Modest Apparel
For I [am] the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I [am] holy:
Today, with great trepidation, I take keyboard in hand (my quill is broken) to write a few words about how we should present ourselves as children of the Most High God. There is no subject extant today that will arouse as much unchristian behavior among God’s people as the discussion of this one, unless it is the subject of what constitutes proper music. I leave that for a later occasion. Some wounds must heal before we incur others.
I
ask that you bear with me in my trials, and in my feeble attempt to present
what the Word of God has to say about proper attire.
Firstly,
I should like to hark back to my childhood, simply as a point of
reference. Believe it or not, I went
to school once. And it wasn’t all that
long ago, either. I was in high school
a mere forty years ago. When I was in
high school, all the public (i.e. government) schools had standards of dress
for teachers and students. We didn’t
get to debate them. We had not become
so refined as to demand our disrobing rights.
We got the privilege of obeying them or being sent home. I should also state that I went to high
school in a place where summer lasts for three days in August. The rest of the year is winter.
Be
that as it may, the dress code for the female gender strictly forbade pants of
any kind. The unwritten rule said that
pants might be worn if the snow was over three feet deep in the parking lot,
and still coming down. Other than that,
skirts or dresses were the only attire allowed for the girls. No sleeveless blouses or dresses, no
plunging neck-lines or un-plunging slits, all buttons buttoned, and skirts must
come to the knee WHEN SEATED. That was
even true of the cheerleaders – heresy, you say. Some of the fairer sex would be hard-pressed today to search
their closet and find a single garment meeting those criteria. But, as Walter Cronkite would say, “That’s
the way it was.”
Everyone
had to wear socks and shoes, unless they were wearing nylon stockings, and boys
would be sent home for wearing those.
Don’t ask me how I know. It was
a strain for some families to afford shoes, but those were the rules. I usually got one pair a year, and they got
pretty tight by spring. It was a time
of great oppression. No shorts
allowed. No plain or lettered T-shirts
allowed. Teachers followed the same
guidelines, except the male teachers had to wear a shirt and tie. Those were the days!! Of course, every guy had his jackknife and
yo-yo. Those are outlawed today, I
think.
“Why
are you bothering me with all of that?” you may ask. ‘Tis a valid question, to which I reply “To show you how things
have changed in a mere forty years.”
And perhaps to ask you to address a question such as “If that much has
been exposed in the last forty years, what will it be like forty years from
now?” Well, we may not have any
designers, because there may not be any clothes. Heaven on earth – the garden of Eden all over again.
If
there are dress standards in schools today, I fail to see the point of
them. You cannot differentiate male
from female, since all have the same lack of clothes or sloppy clothes, and the
same piercings and tattoos in the same places.
And whatever standards there are in school, are left behind as soon as
the last bell rings.
Well,
this is not about school, is it? This
is about God’s people. It is sad that
people who claim to be children of God today cannot bring themselves to be as
modest as were the children of the world a mere forty years ago. If you attend church today, you best be
careful where you sit, and where you look, or you will have a difficult time
keeping your mind on the gospel message, if there is one delivered at all. If you stand to sing (some of us still do
that), you may find yourself looking at more flesh than one used to find
displayed under the street lights on the wrong side of town. And we all turn to number 271 in the Red
Book and sing:
“Take
my life and let it be, Consecrated Lord to Thee,” when perhaps we should be
singing:
“Take
my clothes and let them be, enough to cover l’il ole me.”
But
we wouldn’t want anything to overly influence our spirituality.
I
will try to make this short, but it will probably still be longer than the
modern skirt. So I will try to
constrain myself to three headings:
1.
God’s
Truth about clothes.
2.
The
reason of God’s truth about clothes.
3.
The
application of God’s Truth about clothes.
That
shouldn’t be too difficult, should it?
Now
we all know that whenever the preacher even hints at mentioning how we dress,
we instantly enter “defense mode.” He
can tell us we ought to pray more, and we can agree. He can tell us we ought to give more, and we may grudgingly
agree. He can tell us to witness, he can
preach against drink, he can rail on adultery and immorality, but we are
instantly defensive when it comes to our attire. I have yet to figure that out.
Only God knows how much we pray.
Only God knows how much we witness.
Only God and the treasurer know how much we give. Hopefully, not many find out when we commit
adultery. But EVERYONE knows how we
dress. Don’t we want to know what God
expects? The answer is a resounding
“NO.” But we will still be held
responsible, so perhaps if the preacher is commanded to declare all the counsel
of God, we should just take the plunge (no pun intended) and listen to what God
has to say.
Before
the preacher even raises the first point, our mind is ready with the first
counter-measure, which goes something like this:
“Well,
the clothes they wore back then weren’t like ours.”
EXACTLY!! I wonder if God knew that.
This
defense usually comes in response to a reading of Deuteronomy 22:5 –
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.
And
our defense is what? Oh, yes, I
remember. “Well they all wore robes
back then, so how can you tell?” Well,
when was “back then?”
Now
let’s stop and think about that for a minute.
We are arguing that it’s OK for men and women to wear the same thing
today because WE can’t tell what the difference was “back then”, even though
God said it was an abomination for men and women to dress the same back
then. Then let me ask a simple
question:
WHY
DID GOD SAY IT IF IT COULD NOT BE OBEYED?
He said it back then. We say
there was no difference back then.
Would He have said it back then if there were no difference back
then? Sometimes we can amaze ourselves
with our intelligence. This is not one
of those times. Our defense is
meaningless – i.e., stupid. God said
there were different garments for men and women, and no cross-dressing
(trans-vesting, from which we get the word transvestite) was allowed. Do you think God would say the same thing
today, or do you think He has changed His mind? Is the Word of God eternal, or does it only last until we think
it needs assistance, or until the styles of the world change?
Seeing
that we have such thoroughly sound defenses, perhaps we should move on to the
subject at hand.
1.
GOD’S TRUTH ABOUT CLOTHES
God’s truth about clothes is that they were made to cover – not to uncover, and they were made to distinguish the sexes and God’s people. Whatever the current style or fashion, the child of God should be covered, and we should be able to distinguish the sexes by the covering – not the uncovering. How much should be covered? Everything that God says needs to be covered should be covered.
Let’s
look at the first time people were covered, because those clothes were designed
by God. Ralph Lauren was not around to
give his advice. Adam and Eve had
sinned. When that happened, they “knew”
or “discovered” that they were naked.
They were naked before, but it did not become a major issue until they
“knew” about it. Now that they knew it,
they were ashamed. The serpent’s
prophecy had come true (Gen. 3:5), they knew good from evil, they had been able
to discern that what they were now doing was evil, and they were ashamed.
Genesis
3:7-8
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself.
It
seems that, today, people get as naked as they can get, and are not
ashamed. Adam and Eve would have hidden
themselves. Remember, they had already
made themselves clothes, probably had more covered than your average
beach-goer, and still felt very uncomfortable about the situation. They hid from God because they were naked,
even though they had something on.
God
says you can have something on and still be naked. And nakedness is to be a symbol of shame. They had made themselves garments (aprons)
that probably covered them from at least the mid-section to the knees (and
perhaps from the arms to the knees), and yet they were still ashamed. Nakedness became a symbol of shame:
Exodus
32:25
And when Moses saw
that the people [were] naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto
[their] shame among their enemies:)
So shall the king
of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives,
young and old, naked and barefoot, even with [their] buttocks uncovered,
to the shame of Egypt.
Behold, I come as
a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked,
and they see his shame.
Now, as we have
already mentioned, you can be “clothed” and be naked. In James 2:15-16, God tells us that if a brother or sister be
naked, and we don’t help them out with some clothes, we are not
profitable. He’s not talking here about
people who don’t have a stitch of clothes on their body. Those people would have been arrested. He’s talking about people who don’t have
ENOUGH to properly cover their bodies.
In
John 21:7, Peter was fishing when he saw the Lord on the shore.
Therefore that
disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt [his] fisher's coat [unto him], (for
he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.
The
scripture says that Peter was naked, but Peter was not without clothes. The apparel of those times for men was a
relatively light-weight undergarment that came from the shoulders to
approximately the thigh, and then an outer cloak or coat (like Joseph’s coat of
many colors). Peter, in order to be
freer to work, and because there were no females or important people present,
had shed his outer cloak. That was
considered nakedness by the scripture, but he was more clothed than the average
surfer today. When he saw the Lord, he
made sure he was not just covered, but covered properly. There is a difference between being covered
and being properly covered, as far as God is concerned. And it is a shame to be uncovered.
God
made a coat for Adam and one for Eve.
Genesis 3:21 Unto
Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed
them.
God
didn’t clothe Eve and let Adam run around with nothing on. Some folks today put all the burden on the
woman, but God covered them both. I
guess He thought it was a good thing to be covered.
So
what have we learned so far? We have
learned that men and women are to be covered, and that they are to be covered
the way God says, and not the way man says.
They are to be covered differently.
The bible does not say that Adam’s coat was exactly like Eve’s coat, but
it does say it was the purpose that was important, and the purpose was to
cover.
2.
THE REASON OF GOD’S TRUTH ABOUT CLOTHES
When God does something, He has at least one reason. We may not know what it is, but there is always at least one. We will now look to see if we can find, within the Word of God, reasons for the commands that God gave about wearing clothes.
God’s
people are supposed to want to please God, and not men.
I
Thessalonians 4:1
Furthermore then
we beseech you, brethren, and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye
have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God,
[so] ye would abound more and more.
Is it too much to ask for one who claims to be a blood-bought saint to look like one? To act like one? To talk like one? So, in the manner of our dress, if God just hints at something, we should be studying the thing to see if there is something we should be doing. In this case, we should be getting dressed.
The
first reason we will mention for wearing godly attire is to differentiate
between the sexes. God didn’t want a
unisex society. He made man, and then
he made woman. He only made two types,
and he had (and still has) distinct ideas about the roles of each. That subject may have to be reserved for
another time. Today we are discussing
the dress of each. We know that He did
not want them dressed the same.
Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.
If something is an abomination to God, that is a pretty
strongly worded statement of how God feels about it. And here is where our built-in defense mechanism instantly
surfaces. “Oh, here we go, he’s going
to get on that pants thing again.”
Well, we might as well face it.
Why try to skirt the issue (great pun, by the way)?
Not so long ago, all nurses that you would see in a hospital
wore uniforms consisting of dresses.
Not any more. Not so long ago,
if a woman applied for an office job, she was told that she needed to wear
dresses. Not so any more. Female teachers wore dresses. They were teaching by example. There used to be a saying not so long ago,
when the woman of the house would get out of her place, that someone would say
“Well, I guess we know who wears the pants in that family.” We can’t say that any more, because everyone
wears the pants in the family.
God put a difference in the sexes in the way they looked,
and in the way He wanted them to dress.
There was a reason. He did not
want Nancy to feel or look like Bill, and did not want Bill to feel or look
like Nancy. A boy needs to understand
he is a boy, and a girl needs to understand that she is a girl. One of the most wonderful ways to make that
distinction early enough in life is to dress boys like boys and girls like
girls. Before they can even talk about
it, they know there is a difference because of the way they are dressed. Girls are dressed like mommy, and boys are
dressed like daddy, and there is to be a difference. I don’t believe you can discuss modesty in clothing without
discussing this issue because, for the most part, pants on women are not
modest. Especially the way they wear
them now, which seems to be for the express purpose of displaying the tattoo
they have on their backsides. What good
is having a tattoo if you can’t show it off?
If you ladies who are reading this believe your pants are modest, I
suggest you put them on, stand in front of a mirror, turn around, bend over (if
you can), and look behind you.
God’s reason for dress was to preserve moral and social
order. If the women kept themselves
covered, men would not run their camels into one another looking at something
that shouldn’t be shown. This does not
depend on style – it just depends on choosing something that appropriately covers
what should be covered.
Now back to that argument that they all wore the same kind
of clothes. If you look at how the
middle-easterners dress today, you will see that the “same clothes” argument is
ridiculous. Men wore an under-garment,
a rough outer coat, a girdle (John the Baptist’s was made of leather,
remember?) usually some sandals, and many time a head-wrap (especially if it
was hot). The ladies wore long, flowing
garments made of entirely different material, normally consisting of many layers
of soft, colored material, and wrapped around them, and over their heads. You could instantly tell the difference
between men’s apparel and women’s apparel.
It was not difficult at all.
Men, when they went to war or to work, many times “girded up
their loins,” or turned their shorter outer robes into something that looked
like pants, so they were freer to move, run, and flee if the enemy got too
close.
OK, that was the Old Testament. You say “But this is the 21st Century.” Yes, and God is still God. Styles may change, but God does not change. Women are to be feminine and men are to be
masculine. The line is not to be
crossed, and to do so is an abomination to God. God, to my knowledge, has never
LOWERED a standard. And He does not
change. Do you think that God would
tell those poor folks back in the Old Testament that doing something would be
an abomination, and then there would come a time when He would say that it
doesn’t make a difference any more?
It’s OK now, but it was an abomination then? I don’t think so. I don’t
like okra now, and I don’t expect to ever like it. Some things don’t change.
Men should be very much concerned that they not look like
women, and women should be very much concerned that they not look like
men. The blurring of sexual
distinctions has led to immorality in the world today, and I don’t have time to
pursue that issue at the moment.
The second reason God cares about our clothes is that He
wants us appropriately attired. We will
talk a little more about this under our third heading, but suffice it to say
that clothes send a message. That was
true in the Old Testament, and it’s true today. If you read Genesis, chapter 38, you’ll find that God killed
Tamar’s husband because he was wicked, and his brother took her to wife, as was
the established law. God slew him
also. Tamar then got upset because her
father-in-law would not give his youngest son to her as a husband. If you read the story, you will see that
Tamar changed her dress to that of a harlot, and created quite a stir among the
people. She knew that clothes made a
difference, just like we know that clothes make a difference. The difference between them and us is that
we won’t admit it. A woman dressed
inappropriately will get the attention she desires, even if she claims she
doesn’t desire it. But dressing like a
harlot has the effect of making people think you are one. Girls run around with various body parts
exposed, and then complain if the wrong guy makes the wrong move. They do not, however, complain if the right
guy makes one. Therein lies the
problem. Any time a young lady is
dressed in an inappropriate fashion, it is an advertisement to look. Looking creates desire. And we need not proceed any farther.
So God has reasons for His truth about clothes, and two of
the most important ones are to distinguish the sexes and to prevent unwarranted
and illegal behavior.
Proverbs 11:22
[As] a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, [so is] a fair woman which is without discretion.
3. THE
APPLICATION OF GOD’S TRUTH ABOUT CLOTHES
God
is eternal. Styles may change, times
may change, materials may change, fabrics may change, but God does not
change. His requirements do not
change. That means that, no matter what
the materials we have to work with, or what the custom or style, we can comply
with God’s requirements, and we should do so because we care about what God
thinks.
Here
is the application verse we will use:
I
Timothy 2:9
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
In
Paul’s day, the ladies in the gentile churches (Timothy was the pastor at
Ephesus) would attempt to out-do one another in ornamentation. That would almost be a refreshing relief
today, but I digress. They spent hours
twining their hair, and spent money on lavish wardrobes of finery, just to they
could look more prosperous than someone else.
That was the problem in the churches of that day. But God knew that there would also be
problems centuries later, with people who did not want to wear anything, so
this verse can be used to cover the whole issue.
Clothes
must be worn with a sense of shamefacedness.
We already have shown that it was a shame to be naked, and that you can
be naked and still be clothed. You can
show legs, backs, and other things that should not be displayed publicly. The clothes that are worn should reflect the
knowledge that some things are not appropriate. Some things are a shame.
Some things should be covered the way God says they should be
covered. These are the types of clothes
that should be worn.
Clothes
must be worn with a sense of sobriety.
It’s difficult to be sober when June shows up busting out all over. Sobriety means soundness of mind and
judgment. It shows unsound judgment to
wear things that God says should not be worn.
It shows unsound judgment for the fairer sex to wear things that they
know will attract the attention of the opposite sex in the wrong way and to the
wrong areas. Yes, God looks on the
inside, but everyone else has to look at the outside. The outside should be attractive in a modest, shamefaced, sober,
acceptable way. No, ladies, you do not
have to look like a washer woman in public.
But you do not have to look like a man or a harlot, either. There is an alternative, and it’s God’s
alternative.
Lastly,
Paul says that women should adorn themselves in “modest apparel.”
The
definition of the word modest, in every dictionary you will find, will include
the word “decent.” The clothing is to
be decent. Decent means it does not
reveal or accentuate the wrong things.
The
word apparel is a particularly interesting word. It does not mean just “clothing.” It is a completely different word than the word “clothing” as it
appears in other scriptures. It is the
Greek word “Katastolle.” The
root word means “to fall or let down – to flow down.” The second part of the word is the word from which we get the
word “stole.” It means to wrap
around. Paul is stating in a quite
straightforward manner, that the fairer sex is to wear something that is long
and flowing. It’s what God wants. You can apply that to any culture, any
style, any time in history, and it can be applied the same way. It’s interesting how God works it out like
that.
I’m
not sure if the clothes make the man or the woman, or if the man or woman makes
the clothes. But I know that God has a
lot to say about the subject of clothing, and it would be nice if we, who claim
to be God’s people, would apply some of it.
No,
dressing modestly will not get you into heaven, but I guarantee you that
everyone in heaven will be dressed modestly.
God
Bless,
Doc
Trin