Faith First Media

Modesty

by Ian Riley

IanRiley@FaithFirstMedia.com

Before you read this, I'd like you to pray, genuinely, that God would give you an open mind, and a soft heart, so that as you read, you're not hardened against His scripture, or the things that I'm going to attempt to express.

Some of this, of course, will be my own opinion, some of it the words of wise men and women that I've spoken to about the subject, but some of it will also be the words of our God, the same words that He used to literally speak (how crazy is that!?) the universe into existence. You can dismiss my words, but don't dismiss His.

In one word, modesty. (I know many of you are cringing already, because of struggles you've had with this, or fights that it has led to, but please, read on.)

Modesty is something that we don't like to think about, or if we do, we don't like to take it seriously. We have a mentally of "It's MY body, I can dress it however I want, and besides, this top is sooooooo cute!" But what we have to remember, every time we adorn ourselves with clothing, is that our bodies do not belong to us. Even as much as our lives now belong to Christ, and through Christ, to God, our bodies even more so, as they are literally the creation of God, dust of the ground.

"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:8-11

Any container, if it is well-designed, and thought about, should make it evident what it holds inside of it. A sugar bowl will often say "Sugar", a cookie jar "Cookies", a salt shaker has two holes, a pepper shaker has three, etc. God, through His holy spirit, dwells within us; we are a vessel for God, and as such, the appearance of this vessel should be representative of what's inside.

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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." Romans 12:1-2

Now for the most important bit: why this is so important. The world teaches us that the we should dress is a way that is most appealing to the opposite sex. Our clothing (or often lack thereof), should make the first impression on any man or woman that we encounter, and cause their interest to be peaked, allowing for conversation and perhaps a "relationship" to follow.

lust

–noun

1.intense sexual desire or appetite.

2.uncontrolled or illicit sexual desire or appetite.

What the world teaches, what I was just saying, is that lust is the response we should garner with how we dress. If we are women, we want men to lust after our bodies, to have a desire to see what's under the rest of our revealing clothing, and as men, we want women to lust after our bodies, to put their hands all over us, to admire our physique.

"Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." 1 Corinthians 6:18

When God says flee, you flee.

God does not tolerate sin. By grace He forgives, but sin is entirely unacceptable to God. God does not say that we should only show a little cleavage, that we should dress MORE modestly than the world, but that we should run as fast as we can, run for our eternal lives away from sexual immorality, from lust. We should have no part in it.

Additionally: "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28

Jesus says that as soon as you lust, even if you don't do anything about it, you don't make a move, you don't even wink at this girl as you're walking by, you may as well have already had sex with her in some skanky hotel on the edge of town and walked out with no intent on calling her in the morning.

If you look at a woman with lust, effectively, you've lost your virginity.

As men, understanding this, we need to guard both our eyes, and our hearts. We need to be in complete control at what we look at. Pornography? Unacceptable. Completely and utterly, no surprise there. Looking at a girl and thinking "she's got a nice rack", JUST AS BAD.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light," Matthew 6:22

Equally, if the eyes are entertaining themselves with lusting after women, the whole body will be full of darkness, and God does not dwell in darkness.

Women, this is where you come in.

The way you dress can either help a man in his walk with God, or it can destroy him. No matter how hard he is trying to live for God, if you're setting your assets out there for him to see, it's going to be a struggle for him, and in many cases, near impossible for his mind to stay pure, and his thoughts holy. Apart from God, you are THE most important part of this equation.

How does it work?

What if the rule of thumb wasn't "not too much cleavage", but "no cleavage".

What if it wasn't a decision whether you leave the first two buttons or the first three buttons, undone, but if you buttoned them all?

What if, when you dress yourself in the morning, there's room between your bra and your shirt? What if your jeans don't look painted on? WHAT IF, when the world looked at how you dressed, they snickered, because your boobs weren't hanging out, and your butt was actually covered?

Our bodies, and the way that we adorn them, should be a testimony to our God. The world should look at us and realize that, even by how we dress, there is something different about us.

We should not look like everyone else. We should be different.

What clothes do you need to get rid of? What doesn't glorify God?

Dress like a nun? No. But if it's between that or dressing like the world, let's put on the habits.

Comment with your thoughts.