Christian Modesty Part 1

I know many people have said that any more discussion about modesty is beating a dead horse and we need to stop and focus on more important issues. Modesty in the church is still an issue, therefore I think it still needs to be discussed and once again I will throw in my two cents about modesty. I love studying the true historic meaning of words, and this post is based upon my study of words. English has lost so much strength in our time, so many words have been corrupted, changed or lost meaning, it is amazing how the King James Bible comes to life when you study it with an old dictionary on hand. 

We know that in Genesis, God calls nakedness a shame, so building on that we know that we need to wear some clothes. I think all of us would agree that we as Christians should be wearing something, where the modesty debate starts to get bloody is when we ask how much is enough. How much skin? How tight? Which skin? In Leviticus we are commanded not to look on other peoples nakedness.What is nakedness anyway? Paul says that women should be modest. What is modest?  In Genesis Adam and Eve were ashamed of their nakedness after they ate the fruit and they made aprons, an apron usually covered the front of the body to protect the clothes, it could be from the neck down to mid thigh or lower, or it could start lower, like at the waist, think blacksmith's apron. God did not think this covering was sufficient, and I would like to say, if he considered it insufficient, then could it be that the apron is classified as nakedness? I don't know, I still need to study that word. Anyway, God made them coats. What is a coat? We all have them, a coat by the old definition and most modern definitions is a piece of clothing that goes from the collar bone/neck to mid thigh length or lower and is usually worn for warmth or protection. So, a piece of clothing that covers from the collar bone or so, to at least mid thigh is sufficient. That is what God considered sufficient, seeing he could have made anything, and that is what he chose. We need to then think of the details. If we assume this person in a coat is standing, we can assume everything under the fabric is supposed to be covered. So the coat must be sufficiently tight and long to prevent movement causing exposure of that which is meant to be covered. We should also keep in mind that a coat is not tight or form fitting. We need to realize that form fitting clothing can be often just about as revealing as no clothes at all.

In conclusion, God wants us in modest clothing, and he gave us a standard to follow, we should just obey him. If we are upset at his standard and want to push against it, we need to ask, why? Here is another thought, there is no “less modest” or “more modest” it is rather, are you sufficiently covered that is, modest, or are you insufficiently covered, that is, naked. I may be wrong but I think it is defined that simply in scripture. BTW, I am not speaking to girls only here, guys you need to keep your shirt on too. You need to get rid of your skinny jeans and your speedos and wear some clothes. Us guys tend to get away with a lot, we need to man up and set the example. We need to stop telling girls to dress modestly when we are taking our shirts off and saying modesty for men doesn't matter. Okay, well, let the flames fly, I did it, I said there is actually a standard that we need to follow in dress.

P.S. I did more study and came up with some new information since I wrote this, so I decided that I will write a part 2.