A modest heart
A modest heart results in a modest body. This isn’t so hard to understand if we approach it from a biblical perspective because our foundation is Scripture. It’s impossible to understand if we approach modesty from a worldly perspective as we then have no foundation but our own desires.
Men and modesty
Modesty is a hated word within much of the church. Few pastors are willing to address the biblical call to modesty. Churches aren’t willing to set standards of dress for worship (come as you are being their favorite phrase). How many men are willing to set any sort of modesty standards for their children and their wife? And how many women would willingly follow his leading? Just look at the men who come to church dressed well whose wives and daughters come with cleavage showing, in a short dress, or tight jeans? I see it quite often and I know others do to.
If Christian men do attempt to address modesty it’s likely the women within the church will attack them or shame them. Too many women demand the right to dress however they want to and blame everyone but themselves because of “Christian liberty” and feminism. If you want to be labeled a legalist, start talking about modesty. Feminism has a death grip on our beliefs, it’s infiltrated our churches, and destroyed everything it comes in contact with. When it comes to modesty, feminism demands that no man has any say as to how a woman dresses or purports herself. And even Christian men bow to this.
The scourge of feminism
Feminism has taught men that they can’t speak up, they don’t have a say, that they truly aren’t the heads of their families, and that it is oppressive and cruel for them to set any kind of standards or rules in their families.
God calls men to be the leaders in their families, in the church, and in society. If a man refuses to be the lead his family he is bowing to feminism and he is disobedient to God. This ought not to be.
James 4: 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Much of the problem is that we don’t know there’s a problem. But there is and it affects our homes, churches, and society. You can’t embrace lies and be pleasing to the Lord. Yet that’s what many in the church have done. As a result our society is crumbling, our churches are succumbing to liberalism, and our families are in disarray.
Richard Baxter
Speaking to women about dressing immodestly:
“And you must not lay a stumbling block in their way, not blow up the fire of their lust, nor make your ornaments snares but you must walk among sinful persons as you would do with a candle among straw or gunpowder, or else you may see the flame which you would not foresee, when it is too late to quench it.”
Called to be modest
As Christians, we cannot listen to the world. Sisters, God calls us to be modest. This isn’t a suggestion, it is a command and those who rebel against it are in sin. Tell most women, even Christians, that their clothes are too tight, leggings aren’t pants and are immodest, cleavage oughtn’t show, and you’ll hear “If men have a problem with the way I dress, it’s their problem.” “If men lust over me, it’s not my fault.” Where are the women who can still blush at their immodesty? They are few.
Richard Baxter
You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew; he hath now access to your fancy to stir up lustful thoughts and desires, so that when you should think of your calling, of your God, or of your soul, your thoughts will be worse than swinish, upon the filth that is not fit to be named. If the devil here get in a foot, he will not easily be got out.
Ecclesiastes 9: 3-8
3Meet not with an harlot, lest thou fall into her snares. 4Use not much the company of a woman that is a singer, lest thou be taken with her attempts. 5Gaze not on a maid, that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her. 6Give not thy soul unto harlots, that thou lose not thine inheritance. 7Look not round about thee in the streets of the city, neither wander thou in the solitary place thereof. 8Turn away thine eye from a beautiful woman, and look not upon another’s beauty; for many have been deceived by the beauty of a woman; for herewith love is kindled as a fire.
A man’s lust and a woman’s immodesty
It’s true that God commands a man to control himself. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit for any Christian. So if a man lusts after you, it is his fault. He can and should fight against lust. He can and ought to guard his eyes, thoughts, and heart. If he gives into the sinful desires, he most certainly is at fault. But it isn’t only his fault.
If you have dressed in such a way as to entice a man to look at you, to think upon you, to desire your beauty, to incite lust, or to draw attention to your body in an undue way, you are causing the man to stumble and you are in sin. Paul Washer is known for saying that your clothing ought to be a frame for your face rather than for your body and he is 100% correct. If you dress to honor the Lord and a man lusts anyway, the fault is entirely his. But if you dress in such a way as to draw attention to your body, even if a man doesn’t lust after you then you, sister, are still in sin because your intentions were wrong.
The glory of God
The Lord cares about how we dress. Our clothing is a testimony to the condition of our heart. If our heart is right with God, we will seek His glory in everything we do, including in the ways we dress. Christ has called us to be different from the world, to love Him not it, to seek His ways rather than the world’s ways. Being modest, obeying God, and seeking His glory will get us laughed at, ostracized, and perhaps we might even lose friends but it’s worth it. Jesus is honored by our obedience, sisters, and this includes our obedience in wearing modest apparel.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
