immodest.

When the word, “modest” is used, it has more than one meaning. It is not only keeping the flesh covered but also unpretentiousness (ibid).

Louis the XIV^th was well-covered but pretentious. Even though he was of the House of Capet, in his day, he magnified their name by being over pretentious. He was royalty and everybody knew it.

Peter the Great was royalty as well but he dressed unpretentiously not to be noticed. Louis and Peter were both royalty with equal powers, but Peter was merely “Citizen Romanov” to the public and when he visited France.

Pretending to be who you are not is pretentious.

When I was dating, to attract younger women, I “cleverly” disguised myself as “Youthful Larry.” I died my hair dark brown and played volleyball with the younger folks. I was pretending to be what I was not — a middle-aged man who wanted to be accepted by those younger than myself.

It was when I dated a younger woman that I came to realize that I was not young. Hair dye and running shorts did not make me young. Probably to the younger set, I may have looked more like Louis the XV^th than I did Peter the Great.

At that time, I had conformed to the dress code of the younger generation to be young again, but others of my age may have seen me as a spectacle. Being with a much younger woman did not make me any younger than the brown dye on my hair. I had conformed to their world to be accepted in it but all the while, inside, I felt like I was their babysitter!

I did not look like a young man but stood out amongst them as a silly-looking older man. I was pretentious and was as pompous as Louis and probably looked that way to the younger set.

We are to be what we are! When I was poor, I dressed appropriately as a poor man would dress — modest and without pretense. That is genuine.

When I was more successful, I dressed for success but still did not overdress for my social status. I was proud that I was better off but did not pretend that I was better off than I was. Neither did I underdress to flaunt my poor roots. I fit into the world but was not of the world. By that I mean that the world did not make me, God did, and I had not conformed to the world but to God.

God does not want us to fit into the world but stick out. Not so far out that we become the center of attention but just enough that others would want to model us.

For instance, I do not drink alcohol but am modest about it so as not to offend others nor to appear self-righteous. I try to model Jesus who I believe was a tee-totaling Nazarite.

However, I am not a Nazarite and never pretend to be but by observation, some of my friends have either ceased drinking alcoholic beverages or reduced their consumption. They may see that I am content with being just me and not a “party animal.” On the other hand, if I act righteous, knowing that I am often not, then they would see me as pretentious. So, pretentiousness can also be behavior oriented.

Some visiting or lay preachers, when they are called upon to preach, put on their “preacher suits” to pretend that they are real, honest to goodness preachers. They spit-shine their shoes just for that hour and dress impeccably to present an image as if they are preachers. To some, those pretenders look more like Louis the XIV^th than they do Jesus! They overdress to seem what they are not.

On the other hand, some preachers dress too casually to appear to be just one of the guys. Contemporary preachers do that often and in doing so, they look pretentious as well. They should wear modest clothing and that pertains to both gaudiness and casualness. To appear too casual reeks of slothfulness.

What should we be and what should we do? 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:2 ESV)

 In whatever we do, we are not to conform to this world. Just as God has His standards, so does the world! God’s standards are written in scripture, but the standards of the world are beyond scripture, to wit: 

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6)

 Therefore, conforming to the world is doing whatever it is that you want to do without regard to God’s standards. It is doing things as if there are no standards at all. We see that often today with cross-dressing and transsexuality, or even as androgyny.

We see it in immodest dress and dressing as if you are someone that you are not.

I was not that cool guy with dark brown hair but a mature man with graying hair. Some saw the “old man” in me despite the hair dye and underperformance as an obsolete athlete.  I did much better with the genuine me than the pretentious me and obtained a beautiful wife closer to my age who accepts me as me!

Today, tattoos and piercings are in vogue. Some young girls and guys look cute with them, but old guys and gals who try to exaggerate their beauty the same way look pretentious. They do not look cute but often enhance their “ordinariness” to put it mildly. Rather than fitting in they stand out much as a tattooed fat lady becomes a “circus freak” that some will pay to see.

Not to pick on just the obvious, but those big lips from Botox® look hideous compared to naturally thick lips of girls still in their prime and as age increases so will the pretentiousness!

God wants us to be as He designed us, not according to our own designs. Speaking of the pretentious, Paul wrote: 

¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body… (Phil 3:19-21)

 The pretentious are those who conform to the world “with their minds set of earthly things” that are unimportant in the long term. Even genuine people are not to conform to the world even for special occasions. We are all to live with who we are and without pretention. Sure, people are looking at us, but our desire should not be looked upon in awe but at who we really are!

It is written that the pretentious “glory in their shame;” that magnify themselves as if they are gods rather than glorifying God in whose Image they were made.

Conforming to the world may gain friends, for a while, but glory from God is eternal. Glory is not in earthly things, but are in the new creatures who reject conformance to the world. Get this; we are to be like Jesus, who will “transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.”

We need not change our appearance or character to fit the world but wait for God to glorify us. Adorning the body with dyes and flashy clothes is us making ourselves to be the “gods” but what God awaits is us presenting our bodies a living sacrifice to Him (Rom 12:1).

An acceptable sacrifice to God is not a made-up creature but the purest of the pure. It is the prime firstborn of the flock (Deut 15:9) and for Jacob, those lambs with brown streaks that God provided to him were acceptable sacrifices. He brought them to God just as they were, not all shorn of the brown streaks but just as they were.

Ironically, many who try not to conform to the world often end up conforming to the worst of the world. Many dress alternately in defiance of others, and as such cause a counter-culture of a bunch of conformers who fail to realize that even as non-conformists, they have conformed!

It works the other way as well; even those ordinary women who act as if they are the “Real Housewives of Whatever County,” conform to pretend standards as well.

The only one to whom we should conform is Jesus. He wore unobtrusive, non-pretentious clothing that was hardly worth gambling to gain! His claim to fame was as a mere carpenter but the Greeks knew that He was the Technician (Tekon) of the highest degree. This man who created heaven and earth, was satisfied with carrying His own cross, even though Simon stepped in.

Jesus was never pretentious, never claimed to be king of the Jews nor even High Priest. He showed that He was merely God in the Flesh and did so without fanfare. He came not to sin but to deliver from sin. He did not want the Jews to conform to the man, Jesus, but to the God, Jesus! It was not His flesh that he cared for but the Holy Ghost within that humble flesh.

So, you act like royalty, or maybe act as if you are a bum. Either way, God is not impressed; He wants you as you are!

When I was a youth, I worked at being good, but all attempts were futile. It was not in my nature to be good, but God was not after pure sheep, He was after those with Jacobian brown streaks within. Finally, when I came to Jesus streaks and all — unpretentious — only then was I an acceptable sacrifice.

How is it that God wants you? Just as you are. You should not put on airs, nor should you falsely present yourself in any manner; ““God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God (Jas 4:6-7).

The one that looks as outrageous as Louis XIV^th  in any way is not an acceptable sacrifice, whether it be in gaudy wedding attire or party animal. We should come the wedding just as we are; that is the wedding of the Church to the Bridegroom, Jesus.

Just as we are is not a made up version but plain for all to see!