Acting and Dressing Like a Harlot

Acting and Dressing Like a Harlot

Many women today dress and act like harlots. A harlot is a woman who prostitutes her body for hire and who forsakes the true God and worships idols. We must study how a harlot dresses and acts to make sure we don’t resemble one in any way.

“And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtil of heart” (Proverbs 7:10).

What is the attire of a harlot? It is “showy gaudy (extravagant and costly) garments (in contrast to modest apparel and not costly array – 1 Timothy 2:8-10), such as the Athenian whores wore, or short ones, as the Romans; the word signifies one fitted to her body, neat and well shaped, to recommend her: so the woman, the whore of Rome, is said to be arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls; signifying the outward pomp and splendour of the Romish religion, designed to captivate weak and unwary minds;” and “some conspicuous garments, very different from the sober clothing of the pure and modest.”

Expensive, short, and tightly fitted defines the attire of the harlot, according to Gill’s Exposition which is a commentary that was written in the 1700s. I don’t believe the definition has changed any in the past 300 years! Is your clothing expensive, short, and/or tightly fitted? If so, you most likely are dressing like a harlot.

As godly women, we are to wear clothing that doesn’t cost a lot since we are to be moderate in everything. We need to be more concerned about our inner person than what we look like on the outside. Our culture caters to women’s appearance. You can’t even scroll through Facebook without getting many ads of women’s clothing to buy.

Our clothing shouldn’t be tightly fitting like most clothing is today and it shouldn’t be considered short. It should be pure and modest since we are called to be shamefaced which means not drawing attention to ourselves. Ask your husband what is and is not modest since he is head over you and dress to please him only.

What does subtil of heart mean and how can we make sure that we aren’t subtil of heart like a harlot? This refers to a “mistress of all artful and intriguing methods to seduce and ensnare; or, ‘reserved of heart’, cautious and wary what she said, told everything that was encouraging, but kept back what was discouraging; or she kept her own heart to herself, while she stole the hearts of others;… she hides her real feelings, feigning, perhaps, affection for a husband, or love for her paramour (lover), while she seeks only to satisfy her evil passions.”

In other words, she tries to seduce men with not only what she wears but by what she says and how she acts. She only seeks to satisfy her evil passions. She is deceitful. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She uses her body to manipulate men and get what she wants, not caring who she hurts in the process.

We are called to be completely opposite of this. We are careful how we dress, what we say, and how we act because our aim is to please our Lord and Savior, the lover of our soul; the only thing that we have that will last forever. Our eyes are on eternity and storing our treasures there instead of trying to get what we want on this earth. We love our own husband and children deeply and would never do anything to bring them harm like having an affair. We love working hard in our homes and caring for others. Everything that we do, we do with the aim of heavenly, not earthly, rewards. We love and live for Jesus.

But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1 Peter 3:4

25 thoughts on “Acting and Dressing Like a Harlot

  1. Very needed post. Thank you.
    I decided to go to MeWe because Facebook ads are so annoying.
    Sharing your excellent posts there.

  2. Everything I wear is from the thrift store, hand me downs or clearance racks!! I hate spending too much on clothes…I actually worry sometimes that makes me cheap….but I try to just think of it as being frugal! :o)

  3. I find most women today claim that they dress up in this way because it’s fun, makes them feel confident, and they just love to do it. You rarely get anyone admitting they are trying to get men’s attention. How do we deal with this? Some women I flat out don’t believe when they say this, but others really do seem to just enjoy it and dress for themselves. What angle can we come from when trying to talk to them about it when they truly aren’t trying to be seductive?

  4. I am blesed with the gift of been able to sew; so I can clothe myself for very little and still have designer clothes that are one offs and I can make my dresses girly with lace of my choice. I love sewing, Knitting and just about any craft thing so it helps me being frugal with my wardrobe. ????

  5. Thank you, Elizabeth. I have not heard of MeWe. I will have to check it out. Facebook has gotten so political, too, in shutting down conservative voices but I don’t allow that to bother me since I know that He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world. As hard as they try, they will not be able to shut up truth!

  6. I don’t know if you remember TheJoyFilledWife who used to write some posts for me but she rarely bought herself clothes. She simply didn’t want to spend money on herself when she could spend it on others who needed it more. She is such a wise woman! It sounds like you are, too, Katy!

  7. I have found that most of them don’t listen to me when I have spoken privately to them, GT. They want to live the way they want to live. They don’t respect any authority in their lives so they won’t listen. It’s a sad state of the Church today.

  8. What a wonderful gift that you have, Jilly! I am sure as clothing becomes more and more immodest a lot of us are going to have to pull out our sewing machines from years gone by and begin sewing our own clothes!

  9. Isaiah 3 speaks to this, and as her heart condition. Note that these are women of the church, His people, “daughters of Zion”: “haughty, outstretched necks, wanton eyes, mincing, jingling their feet…” And “the Lord will uncover their secret parts,” making presumably for some manner of prostitution and abuse. The Lord will take away their “jingling anklets, nose jewels,’ etc. Instead of a ‘sweet smell’ to heaven, there is a ‘stench.’ And she will become ‘desolate,’ and ‘lament and mourn.’

    This is what so many women of the church have in their heart. Interestingly, just last night, a friend of mine was telling me that 35 yrs ago when he was dating, it was the women of the church that IMMEDIATELY wanted to go to bed and not the women that did not go to church, so he stopped seeing women of the church. Being scripturally blunt: they were whores.

  10. We were premarital counselors at our local church for awhile and the couple who were in charge of it had been for 30 years. They said nowadays that almost all couples are living together before marriage, even those raised in the church and sadly, most “Christian” women look no differently than those in the world. It does take a heart transformation to want to please the Lord rather than the flesh.

  11. I have been trying to teach myself to sew, it is hard to find cute modest clothes that are also affordable so I have been slowly attempting to learn lol.

  12. There are patterns available for modest clothing to sew. I don’t know your style, but a blog that I read has some info. It is Homejoys. The writer is Mennonite. If this is too strict for you, might I suggest that you peruse older patterns. The 1950’s and ’60’s dress patterns are modest. Believe me, I know.. That’s what I use! Best of luck to you!! Sewing is such a joy, as well as a stress reliever!!!

  13. Great post and reminder. We have a niece who constantly draws attention to herself with tight clothing and loud talk. She cannot stand it if she is not the center of attention-especially male attention-even though she is married. Her husband even brags about buying her a set of implants. She really started with the low cut clothes after that.

    I do not know what is wrong with these people, they claim to be Christian. Even our sons were loathe to be around her because of this, and she just could not understand why. I prayed that she would be changed or removed from our daily lives, and soon after she was transferred to the orient for several years. Her husband cannot work in their new country, so he followed her career and is now a house husband. They refuse to have children and are just living for stuff and vacations/experiences. It is sad to watch. We just try to be kind and pray for them. Thanks again for your brave teachings.

  14. The Duggar’s are right on the hair thing…hair is very important to men. A simple dress but beautiful hair can go very far.

    I disagree with the ‘stretchy’ clothes the married Duggar girls wear…the t-shirt with the stretchy long skirt…it’s modest sure…but it has no dignity.

    I think a problem that we are having is that there isn’t much nice clothing anymore. Let’s take wedding dresses…most are glued-on-lace ‘sausage’ dresses made in China.

    I know we are fatter than we were a few decades ago…but the designs themselves are so cheap and oddly constructed.

    If you google vintage clothing from the 50s and 70s…there is really a wide range of creativity and beauty with a genuine thought towards flattering the figure. You don’t see that now.

  15. I love thrift shopping too! I don’t think it makes you cheap. 🙂 Besides being much cheaper and often better quality, there’s more variety too.

    Hehe, some of us don’t like looking like a manikin that just walked out of Wal-mart, shirt 3.99, pants 7.99. 🙂

  16. You talked about “dressing in a way that pleases your husband” what if my husband prefers tight clothes what should I do as a Christian wife?

  17. Yes, I used to dress and act like a harlot. I worked in the advertising industry and earned commission on sales. When I had a meeting with a client, I would ask myself how they would like to see me dressed. I would wear tight and revealing clothes, short skirts and bold makeup. The more sexual I dressed and acted the easier the sale. Was I a whore? Yes I was. I was using my sexuality to earn money, and I was rewarded well by my manager. I even found that the sale was easier if I removed my wedding rings before the meeting.

    Even though I had been born and raised a Christian, I slowly drifted away never really knowing it and always being able to justify my actions. It took the almost breakup of my marriage for me to see the light. An older woman in our church took me under her guidance and I am very grateful to her. It was a long and slow and tortuous transition back to the ways of our Lord. My husband is a wonderful provider and I was able to quit my job and become a homemaker for him. Submitting myself to God and my husband rather than my manager at work was difficult, but it was the only way.

    When I go out in public now, I always cover my hair with a headscarf and wear long flowing skirts and cover my arms. It reminds me that I am not there to draw the attention of strangers. I still get dressed up, but my routine has changed. I dress and do my hair and makeup in the afternoon in preparation for my husbands return from work. I still feel ashamed of my past lifestyle and pray every day for His forgiveness.

  18. Having just seen a youth at work with such short shorts that her nakedness was exposed, I too have just written a post on Why Modesty Matters for Christian Women. She dresses like a Harlot and shows no shame in doing so.
    Thankfully the Lord has been opening my own eyes to some of the wrong items in my wardrobe. I have been searching on the internet for other writers on this subject, hence finding your blog today.
    Very interesting it is too.
    God bless,
    Helen

  19. It is hard to find modest clothing but you can find cute, modest, affordable clothing if you look hard enough. Also, what bothers me about dresses/ long skirts nowadays is the slutty slit up the sides- and many times it goes waaay up! I recently had seen an otherwise really cute dress on the sales rack but had that slit! God just told me buy it and ‘sew it up’. So I did and just left a few inches of the slit so I could walk comfortably. It’s a really cute long dress now! And I’m no seamstress. Just took a needle and thread and spent 30 minutes doing what I could.

  20. It is hard to find modest clothing but you can find cute, modest, affordable clothing if you look hard enough. Also, what bothers me about dresses/ long skirts nowadays is the slutty slit up the sides- and many times it goes waaay up! I recently had seen an otherwise really cute dress on the sales rack but had that slit! God just told me buy it and ‘sew it up’. So I did and just left a few inches of the slit so I could walk comfortably. It’s a really cute long dress now! And I’m no seamstress. Just took a needle and thread and spent 30 minutes doing what I could.

  21. Sandra, I am so much the same as you are. I didn’t know I was offending the Lord, I wanted desperately to be liked by the world. I was convicted of dressing “scantily” but then became immodest in another way…covering my body but being vain. I developed a shopping addiction, always wanting to be beautiful and modest. The Lord has had me to repent of both. What I see modesty as now is, not trying to draw attention to yourself in a showy way, but through decency and discretion. And with discretion there is freedom! I have a few simple long flowing skirts, some vintage knit dresses, that are so comfortable and a few sweaters and long sleeve tops and cardigans and I love ballet flats. No one has to dress how I do, but I get a lot of compliments (no I am not fishing for these) and other women want to dress the same way (discretely and femininely) and forgo tighter shorter more expensive styles. God also has led me to give away many things I do not need to help my sisters dress modestly and to bless them. Yay 🙂 teaching modesty by example. With a simpler more modest wardrobe too: I can bend, stretch, lift, and serve others easier. My clothes are also easy to wash and care for, being relatively inexpensive. I want people to focus on Jesus, the light in my eyes, and the smile on my face. I want myself to focus less on how I look but how I can better love others.

  22. Oma, I have an idea. Could you perhaps pray about the issue? Our obedience is to Jesus Christ first over any one else. Could you ask your husband if you could wear tighter clothing for more private moments? And explain that certain parts of your body are only meant for his eyes, you don’t want another man to stumble. There is a humble and gentle way to go about this. Could you find a compromise, such as if he really likes how you look in purple, maybe go on a shopping trip to find a few items in purple you both like?

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