Lust is such a hard thing to avoid as each man is triggered by different things. Some may be triggered by a woman's hair, some by a woman's eyes, some by a woman's smile, etc etc. So how can I prevent all these different lusts? Am I not supposed to smile? Am I not supposed to open my eyes when in the presence of a man? Of course not. All we can do as sisters is do our very best, follow scripture and the convictions God has laid upon each one of us.
I personally feel the best way I can do this is to dress modestly. That will help many boys and men stray away from lust. I have my own convictions on what is modest as does each one of you, that does not make it wrong per-say as long as we are obeying God's word on the topic and we feel that He has made our convictions and not that we are making our convictions His...
What is modest?
The Bible has this to say:
1 Timothy 2:9 - In 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.
The word "modest" in greek is kosmios (2887). This greek word is used in 1 Timothy 3:2 as "of good behavior". In greek, kosmios is defined as well ordered, orderly, that is to say well behaved, discreet, decorous for the useage of "modest" in 1 Tim 2:9 and well ordered, of persons, orderly, well behaved, discreet, etc for the useage of "good behavior" in 1 Tim 3:2.
The greek word for apparel is katastolē (2689). The only place this word is used is in this verse. It is defined as "equipment, dress, properly a long garment or robe reaching down to the feet" which is derived from katastellō (2687) meaning to "send or let down".
Array is defined (from the greek word) as apparel. This last statement adds to the modest part that we should not wear expensive apparel. Each of us has our own convictions on what "expensive" means. The greek word for "costly" does not give us a price point, it simply says "the very uttermost or highest cost, very expensive or costly". We are left to determine what is expensive and what is not.
I still struggle with some aspects of the Biblical definition of a Christian woman in 1 Tim 2:9. I once wore earrings and a necklace. I no longer regularly wear them but I still do want to wear the earrings every once in a while. I wear a watch, but I do not feel that a watch is "jewelry" per-say because it has a practical use, although some of the watches that are sold today are very well jewelry. It all depends on the style in which one chooses. Even though the definition of katastolē is "reaching down to the feet" I do not feel convicted that my dresses have to reach the floor. Some of them do, but not all of them. Some of my skirts are mid-calf length and for working I truly do not feel that is inappropriate. Maybe one day my convictions will change, but right now, I do not feel like I am dishonoring the Lord by wearing a little bit shorter dress or skirt.
The only part in the verse discussing a woman's hair says that it should not be braided, however, the greek definition for braided hair is "broided hair (sometimes wrongly printed as broidered or braided) anything twined or plaited". This leads me to believe that it may not necessarily be the same as what we would think of as braided today. Scripture does not tell us the exact style we must wear our hair in.
Modest does not mean old-time or "unfashionable". You can be fashionable and modest at the same time. By fashionable I mean, not prarie (or Amish) as is what a lot of our society thinks of when someone says modest. If someone attends a church where their dress is dictated, then so be it, she should follow the rules set out by her church, but if she does not have those rules set for her, there are so many varieties of modest dress. None of them are the "right" one and nor are any of the styles "wrong" as long as the woman feels convicted by the Lord.
Blessings in Christ,
I look at this passage as having a general theme which is display of wealth through your appearence. Having broided hair in that time could mean that you had for example gold threads in your hair and very elaborate hairstyles and that is the reason for forbidding broided hair. I braid my hair in one or two braids almost every day but I do not have tons of them and no gold so that is OK I think. I wear a silver engagement ring and silver hoop earrings and on occation I wear jewellery. I have several watches which I switch between. I feel OK with having simple earrings and a simple ring along with my watch and I do not plan to give them up. They do not signal wealth and I think that is the key here and not that you cannot adorn yourself at all.
ReplyDeleteRegarding modesty, you can never dress yourself so that you can guarantee that no one is attracted to you, I even heard a man from a muslim country say that he was attracted to the movement of the fabric of a woman wearing the nikab... But, we can dress modestly and I think that the most important part of dressing modest is that it is a signal of how we want to be treated, like modest and serious Christian women and not as someone whose main focus is to make men attracted to them. We are not sending mixed messages basically. I, like you, wear skirts that are shorter than to the floor, and I do not feel bad about that. I think that the model of the dress is more important and that shorter dresses are helpful when working or running. I believe that Christianity allows us to make the desicion if the gain of wearing a slightly shorter skirt is higher than the possibility of our leg causing too much distraction to the opposite sex. We were given the freedom in Christ to read the bible and then make an informed desicion with the guidelines given.
Wow! I wish I was able to express myself as wonderfully as you did! I completely agree with you on the modesty part. I hadn't thought about the broided hair as having gold threads running through it... I braid my hair every night to keep it out of my way and will braid it every once in a while during the day.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment :)