Modesty Series: What Are My Clothes Saying? - Part 1

Look at my body.

I'm available.

Look, but don't touch.

Either I don't care what God thinks, or I haven't thought about what God thinks.

Female beauty is defined by sexuality.

The comments above are the responses of a participants who were asked to look at various pictures of women from popular magazines and the say what message the pictures were sending.

None of the comments are surprising when you really think about the way in which women are usually portrayed in magazines, music, movies, and videos. In fact, during this time in American history, if someone could make a very long list of things we are lacking in, sensuality, sex, and seduction, would not be on it.

In Modesty: Does God Really Care What I Wear? , Nancy Leigh DeMoss explains,

"Now clothing also communicates a message, sends a message, about our values, our character, our attitudes...For example, in Proverbs 7:10 we read this phrase . . . it's talking about a seductive woman, and she's married, and she's trying to lure a man who is not her husband into her bedroom.

It said that she had on the "attire of a harlot." Now, it doesn't describe in that passage what that clothing looked like. But when I say that, is there an image that comes to your mind?

The woman is dressed in a way that you can look at her and see that her motives are not pure toward this man. There's another passage in Genesis 38 that talks about a woman named Tamar, who was a widow and she wanted to seduce a man that she was not married to.

The Scripture says in Genesis 38:14 that "she took off her widow's garments." There was a specific type of clothing that would have communicated that she was a widow. She changed her clothes, and she put on the clothing of a prostitute.

The man she was trying to seduce knew her. In fact, he was her father-in-law. But when she changed her clothes, he didn't recognize who she was. He just looked at her clothes; he believed she was a prostitute, and he went in and was sexually intimate with her. Now, I say that not at all to justify him but just to say that clothing sends a message.

Women today are sending a message with their clothing. Many of them know exactly what message they're sending, but some are naive. They don't realize what they're sending. They've been so influenced by this culture that they don't know any other way to think about clothing."

If someone can have on the "attire of a harlot" then someone can have on "the attire of a godly woman." What's the difference?

In the midst of an over-sexualized culture that values the outward appearance above the character, what does God want from Christian women?

What message do people hear when they see us? What message does God want us to send?

I had so much to say on this issue, I had to break it up. Look for Part 2! Its coming soon!