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Modesty:
Just How Should the Church Define it?
This teaching is NOT just for Women. It is for ALL Saints
everywhere!
I'm going to be speaking
to the men as well as the women today, however, I want to direct much of
this toward women. It is certainly Not because I
believe women are any more evil or of any lesser understanding, but it is
because women, believe it or not, can greatly influence the thinking and
the heart of a man SIMPLY BY WHAT THEY WEAR. PERIOD.
Now, ladies, you
can use the old "cop out"...."Well if a man has a problem with what I
wear...then that's HIS problem" or "It's none of anybody's business
what I wear" .....etc...blah blah blah.... but as we will see, both
of those statements are far from the truth. The sad thing is:
Most women already KNOW that what they wear has a direct
influence on how a man reacts to them.
Back To Hezekiah
You
may, by now, be asking what that story has to do with modesty, but let me
explain something. Please do not take this offensively or in a "less
than pure" manner, but women, you have a feminine beauty that GOD CREATED
YOU WITH AND THAT IS GREAT TREASURE to you, to God and as
properly understood according to the word of God, to men!
EVERY WOMAN reading this
page has a God Given Beauty. You may be sitting there
thinking....well, I'm not very beautiful....but oh how very wrong you
are.....you ARE beautiful. Your beauty and your feminine
characteristics are a treasure that belongs only in the confines of the
sacredness of an intimate marriage. Your TREASURE belongs to
your HUSBAND and to HIM ONLY. I don't believe I have to describe in
any more detail that the treasure I am speaking of is your feminine body.
Just like Hezekiah, when
a woman or a girl displays her treasures to people who don't have a
right to partake of them, she runs the risk that someone who has an evil
intent will take away what she has revealed. The ONLY one
who has a RIGHT to partake of those treasures is her HUSBAND. I
mean that quite literally! A "boyfriend", a "fiancée" (even if you
DO intend to someday marry), etc. has NO Godly Biblical RIGHT to partake
of YOUR body, and you have NO RIGHT OR OBLIGATION TO GIVE IT.
I promise you that many
of you today are REAPING in your sons and daughters or perhaps in your
grandchildren, the rewards of foolish choices that you made years
ago. The way that you handle your feminine beauty now,
ladies, is going to be reflected in your children.
Women today are being told to "DISPLAY"
their treasures for the world to see.....the thinking is, and tragically,
I have heard this from CHURCH PEOPLE.....IF YOU'VE GOT IT.....FLAUNT IT.
I know personally of a
Pastor's wife and daughter who would tell young ladies to wear their
dresses below their knees, then turn around and tell them that displaying
"cleavage" was ok. What?
What a perversion of teaching that is!
Women today, even Church women, are
absolutely OBSESSED with DISPLAYING THEMSELVES...... IT IS
SHAMEFUL and DISGRACEFUL and EMBARRASSING TO GODLY MEN EVERYWHERE.
Just a few years ago, the
way many women dress today would have been considered pornography by the
public in general, but because so many women have laid aside their
convictions in order to """""make""""" themselves """""FEEL""""""
beautiful, it has now become commonplace among our society, and
MEN, being the sinful dogs they are, flock to a flaunting woman like flies to a cesspool.
I have
watched over and over as some woman will walk in to a setting, whether at
work or at church (yes, at church) in a scantily clad outfit and men will
flock around her to "welcome" her to the church (I'm just so sure that's
what their intention is...funny though how they don't welcome the strange
man that came last service in that manner...hmmm.) Why do you think
that
is? Let's face it and get to the bottom line. It is lust pure and
simple that makes men flock around a woman like that while neglecting
others that visit the church.
You see, ladies, you can
flaunt it, show it off, display it to the world, advertise it, but I
promise that the only man you will attract is one who wants nothing more
than your bedroom skills. He is not after your
heart....that's not what attracted him and that is not what he wants.
What you need to do is
COVER AND PROTECT your treasure and KEEP IT for ONLY YOU and YOUR HUSBAND.
It is a GOOD thing to have some mystery about you. It is a good
thing to keep mystery about things that only your husband should enjoy.
Whether you realize it or not, a GODLY HUSBAND (and ladies...you should
NOT BE LOOKING FOR ANY OTHER KIND) WANTS you to remain a
mystery to every other man out there.
You will BOTH find more
blessing and joy in your marriage if you will protect yourselves.
And men, that goes for you too. What you have is meant for NO ONE
but your wife!
The sad
fact of today's church is that more and more women are dressing immodestly
BOTH AT HOME (I'm not talking about in the bedroom) and IN THE CHURCH. They are more appropriately dressed
for nightclubs than for church services.
Let me
hit on a very cold hard fact, ladies:
when you dress inappropriately, not
only do you cause men to sin, but you really sin against yourselves.
It has been said that cultures which admire women primarily for their
physical characteristics ultimately degrade them and take advantage of
them. It was true of the Persian culture, it was true of the Greek
culture, it was true of the Roman culture and I think our society today is
a prime example that it is true of our culture.
Now,
before we get into just what inappropriateness might be, let me say
this.....Godliness and Modesty are NOT UGLY nor are they meant to make you
LOOK UGLY! Don't buy into the sleeve and dress dragging the
ground teaching, or to the "square toed, closed shoe teaching".
THAT teaching is nothing more than legalism.
God
DIDN'T make you to look ugly and if you read all through biblical times,
Godly women were modest, yet beautifully arrayed!
What
makes immodesty sinful and shameful and ultimately degrading to you as a
woman is when you take those treasures God has given you and you display
them openly for those who don't have a right to look upon,
to taste and touch and feel and experience those treasures.
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