"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
First,
I want to stress that the purpose of this blog is not to point out
girls, judge or offend anyone. Modesty has been a burden on my heart
for a very long time and I feel it's a topic that we, the church, often
touch on but don't focus on. I love each girl the Lord has placed in my
life and I want nothing more than to do everything I can to bring them
closer to Him and help them to be effective for His kingdom. I will try
to stray away from my personal opinion about clothing and stick to what
the word says about how we should dress and carry ourselves...and the
Bible has plenty to say about it!!
The
first mention of modesty goes all the way back to Adam and Eve (Genesis
3). We need to understand that there is a theological foundation for
modesty that goes back to the Fall. The first thing that Adam and Eve
did after the fall was look for fig leaves to cover themselves up and
cover their nakedness. The first result of the guilt of sin was the
recognition that they were immodest. Before sin they had no fear that
their nakedness could ever be used for evil purposes, but when sin
entered the world it changed the innocence of nakedness forever. After
the Fall, whenever nakedness is mentioned, except within marriage, it is
always associated with shame. Our society has lost the ability to feel
shame about immodesty because showing our bodies has become so
acceptable. However, what is acceptable to our fallen world is not
acceptable to God.
Now,
knowing that the issue of modesty started all the way back to the
beginning of time, we know how important this issue is to God. I do not
believe that all girls walk around trying to be immodest, most girls
are trying to be fashionable! The reason this is such a hard issue to
tackle is because our culture and what we view as fashionable is not
lined up with biblical standards. As Christians, we should look very
different to the rest of the world. Based on Romans 12:1-2, though
society believes that some things are fashionable and acceptable, we
should not be conformed to this world but our appearance should be holy
and acceptable to God. The world doesn't know any better so going into a
high school or public mall should look very different than going into a
church, however, that's not that case. The amazing thing about the way
God uses us in His divine plan is that He sends us out into the
world! In our schools, jobs and families we should stick out because we
are TRANSFORMED!
The
goal of every Christian should be to glorify and please God by being
satisfied in Him. Scripture says that the Lord loves purity and
righteousness (Psalm 11:7), that is the very essence of who He is! Part
of pleasing Him is seeking righteousness in all we do, say, think and
WEAR. Being madly in love with God leads to being fully satisfied in Him
and being fully satisfied in Him pleases Him! In Matthew 22:36-40,
Jesus tells us that the
greatest commandment is "to love the Lord your God with all your soul
and with all your mind." What we wear starts with our mind and
heart. We choose to wear outfits to fit in or be fashionable, compete
with other girls or get the attention of guys. If these are our
intentions, our hearts are not lined up with pleasing God. Think of it
this way: Christ sacrificed His life to pay for our sin and bought us
for a price. If you know Christ, you are owned by God and the
Holy Spirit lives in you. As believers, our bodies don't belong to us
anymore, they were bought for a price, so how we dress should be all
about the GLORY OF GOD. God desires for His glory to be our purpose because has our best interest at heart and wants
the best for us. He knows that being fully satisfied in Him will bring
us the most joy in life here on Earth and prepare us for eternity with Him.
How
you dress on the outside says a lot about who you are on the inside, so
you have to be honest with yourself about your motives. So, let's just
keep it real...we girls like to look better than our girl friends and we
like guys to notice us. But these feelings, though natural, are not of
the Lord and remember...we are transformed! Our identity must come from
who God says we are and who He has created us to be. Proverbs 31:30
tells us that "beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to
be praised." Our appearance does not define us, but our love for God
does!
The second part of the verses in Matthew, Jesus tells us that the
second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as
yourself". When we go back to what our intentions are when we get
dressed, competing with girls or trying to get the attention of guys is
not loving. Most of the time we don't think of the real impact our
choices have on others, especially guys.
God
has designed men and women to be very different in a lot of ways. One
major difference that is crucial here is that He designed men to be more
visual and women tend to be more verbal. For most women, sight is not a
major avenue of temptation, but for men, they are tempted by what they
see. In Proverbs 7:10 it says, "and there a woman met him, with the
attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart." Two points here, one I've
tried to focus on already, immodesty is a heart issue. The second thing
to notice is that the Bible brings specific attention to the way
immoral women dress to gain control. (ouch!) Another perfect example in scripture is King
David. All of his trouble with Bathsheba started when he saw her
bathing on the roof. He was tempted by what he saw and she never said a
word to him! How powerful temptation can be! Ladies, the men in our
lives are tempted everywhere they look-the internet, TV, movies,
billboards and magazines. As Christian women, we need to take this
seriously and think about what the way we present ourselves does to men.
I
think it's important to add that immodesty is no excuse for lust. A
man cannot control the way women dress but he can control what he looks
at and where he lets his sinful thoughts take him. Men must bring those
thoughts under the control of Christ. Romans 14:12-13 says, "Each of us
shall give an account to God...and we should resolve not to put a
stumbling block or cause to fall on our brother's way." Ladies, though men are responsible for their own actions, let's
not be guilty of feeding sinful thoughts by the way we dress, instead
let's love one another and do only what brings each other closer to God
and far from sin.
With
all of this being said, guard yourself in being legalistic in this
area. Legalism is an "overemphasis on external things believing that it
produces spirituality." Legalism leads to self-righteousness and
judgment and is often times mistaken for true righteousness. When you
dress modestly, you glorify and please God and you
are an encouragement to both men and women instead of a temptation to
men and a bad example to women but the way you dress is not the only
measure of your relationship with God. There are plenty of modest girls
in the church whose lives are still fruitless. There are also several of
you girls who love God but have not surrendered this area of your
lives. I say to both groups, until you are fully satisfied in God, your lives will not glorify and please God.
What
I want you to hear more than anything else I've said in this blog is
that immodesty is a HEART ISSUE. Instead of worrying about a list of
"do and don't"s when it comes to how you dress, focus on clothing
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience
(Colossians 3:12) by being fully satisfied in a God who encompasses all
of these qualities. When we are fully satisfied in Him, He has the
power to change our hearts to desire nothing more than more of
Him! It's about Who you gain (Jesus) from a life of righteousness, not
about what you sacrifice (attention).
Ask God to help you to be teachable and have a heart that wants nothing
more than to bring glory to Him through your actions and appearance.
Ask Him to remind you that your identity and self worth comes from Him
alone.
"God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him."
~John Piper
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