Modesty
In this article, we will be talking about modesty. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, modesty means correct or socially acceptable behavior and clothes, representing traditional cultural values or it also means the quality in women of dressing or behaving in a way that is intended to avoid attracting sexual interest (dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/English/modest).
1 Timothy 2:9 says, “In like manner also, that woman adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamfacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” As we look around us today, we see scantily dressed women who are not afraid of showing off their bodies. We see teenagers wearing short shorts or wearing midriff shirts that is not how God wants us to dress. If we want to dress to please God, then all we need to do is read the Bible and it will tell us.
God tells us how to dress. We are to dress differently from the world. If we are true women of God, we will dress in a way that will not draw undue attention to ourselves and bring shame to our Heavenly Father. “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20). How can we glorify God when we are half-naked?
In the Old Testament, God told his people how to dress. We can read that in Exodus 28:40–42 when he told the priests what to wear. Their clothing started from the shoulders to the knees, and they wore tunics that were like a long shirts. God dressed Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:31 after they had sewed fig leaves together (Genesis 2:7) so the fig leaves must have been too short for God.
As a godly women when we dress, we should think with God in our mind, and what it portrays to others, and ourselves. We should dress so that we are pleasing to God (not ourselves) in that we are not drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves. If what we are wearing brings shame, then don’t wear it. Our thoughts should be on how to please God and not men. So, wearing swimwear, and short shorts are not what we should be wearing. The way we dress can lead someone to commit adultery in their heart. “But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). We may not know that we are doing this, so we need to be careful that we are not a stumbling block to others.
Did you know that when we become Christians, we are living examples of the Bible, “ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2). How would it be pleasing to God if the world knew we were Christians but was dressing like the world. How would we be examples and how would we bring people to God when we are dressed in a bikini or wearing a short, tight dress?
In conclusion, what we wear daily does matter to God and others and it should matter to us. When we wear immodest clothing and others see it, we will be accountable to God on the day that we are standing before him being judged. If we read the Bible, we can know how we are to dress. Our mission is to please God our Father not the men of this world. I will be dressing for God, how about you?
