The Journey

What does it say about our society when you turn to almost any television commercial and you have an immodestly dressed woman trying to sell you both the product and her body. Sex sells, plain and simple. So, through every medium imaginable, you have a hot blonde in scantly dressed clothes peddling every thing from toothpaste to microwave popcorn.

This kind of stuff really shouldn't shock us in our 21st century world. However, when you go to church and see ladies who would call themselves Christian, dressed in similiar scantly attire, you begin to get concerned. Now, I could list various Bible verses that encourage modest dress and propriety, but I won't. You can look those verses up for yourselves. Instead, ladies, I would like you to consider the way you dress with regard to your witness to the rest of the world, especially with warmer weather on its way.

Consider the musings of a very thoughtful, twenty one year old young woman named Anna who throws down the gauntlet for Missional modesty:

"We talk about modesty a lot in the church, don't we? And yet we as Christian women are often reluctant to commit to it. There seem to be so few clothing options. Or it seems to be confining and subservient. Or it's too much trouble to think about specific standards for ourselves. The list of excuses/cop-outs could go on and on. And the list of reasons for modesty could go on and on, too. But I want to give you one that we don't often think about: we should be modest to serve the witness and testimony of the church around the world.

I read Daughters of Hope: Stories of Witness and Courage in the Face of Persecution for one of my classes last semester. The author visited persecuted Christian women around the world and interviewed them, learning their stories and their thoughts on the Christian life. When the team visited women from the Arab world, they were given a fresh insight from these incredible women. The author writes, "Many Arab Christian women reinforced the link between their witness and the behavior of Christians in the West. ‘It does terrible damage to Christians who are risking their lives when nonbelievers can point to the decadence of American Christians. Please remind the women and girls to dress modestly, to be kind to others and to show generosity.'"

Wow. Just wow. What a motivation for modesty. Many in the Arab world associate Christianity with Western culture. And when American Christians live decadent, immoral lives, we are harming the witness of Arab Christians on the other side of the world. I find it interesting that the first thing the Arab woman who made that statement mentioned was the need for women and girls to be modest.

Modesty means that we dress in a way that does not draw inappropriate attention to our bodies, that is honorable and not distracting or manipulative. It means that we seek to set godly standards for ourselves in this area, instead of being careless about it. I would love to see - and I am beginning to see - a subculture of American Christian women who have made the commitment to honor Christ and Christians around the world by being modest."

http://hoperoadblog.com/2008/01/29/modesty-for-worldwide-witness/