Modesty and Beauty Go Together
Modesty and beauty should go together. Both enhance one another. Modesty does not have to be old-fashioned and drab.
There are some dear Christian women who feel they must wear plain and drab clothes to be modest. But we don’t find this anywhere in the Bible. Far from the truth.
The Proverbs 31 woman was dressed beautifully in “fine linen and purple.” When Sarah went down to Egypt, the Pharaoh of Egypt noticed her and brought her to his harem (she would have been clothed in garments suited to royalty). When God designed the clothes for the high priest and his sons, He said, “Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2).
God was the first clothes designer. And what is His plan? He wants us to dress HOLY. But he also wants us to dress for GLORY and for BEAUTY. God delights in beauty. “God has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He created us for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11) and I am sure He loves us to look glorious and beautiful. He clothes His animal creation with beauty and color. He creates the trees and flowers with glory and color. How much more His highest creation?
However, did you notice the other word God used about clothing? He said: “You are to make HOLY garments.” In other words, we must make sure we are covered. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they became aware they were naked and sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. But they weren’t fully covered. Then God came, shed the blood of an animal, and made them “coats of skins, and CLOTHED them” (Genesis 3:21). The word “coats” means “to cover.”
In Mark 5:1-15 we read the story of how Jesus delivered the man who was possessed with a legion of devils. After Jesus delivered him the Bible says the people found him “sitting, and CLOTHED, and in his right mind.”
I am troubled by the immodesty among God’s women today. It’s nearly impossible to go into the doors of a church without confronting cleavage! I beg your pardon? Are we going to a secular function or the house of God? Didn’t Jesus die, shed His blood, and give His life for the church to SANCTIFY and CLEANSE her (Ephesians 5:25-27)? The word “sanctify” means “to make holy, to set apart from the world.”
I know that many do it ignorantly because they follow what everyone else is doing. And, because no one says anything about it!
Sometimes the cleavage is bold; in others it is borderline. Not too much, but just a little showing? God’s people should never be borderline! Never compromise! Never sit on the fence! We are either one thing or the other. James 4:4 clearly states that if we are friends with the world we are an enemy of God. We should always lift the standard high.
I am also saddened by many Christian women who publish pictures of themselves on social media, showing cleavage and dressed immodestly. And worse still. So many other Christian women LIKE it! Help! Do they love it? Do they love to see fellow saints showing themselves off? Or do they have no godly standard at all? Or are they so conditioned to immodesty that they don’t even notice it? When we LIKE something on Facebook, we affirm we agree with it.
I am also saddened by many Christian movies that bring a wonderful message of truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet some of the actors are often dressed immodestly. It makes a double standard.
Forgive me for my little rave, but we each have a responsibility to keep each other in line, don’t we? We are our “brother’s keeper.”
Can I end on a positive note? Let’s dress for GLORY and BEAUTY. I often fall down on this one, especially around home! This doesn’t mean we have to have expensive clothes. You can make anything beautiful. And you make anything beautiful from Goodwill.
***Photo by Daniel Gerhartz
10 thoughts on “Modesty and Beauty Go Together”
I don’t understand this as a Mama of a beautiful daughter I taught her about modesty; we are blessed our daughter is a very modest lady by nature. But my question is do Mama’s just not teach it now days? Back in the day our Pastors taught it as well, it was taught from the pulpit and no one ever showed signs of being offered. I guess times have really changed.
So sad.
Jilly
Amen. I’ve seen many a Christian movie where the women are shown in church in tight dresses and to me that embarrassing. I didn’t like the bikini clad girls in the movie Soul Surfer. To me that was unnecessary.
Anyway, I’m a plain Christian but my dresses aren’t plain and drab. I’m sure my dear husband would not want me wearing drabby clothing so I try to make sure my clothing is pleasing to him and the Lord.
Thank you for this excellent post. I just love Nancy Campbell! Lori, have you had the pleasure of meeting her and Colin?
No, I have never met them, Regina. I have met Debi Pearl, however! They are both my favorite older women teachers, as I am sure you know. 🙂
Even if mothers do teach them, Jilly, they can be heavily influenced by our culture, and even the younger women in the churches, to dress immodestly, sadly. I have never heard a sermon preached from the pulpit in a church I have attended about modesty. I know there are preachers who do though.
I remember a girl at the last church i went to who was a elementary school teacher. She was quite big in the bust and this one sunday wore a very revealing top. I wasnt aware of it until she struck up a conversation with me. Even though im a female, i struggled to look at her face and not appear shocked. She must of noticed because she made sure to cover up and never wore that top again. Covering up shows consideration and care for others.
As for plain dress. I dont mind it. But i think they do it because they dont want to risk drawing attention by wearing anything too flowery or colourful. What they dont seem to notice that plain dress drawers more attention. If i walked down the street wearing a potato sack i would draw attention. Because it is so out of the ordinary. Nuns draw attention because of plain dress.
I find plain dressed and under dressed women almost detestable. Because it is showy. You can be modest and not stick out like a sore thumb or be showy. Lovely post.
God also talks about the beauty of various women. I have the belief that women (especially young women) should be beautiful. I am of the opinion God made them for beauty like the beautiful flowers. Young women should do what they can to keep their skin, hair, bodies, and teeth healthy and wear flattering clothes. But I think their beauty should be a call to men (potential husbands) to a higher standard. Their beauty should not be a state in which they purposefully ask men lust after them but one in which men want to be men worthy of such grace, beauty and Godliness. (Of course many men are perverts and that is not the fault of the modest young woman).
But I think it is sad for young women these days. Unless they are brought up in a modest home or are blessed to have modest friends they don’t even get a chance to see where modesty is more beautiful than immodesty. All they get is the bedroom look and that is where it all starts and ends.
Hi!
I just discovered your blog.
I have something to confess with regard to this topic. When I met my husband we worked together in an office. We became friends right away. We would always talk in his office during lunch break. I always liked him but he never pressed it further. I was overweight and never actually had a boyfriend so I was very insecure, so I decided to do something.
I was always the most modestly dressed woman in the office and I continued to wear my conservative business suit, but I also cut the cups out of a couple of my bras. Nobody would notice anything except just before our lunchtime chats I would unbutton my top two buttons and I would bend over while talking to him letting him see my full bust. After a couple of days he was staring at me so often that another one of the office gophers commented on it . I just smiled and giggled.
A week later he asked me for coffee.
Afterward I felt so guilty about using immodesty to get him to lust I confessed my sin to Jesus daily and started whipping myself with a cat’o nine tails. (just kidding)
Last month when I was taking care of him after being a big neglectful he told me he had never been so frustrated since seeing down my blouse in that office. He then explained that while he did lust after me, that is not why he asked me out. He said he always like me but he wanted to get another job before he asked me out which is why he waited as long as he did. He also said he felt as guilty about lusting after me as I did about being immodest.
It really was a rotten thing I did. While I was giggling he was suffering from sexual frustration. I apologized to him just as I did to God a thousand times.
It’s easy to get men to lust after us, it’s not so easy to get them to like us. It was the past three months of talking about all of our favorite stuff and not seeing my breasts that were the foundation of our relationship.
I think the sad deception of our culture is that in order to be deemed “attractive” one has to wear the latest fashions, high heels, and wear heavy makeup. Whenever I see a woman wearing things shorter and tighter and “sexier”, I really feel bad for her. Something must be missing in her heart, so I pray for those women and try to be nice to them. Jesus came to forgive all of us. I used to be much the same, looking for ways to show off my body instead of cultivating sweetness on the inside. I am not here to judge any woman for wearing makeup or wearing something pretty. For example: a bride looking beautiful on her wedding day. What God brought me to see is that I need to let go of external beauty and instead cultivate my heart. This means being a good steward of my body and finances and clothing, and in turn focusing less on my appearance. If I am wearing something that may cover my body but I I dwell more on my clothing than on the people around me, that isn’t right. Once I let go of “being the most beautiful/fashionable person in the room”, I felt a sense of peace. I honestly enjoy dressing modestly because it is so comfortable and practical. Women come up to me all the time at church and say how much they like my outfits and that they want to dress modestly too. Men also look me in the eyes when they talk to me and even thank me for not showing off my body, because it makes them feel uncomfortable when women do that. I think we as women can help influence others in our churches and families to be more discreet. Modesty is not legalism it is a blessing. I hope to get married someday and teach my children the virtues of modesty and discretion, to create more peace.
I completely agree that modesty and beauty go together. Not only that, but modesty offers empowerment to women and demands respect! We have to understand, like you said, that God has specific requirements for us to live by and being modest is at the top of the list! I just found your site and I’m loving it…off to read more 🙂
Hello I have just discovered this site and I love it! I am so glad to find other Christian women that feel as I do! Our culture has lost all sense of modesty and decency! I realize that many are lost and do not know Jesus so we need to love them and pray for them. And I do not judge them, only God can judge. But it is so hard to go out anywhere anymore with my husband because of the way women dress. We sure don’t go to public pools or beaches anymore! And I am horrified to see it in the church! We have a church member that lets their 14 year old daughter dress very immodestly and I just don’t get it! We have some women that show cleavage and wear the tight pants and leggings and tight dresses showing everything! Come on ladies, wake up to what the enemy is doing through the way you dress! This should not be in the church! Our pastor recently preached on a passage from Timothy that included women dressing modestly, he did a wonderful job but it didn’t seem to reach the hearts of those that are dressing immodestly as I have not seen any change. I do pray for these women, I know that only God can change a heart. But so many are blinded to how immodestly they dress! I believe that the most beautiful women are those that dress with modesty and do not put their bodies on display for all to see!