“… For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7

If I could only count the number of times that someone has used this verse to justify their actions. People like to focus on the last part of this verse. “The Lord sees my heart! He knows what my intention is! I have a good heart! I don’t care what people think of me—I only care what God thinks!” This sounds good, for sure, but is it truly the right attitude to have?

Yes, it is true that the Lord looks at our heart.
Yes, it is true that the Lord sees our true motives.

But it is also true that man (or generally, people) look at the outward appearance. The old adage is worryingly accurate: You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

As Christian, we bear a great responsibility. We are not simply responsible to reflect our own individual clothing style, but we are responsible to reflect the character of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 states that “we are ambassadors for Christ.” Just a few verses before that, we learn that we have been given “the ministry of reconciliation.”

Yes, the Lord looks at the heart… but there are people, sinners and saints, who look constantly at our outward appearance. They gain insight of our character by our clothing. For the sake of our Lord, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the eternal destiny of souls... let us continually seek to Lord to be accurate ambassadors for Him in the silent speech of our clothing.

Modesty begins with our attitude towards God.

As we said yesterday, humility is one of the motives for modesty. Humility recognizes the greatness of God and the smallness of me. In the context of modesty, humility seeks that others be attracted to God, rather than attracted to me. It takes humility to purposely avoid clothing that screams “LOOK AT ME!” I know! I go shopping sometimes, too! Besides the obvious worldly bent towards sensuality, it seems that any clothing article has a hidden agenda to get you noticed.

In 1 Timothy 2:9, Paul urges “that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control…”

Here is someone that explains the link between modesty & humility much better than I could. In the words of C.J. Mahaney :

“Modesty means propriety. It means avoiding clothes and and adornment that are extravagant or sexually enticing. Modesty is humility expressed in dress. It’s a desire to serve others, particularly men, by not promoting or provoking sensuality.

"Immodesty, then is much more than wearing a short skirt or low-cut top; it’s the act of drawing undue attention to yourself. It’s pride, on display, by what you wear.

"Self-control is, in a word, restraint. Restraint for the purpose of purity; restraint for the purpose of exalting God and not ourselves. Together, these attitudes of modesty and self-control should be the hallmark of the godly woman’s dress.”

If you ever have studied fashion—even in the most cursory way—you might notice the outrageousness that characterizes the runway shows. I have read articles about how to bring runway fashions into your normal life without looking like a freak. It made me wonder, why didn’t they just design beautiful normal clothes to begin with? Seems like a bit too much effort to me.

My point is though, the fashion world strives for the outrageous, the unique, and most eye-catching clothes. Note the last adjective: Eye-catching. And here lies the heart of the matter.

Modesty isn’t just about avoiding sexually suggestive clothing, though that is part of it. Modesty is also about avoiding clothing that only exists to draw attention to self. Clothing can be so distracting that it is immodest… And have I got a story for you!

My parents have always set standards of modesty in clothing for my sister and I. My mom would gauge the appropriateness of our clothing, and then if my dad didn’t think it was good when we came home-that article of clothing went right back to the store. (That didn’t happen very often though. We usually got it right the first time).

As a teenager, style was pretty important to me. My sister was “preppy,” and I liked to call myself “edgy.” Meaning I loved silver and black and anything that sparkled and shined. I liked to be different.

Anyway, I must’ve been about 18 or 19 when I bought a certain pair of sparkly silver dress pants. You have NEVER seen anything like these pants. They reflected the light blindingly from about a mile away! And me, in my ignorance and immaturity, wore them one Sunday morning when I was leading worship. I remember a twinge of conscience saying “maybe I shouldn’t,” but I quieted myself and wore them anyway.

It wasn’t too long after this when someone came to speak with me with love and concern about my clothes, and especially that particular outfit. And I realized quickly that instead my “fashion sense” being on display before my friends, it was only my sinful pride shown plainly for all to see. While I don’t believe those dress pants would be appropriate in any setting now, they were especially inappropriate in the house of God while I was serving in leading God’s people in worship. What an obvious exhibition of the state of my heart—and my motives.

One of the greatest motives of modesty: Humility.

I said that the Modesty Series would return... And here it is! I've been more than a little distracted by the whole house ownership thing, with all my free time going to construction or housework or the various other ministry responsibilities of my life. And since blogging Biblically actually takes serious study, a.k.a. time., this series had to go on a little sabbatical. But it's ba-a-ack! Woot.

The Motives for Modesty

It's easy to become obsessed with the outward manifestations of modesty/immodesty. Those things are obvious. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, "...Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." The Lord is concerned with the root, not just the fruit in our lives. What makes us dress modestly? Or immodestly? What drives our actions? What causes us to make each decision to put on certain clothes?

The first motive-and the greatest-is to please God.

"Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness."
1 Timothy 2:9-10

The Word is very clear. If we claim to be Christians, we must dress modestly. This is an issue of simple obedience. God said it, so we have to do it.

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
John 14:15

More tomorrow as we continue to look at the motives for modesty.
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Self-Questions:
Is it my intention to please God with how I dress?
When I get dressed, is my primary motive to obey God?
Am I motivated by my love for the Lord? or love of the world?
Do I struggle with obedience in this area? Why?

The issue of modesty isn't just about how much clothes we wear, but why we should wear clothes at all! (This is quite shocking, isn't it? I believe in getting to the heart of the matter). So we're gonna start this series at the beginning... of time, of people and of the Bible.
To bring you up to speed, I'll tell the story quickly. God created man and woman. They were sinless. They lived in paradise. There was no modesty, because there were no clothes.

"And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."
Genesis 2:25

I can hear the liberals screaming now. "See!!! Nudity was God's idea!!" Hold on a minute. Let's look at the rest of the story: Sin happened.

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings."
Genesis 3:7

The first impulse of sinful man was to cover himself. To put on some clothes!! Because without sin, there is no lust. Without lust, there is no shame in nakedness. But now that sin has entered the world, covering one's body is instinct.

Modesty is necessary because of man's sin nature.

Side note: Sometimes girls like to put off their responsibility to dress modestly by saying, "Well, it's not my problem if the guys can't keep their mind outta the gutter!" May I suggest that according to these Scriptures, it is your problem! It is the sin nature of all mankind that made modesty necessary. Take some responsibility, ladies, and cover yourselves!!

Modesty. This poor word has been maligned and twisted and mocked in popular culture. It's probably right up there with "abstinence" as the most hated words of our time. And that's why I'm gonna talk about it! Well, actually I'm gonna talk about it because modesty is a command of the Lord. And I'm serious about obeying the Lord in everything--even the tough parts.

Modesty. Are you shuddering yet? I'll just have to keep saying the word... Modesty is a concept that seems to have disappeared from our modern world, and to our shame, from the Church. I can't count the times that I've been scrolling through pictures on Facebook of Christian friends and quickly glanced over my shoulder to see if my brother was nearby. Or a girl walks into church and I subconsciously check my own shirt to see if I am covered properly. Because of Christians' shameless clothing, I am ashamed. Christian girls wearing miniskirts and bikinis and low-cut shirts---clothing in which my face would flame in embarassment to be caught wearing in front of any man of God, not to mention my holy Lord. Almost daily I am shocked by the degradation of true feminism. Girls making themselves into objects of lust and inordinate desires because of the clothing they wear.

Modesty is relevant because I can't walk through the grocery store checkout line without turning my face away from some half-(or less)dressed girl on a magazine cover. I can't watch a movie without realizing that I couldn't dress like that. Many times I have preached the Word in youth group and been saddened by seeing someone who needs more clothes.

Modesty is about humility. Modesty is about self-control. Modesty is about unselfishness. Modesty is about loving the Body. Modesty is about holiness. Modesty is about obedience.

Modesty isn't some fringe/freak show thing for the Amish or the Mennonites. Modesty is about putting attention back where it belongs--on Christ and His Gospel.

I encourage you to stick around as we look at the Word in the next few days... and see what the Lord has to say about modesty.