Modest Adornment | Great Peace Living

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I currently am at a church conference in Sevierville, TN. This is our second year attending. While here, there is a dress code. The dress is to be modest, no shorts, short skirts or low necklines are allowed. Women are encouraged to wear skirts or dresses, but the length is to be respectfully at or below the knee. I must say it has been so refreshing as a wife and the mother of a boy to know that they are seeing only what is appropriate when looking around at those in attendance.
Our society has become so completely unaware of what is modest and what isn’t. Those who still consider carefully their modest dress are made fun of as weird, or out of touch. As a mom, I now must teach my son to look away from the destructive overt sexualization of young girls, young ladies and women that our fashion, movie and television industries have so blatanly thrown into our society. We as a nation have become immune to the nakedness.

You see our society has become focused on our outward appearance. Millions of dollars are spent year after year after year on fashion, makeup, spas and all kinds of things that do not matter a hill of beans. All that money spent on clothing that is immodest and inappropriate will be wasted, it will not last, and the make up and spa treatments will not matter in the end, only what is our inner beauty matters to the Lord. We do these things to get attention for ourselves. We dress so that others will notice us, and we want to fit in with what society demands because we don’t want to stand out as being weird.

I’ve heard it said, that Modesty is subjective. I’ve heard it said that if Christians want to connect with non-christians we need for them to be able to relate to us. I’ve heard that we aren’t to judge. But all of these are excuses for sin. If we as parents, aunts, friends turn a blind eye to the immodest dress around us without ever sharing knowledge of scripture we are sharing in the path of sin that others are walking in.

Immodest dress is SIN. Adam and Eve, when they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had an eye opening experience. What they first learned from their new found knowledge was that they were NAKED. They were immodest. Ah, but… Yes, I know, the question? But, what exactly is immodest? Is it dress to the ankle? Is it dress to the calf? Is it dress to the knee? Is it dress to the mid thigh? I’ve heard so many people try to say that immodesty is not truly defined in scripture. But that is where one would be wrong. You see, we must let scripture be our teacher. For it is the Word of God.

Exodus 28:41-43

(ESV)

⁴¹And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. ⁴²You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; ⁴³and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.

Here God is instructing Moses to establish Aaron and his sons as priests. He is instructing him to consecrate them and make for them a covering to cover their naked flesh extending from the hip to the thighs. Now this seems quite clear to me, that naked flesh extends from the hips to the thighs. So if we are showing our thighs we are showing our nakedness.

Now, you might be saying… But that’s the Old Testament, it doesn’t apply to New Testament Christians. I have 2 points to make.

1. The same God who commanded that the priest cover their nakedness is the same God we serve today if we are of the household of faith.

2. If we have been obedient unto Christ and are walking in faith, then we are told by Peter:

^{1 Peter 2:9}
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Just as Aaron was set aside a a priest to God Most High, so too are Christians set aside as priests of God Most High. If God commanded that Aaron cover his nakedness from his hip to his thigh, why would we dare think God expects anything different from His Royal Priesthood?

You may be reading this and thinking…. “But what does all this modesty talk have to do with the Marriage Moment?”

^{I Timothy 2:9-10}
⁹In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
¹⁰But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

Here we see the Apostle Paul teaching that women must let their good works proclaim godliness, rather than the outward apparel. I must adorn myself with MODEST APPAREL.

The Apostle Peter gives us some additional insight…

^{I Peter 3:3-6}
³ Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— ⁴but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. ⁵For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, ⁶as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

I see here, that my role as a woman is to honor my husband by being obedient to him. To let myself be adorned with inner beauty and not outward beauty. God instructs us through the Apostle Peter to be adorned with a gentle and quiet spirit. He says it comes from the hidden heart and is an imperishable (unfading) beauty. He also says it is very precious in God’s sight.

But that’s not all I see in this verse, ladies. You see Peter is saying that women who live with a gentle and quiet spirit are obedient to their husbands, that those women of old were called holy for their submitting spirit just as Sarah obeyed Abraham. See that? obeyed!

Our husbands are our leaders. No husband who truly loves his wife would desire for her to walk around life half, near or totally naked. He should desire for her to reserve her body just for him. He should understand that we are under their authority and lead us into a righteous life before God.

^{I Peter 3:7}
⁷Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Dear readers, if you want to honor your husbands, you will obey him trusting him to lead you since you are both heirs of the grace of life. He does this not to rule over you harshly without love, but gently as Christ loves the church so that his prayers are not hindered.

As mother’s we must teach our daughters to dress modestly reserving the showing of the body for the perfect gift of marriage that God designed it to be. We must teach our son’s to keep their eyes pure by not even looking on a woman, even when those women walk around the world mostly naked. For Jesus said,

Matthew 5:28
^“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Wake up to the abomination that is before us each and every day. Examine your own clothing, your children’s clothing and be sure that you are presenting yourself as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1) in both your inward heart and your outward apparel. Take responsibility as godly women and as mothers to ensure that the clothing you purchase or allow children to purchase bring honor to God.

Honor your husband by reserving your body for him and teach your children that their bodies are gifts from the Lord to be reserved for their marriage only.

What is your Marriage Moment?
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