Is there a biblical dress code?
Hi.
Welcome to today's little lesson.
Thanks so much for joining me.
I just want to tell you, you look beautiful today.
We're continue with a previous little lesson's topic where we discussed a question that's
been sent to us numerous times about if it's okay for women to wear makeup.
If you didn't see that little lesson, you might want to try to find it just by searching
for that topic, and you will find it.
I want to go a little further today and talk about proper dress, and in our previous little
lesson I did point out the widely known and acknowledged fact that God made men to be
attracted to women.
Men are very visually oriented, and they can recognize beauty in form and in face, and
women that are unmarried who are hoping to attract a husband naturally, naturally think
about, "How I can be attractive and not just in my character, because some guy is not just
going to marry my character.
They're going to marry me, the total me."
So what about dress standards?
There are groups that kind of have a uniform code particularly for the women, and women
often think that this is unfair, and I guess it is, but it's a biological fact that men
are different than women, right?
And they're different in a lot of ways.
For that reason, this is why scripture has more to say about women's dress than it does
men's dress, because men are sexual creatures who are designed by God to be attracted sexually
to a woman's form.
I'm just keeping it unspecific and fairly general here, but you can fill in the blanks,
but men like to look at women.
And dear wives, can I just share with you that there are a million prostitutes trying
to get the attention of your husband?
When I say that, I hope you understand what I'm saying.
Within advertising and out in public because of immodest fashion, and at the beach, and
you name it, men are bombarded with sexual imagery all the time.
The women that are participating in that, they obviously know what they're doing.
They're in essence prostitutes.
They're probably doing it in advertising, of course, to gain money, and in other scenarios
doing it to gain money just like a prostitute, not necessarily engaging in sexual activity,
but heading in that direction.
They're in that group, you see?
So men are bombarded all the time, and so it's wise for wives to be aware of that and,
you know, well, like the bible says don't defraud.
Both husbands and wives, don't defraud one another of conjugal rights and everything
that goes along with that.
Okay?
Maybe I'll do a little lesson specifically on that topic at some point in time, but here's
something in the scripture that gives some guidance as far as women's dress, and it doesn't
set dress lengths or name certain garments and so forth.
You know, it's general.
Everybody has to kind of interpret it the way that they best can, and it is different
from culture to culture, may I add and I might explain that if I get time.
Paul writes to Timothy, "I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing," and so there
must have been at that time what Paul considered to be improper clothing.
He goes on to quickly specifically define that, what's proper.
The very first word is "modestly and discreetly," and so there is the key word, modesty.
Now, it is my opinion that that does vary from culture to culture.
Our culture that I live in is so immodest that it's unbelievably immodest.
Women parade around half naked in public, and so a less modest woman who might be immodest
by biblical standards could, in a sense, don't be writing me evil letters about this, could
be considered to be modest within the context of our culture because no one is looking at
her because, yeah, you can see a bit of a form under her clothing, but she's not exposing
her flesh for the world to see.
Okay?
The more modest, the better, but I don't necessarily think that we should expect women to be wearing
a certain garb that's just like a bed sheet with a hole in it thrown over them.
The bible does speak about a lady in the bible.
I think it was Rachel, who she was beautiful of form and face, so there must have been
some form coming through there.
Okay?
Please don't write me any hate mail, okay?
Modestly and discreetly, "not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly garments,
but rather by means of good wok."
See, Paul is focusing on the character issues here.
Be beautiful in your character, in your internal person, "as befits women making a claim to
godliness."
So I don't think that Paul is outlawing braiding of hair or wearing jewelry to some degree.
He's saying "costly garments."
You don't want to be wasting your money on clothes unnecessarily because you could laying
up treasure in heaven with that same money, so it's quite vain to be spending lots and
lots of money on your clothing.
My understanding is back in that day it was customary for wealthy women to be ... these
intricate braids that would take hours and hours to weave, and there'd be pearls and
gold woven in, so these elaborate hairdos that would take hours and hours and hours
to get the finished product.
Okay?
If I'm wrong about that, I'm wrong about that, but I just can't see the harm in a woman clipping
or putting earrings or some kind of jewelry on to try to make herself more attractive
if that's what, if she's a married woman, that's what her husband wants.
Okay?
And as long as they're not costly.
Okay?
Peter also wrote about this.
"Let not your adornment be merely external," and he also cites, "braiding the hair, wearing
gold jewelry, putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with
the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight
of God."
So there's the call once again for making sure the hidden person is beautiful, more
so than the external person, but this does not mean that just because you made yourself
as ugly and unattractive as you possibly can that that means that you've got a beautiful
inward person.
Don't try to fool yourself in that as some people do, okay?
All right.
I guess that's enough said.
Thank you so much for joining me.
I ask your forgiveness for any offense that I've caused in this little lesson.
God bless you.