Thoughts on Modesty

I was asked to write on Modesty this week. Modesty is one subject that many people are left wondering about. I, myself, didn’t really understand modesty until I started to study deeper when I was restored.

The one thing we have to ask ourselves is: Do you believe that God was fine with murder before the Old Testament?

No, of course not. Murder has always been wrong in God’s eyes, ever since the very beginning.

Do you believe that God set up marriage to be between one woman and one man before the Old Testament Law was in place?

Yes, of course!

So, we know that God has set some things up from the beginning. These things follow us throughout time, even until now, because God has always considered them wrong. So jumping into Modesty, after answering those questions: What is Modesty? What scriptures talk about Modesty?

Modesty is things that are decent, of good behavior, well arranged, orderly, and things that draw no UNWANTED attention towards a person. Your first thought might be to bring up (1 Timothy 2:9-10 KJV); and that is a wonderful scripture to bring up. It talks not only about how we should dress, but how our attitude in verse 10 should be modest.

(Jeremiah 6:15 KJV) In Jeremiah’s time, the people had forgotten to blush. They were no longer ashamed or humiliated. I feel like people today are like this. Everywhere you go, you see immodesty and indecency. From the inappropriate underwear commercials, to T.V. shows, to perhaps people in their own homes are just some things that have made people become numb to the immodest world around us. Christians should not be like this. Both women AND men need to understand that God doesn’t have one standard different from the other.

A good question to ask ourselves (especially us women) is: What makes a bikini bad and underwear okay? Side by side, an honest conclusion is that they look exactly the same. Mid drift showing, the thighs uncovered. We understand it is bad to go out in our underwear, and so logically, it is bad to go out in a bikini, right? What about a bikini that has a “tank-top” upper half? Still the same underwear like bottoms, right? Logically, from our last conclusion, it would still be bad. Same goes for any one-piece bathing suit (still like wearing underwear).

But why are these bad to us? What does the Bible say? Well, we understand that God had strict rules on murder and marriage from the beginning of time, that never changed. Did God have a standard for how we dressed then?

(Genesis 2:25 KJV) Why didn’t they feel ashamed? Because they haven’t eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil yet. Were they half naked, or fully naked? Well, if we read on we would see that they would have been fully naked, since they went to clothe themselves promptly after learning they were.

(Genesis 3:7 KJV) The original Hebrew word for the word “Aprons” here means—loin cloth, or belt. So, after learning that they were completely naked (and knowing now that is wrong) they attempted to make themselves clothes. So, how long was their loincloth? Loin clothes normally come halfway down the thighs, and only cover the front and back of the individual. Adam and his wife both made themselves one each.

(Genesis 3:10 KJV) Did Adam just admit what he wore still wasn’t enough? Yes, he still refers to himself as naked (the same Hebrew word used here called aryom=complete nudity as in verse 7). In the very next verse, God confirms what Adam says by asking him, “... Who told thee that wast naked?”

(Genesis 3:21 KJV) The word for coat here in Hebrew is Kethoneth= a long shirt-like tunic; robe. God finally sets his standard for Modest right here, from the beginning with Adam and Eve. Just like how murder was wrong from the beginning, and marriage. So the next question is: Why wasn’t the tunic okay? Why didn’t God just make them a shirt and leave the loincloth, if it was only the chest that was considered naked? Why didn’t God just make them pants, if the thighs being exposed was the thing considered naked? Logically, we can put together that God considers BOTH parts of the body as showing nakedness and in turn being immodest. God considers both the woman AND the man insufficiently clothed.

We can look at other examples of when God’s Word calls parts of the body nakedness. (Exodus 28:40-42). We understand that in Galatians 5:4 that those who are justified by the Old Law are lost. However, we have looked and seen God’s standard of modesty is from the beginning of time. God is unchanging in his ways (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17). He wouldn’t change what he thought nakedness was from then and now. It is the same standard. So we can look to the Old Testament to learn what God considers nakedness more clearly.

In Exodus, God is explaining the clothing that Aaron and his sons should wear to be pleasing to Him as His priests. In verse 42, the original Hebrew word used here is different than that in the Genesis account. It is ervah=nakedness related closely to pudenda; shameful. God says that they were to cover themselves from the loins (hip area) past the thighs because He considers it nakedness (all the same part of a person’s body down below the hip line).

God hasn’t changed what he considers nakedness, because we can see the same thing from the Genesis account as well. Isaiah 47:2-3 KJV gives a similar example of when a woman exposes her thighs, calling it nakedness (using the same Hebrew word as used in Exodus) because they understood that God considered it naked. Doing so showed her shame; just like we would be embarrassed and shamed if someone caught us naked.

(John 21:7 KJV) A few new questions arise: Why was only Peter dressed this way? Why did he cover up if he wasn’t naked? The Lord was also a man; why did he feel the need to cover up? The first question can be answered by understanding the Greek word used: Naked=Gumnos—clad in undergarments; outer clothing laid aside; nude. We can logically figure that Peter was not completely naked on the boat, so that means he was in some form without a shirt or more. Peter knew this was wrong; he knew what God considers naked. That is why he quickly covered himself, it makes logical sense now that we understand other verses.

He knew that even though other men were around him, he shouldn’t have been dressed the way he was. Otherwise, why weren’t the rest of the apostles dressed the same way? In this day in age, we need to be aware that many people struggle with homosexuality. We don’t always know who it is either, so we need to be conscious, and learn from Peter in this instance that no matter what situation you are in, you can become a stumbling block, even around the same sex.

(1 Timothy 9:10 KJV) We can understand this verse so much more now. Shamefacededness, in the Greek, was aidous=bashfulness, not wanting praise, a sense of shame, modest. Modest is not wanting to DRAW unwanted attention to ourselves. Men and women are wired differently. Men are sight oriented, and while many Christian men make the willing choice, it is very hard for them. Women can so easily tempt men, even if they are unware, just by how they dress. Women are sometimes attracted to men’s looks too, but not in the way men are to women.

Some say “Well, isn’t it the person who looks and lusts after me in sin, not because of what I choose to wear?” This is a very sad way to look at things. I once heard this and researched it myself. In Matthew 5:28 it teaches us not to look on a woman to lust after her or bad things will come about it. But in Job 31:1, we see a wonderful example of men making the willing choice to look the other way. It is a choice, but when we, as women, dress immodestly we are making the willing choice to leave temptation where we go. Same goes for men, doing so to women! God’s word teaches in Romans 14:13 that we should be careful not to WILLING OURSELVES put a stumbling block for others to fall. Our bodies, men and women, are stumbling blocks if we let them be. We need to be aware of what we wear is in accordance of what God considers modest. If it really was in the fault of the person who looks and lusts, why not everyone just go around in the nude? If it really is that way, then it would be the person’s fault, not our own right? Logically, we know this is silly, because we are giving occasion for others to BE tempted, when all along we could have been fighting against it by just choosing something else to wear.

At a ball park the other night, I looked out on the field and saw that a majority of the girls wore shorts exposing their thighs; their shirts hanging so long, that it almost appeared as if they wore nothing at all; when they ran, a person had to look away because of how the shorts moved when they did. They all looked the same out there on the field. Then, like little lights shining from a dark cavern of immodesty, and indecency, was one or two girls who wore comfortable, not tight athletic pants / comfortable, not tight athletic shorts that reached the knees.

I don’t know if they were members of the Lord’s church or not, but they stood out. They stood out because they CHOSE to be the ones that stood out for not how they LOOKED, but how they PLAYED. 1 Timothy 2:9-10 once again.

It will be hard getting rid of those clothes that you have, enduring the insults from friends or even the jokes from family members and by strangers, but that is what Christians need to expect from living the godly life. (1 Peter 2:9) (Titus 2:14) (Luke 11:33) (2 Timothy 3:12) (1 Peter 1:15-16) The occasion doesn’t make a type of clothing right; the type of weather doesn’t make a type clothing right; the type of style or fabric doesn’t make that clothing right. What matters is what God thinks about that clothing that makes it right, because at judgement day that is all that it going to matter.

Boys, girls, men, women, grandpa’s and grandma’s… Modesty falls on us all, as God’s standard for it doesn’t change. We will suffer for how we dress and act; jokes, ridicule, even so far as having a hard time finding things modest anyway! But we do so, BECAUSE it is what God commands. If you ever feel as though your family, or your friends are making you feel low about dressing modestly, let me know! I’d love to go shopping with you, because as a Christian woman, I understand it can be hard to endure it all alone.

I am so happy I have a husband that, when I dress modest, he looks at me and smiles. I am so happy that I have a husband that, when I sometimes forget, and he looks at me and frowns and asks me to change, because I would do the same to him. We both want to be modest, and God’s Word helps us remember what that means. For those of you who aren’t married, ask someone who you know who stands firm on what the Word of God says about Modesty, not their own opinions. Study yourself, if you have no one, and look in the mirror in the FRONT and THE BACK and ask, “Is this going to tempt others? Am I going to be a stumbling block if I wear this?” If you would, it’s best not to put it on than to cause others to lose their way, or even yourself in the process.