The Theology of Modesty

Luke 6: 45, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

Matthew 15: 18, 19, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

Mark 7, 21-22, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”

Modesty isn’t simply about what we put on our bodies. A woman’s theology speaks loudly in her choice of clothing. At the foundational level, modesty is about what is in our hearts. An evil heart, unchanged by God, shows itself in evil deeds; a pure heart, redeemed by the blood of the Savior, shows itself in godliness. If Christ has saved us, we will be daily in the process of being conformed to His image. A holy heart will be a modest heart and the woman possessing it will dress herself in modest apparel.

A woman who loudly proclaims her “right” to dress as she pleases, proves herself to be carnal. A godly woman who realizes she has no “rights” will seek to please the One Who has, by His death in her behalf, saved her; her clothing will show her allegiance to her Lord and her care and concern for her Christian brothers. She will do nothing that will not honor God or that will cause hindrance to her fellow pilgrims.

Modesty then comes down to holiness. God is holy, He calls us to be holy, also. When we are saved, we are transformed from darkness into light by the blood of the Savior; we are then holy in God’s sight. After we are saved, we will, due to the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, grow in outward holiness: things that we once embraced will now sicken us by their debauchery. Very new Christians, improperly taught Christians, might struggle for a time and all can sin; however, if a person who claims to be a child of God shows no true change over time (and excuses it away by falsely claiming their “liberty” to live as they wish), they show themselves to be unregenerate and a child of the devil rather than a child of God.

Much of the problem of immodesty in the church today is a result of goats masquerading as sheep. Unregenerate church members will care nothing about holiness because they aren’t holy; they will not grow in godliness because God does not indwell them; therefore, immodesty among unregenerate women (and among women improperly taught) will be a problem. The rest of the problem is the result of not seeing God as worthy, of not taking His Word seriously, of not seeing sin for the treason against a holy God that it is; it is also the result of culturally pleasing preaching, weak church leadership and Dads failing to lead in their homes. God can’t be pleased.

God is holy; He demands that His people be holy, also. If we have failed in this, we have sinned by not taking God’s Word seriously, by not having a high view of God and by not having seen Him as worthy of our obedience. We must repent. Men who have failed to guide the church into holiness, who have failed to preach holiness or have failed to lead their families in holy living, must repent and, by God’s grace and guidance, must become holy in their leadership and in their teaching. Women who have not desired to live holy lives, to dress their bodies as becomes holy women, must repent and must seek to be holy in their lives and in their manner of dress. This isn’t legalism; it’s the result of regenerated souls taking our holy God seriously. When we are serious about Him and His Word, when we have a high view of Almighty God, when we are serious about holiness and see sin for what it is, we will, finally, once again, be serious about modesty.