CHARM is DECEPTIVE, and BEAUTY is FLEETING, but a woman who FEARS the LORD is to be PRAISED . Proverbs 31:30

8/17/10

Naked, and Not Ashamed

Modesty?
Who defines it?
After many conversations, and many observations, it appears to me that different people have different ideas.

As a teenager, I was definitely not modest.
My intention was to capture "guys" attention.

As a woman, I still desire to be attractive for my husband,
but I realize over the years that I have used that as an excuse.

Looking back, it seems to be a sneaky deception of satan.
He gently whispers,
"It's okay to dress sexy and look hot, as long as it IS for your husband".
I might capture him, but who else have I captured?

BUT, what is the purpose of covering ourselves?
Of everything that I have heard, I LOVE Piper's explanation:

"Then God Clothed Them...................

So what does it mean that God clothed them with animal skins? Was he confirming their hypocrisy? Was he aiding and abetting their pretense? If they were naked and shame-free before the Fall, and if they put on clothes to minimize their shame after the Fall, then what is God doing by clothing them even better than they can clothe themselves? I think the answer is that he is doing something with a negative message and something with a positive message.


Negatively, he is saying, You are not what you were and you are not what you ought to be. The chasm between what you are and what you ought to be is huge.


Covering yourself with clothing is a right response to this—not to conceal it, but to confess it. Henceforth, you shall wear clothing, not to conceal that you are not what you should be, but to confess that you are not what you should be. One practical implication of this is that public nudity today is not a return to innocence but rebellion against moral reality. God ordains clothes to witness to the glory we have lost, and it is added rebellion to throw them off.



And for those who rebel in the other direction and make clothes themselves a means of power and prestige and attention getting, God’s answer is not a return to nudity but a return to simplicity (1 Timothy 2:9-10; 1 Peter 3:4-5). Clothes are not meant to make people think about what is under them. Clothes are meant to direct attention to what is not under them: Arms and hands that serve others in the name of Christ, “beautiful” feet that carry the gospel to where it is needed, and the brightness of a face that has beheld the glory of Jesus."

 
You can read the whole message  Here.
This text was taken from "Staying Married is not about staying in love" Part 2

3 comments:

Jenny said...

Very good... a lesson many of us have had to learn the hard way.

Charity said...

I also like CJ Mahaney's definition: "Modesty is humility expressing itself in the way we dress" (that's a paraphrase - I can't remember his exact wording) The point is to draw attention to Christ and not to ourselves!

JanAl said...

I have heard, and also like his definition. :]