–– Joe Shoko
The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
It is summertime, and that means Christian men and women, but mostly men, must work all the harder to pluck their eyes out in the face of public indecency and immodesty. Welcome to the postmodern era – where sanity, virtue, shame and dignity have all been thrown out of the window, but nudity, sensuality, and impurity of all kinds have all been embraced in the name of progressivism and inclusivity. The bible has two glaring passages that address the pertinent issue of modest dressing.
“Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire” (1 Timothy 2:9), “but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4).
What is consistent in both scriptural texts is that modest apparel is a matter of the state of the What is consistent in both scriptural texts is that modest apparel is a matter of the state of the heart of an individual. So this is more than an assault on clothing articles; it is rather a sword that is being brandished at the hearts of men, who are described by the Bible as desperately wicked.
The church of Christ has not been spared from the ‘super spreader epidemic’ that is immodesty. As they say, “when America sneezes, Africa catches a cold.” Hollywood has highly influenced Zimbabwe in entertainment, trends and types of apparel. It can be argued that in the past, many of our foreparents wore sheep and cow skin, but with the changing times, clothing that covers the body was introduced, and now it is quickly diminishing.
Nudity has become a norm, and something to be celebrated, thus young and older ladies may be characterised by wearing extremely tight jeans, leggings, mini shorts, vests, see-through blouses that reveal undergarments, skirts that have long slits and short, alluring dresses in the corporate worship of the Triune God. New trends have also rendered men culpable. One observation can be the wearing of buttoned-down shirts, which expose the chest, and rugby shorts, which tightly envelope the thighs.
All these things are taking place before our very eyes, and men who are meant to be the mouthpiece of God to the masses have been desensitised and silenced, particularly because they are afraid of a thinning membership or being labelled unloving and legalistic. Lest we think that I am using a hammer to get rid of a fly on one’s forehead, let us think through a few consequences of immodest dressing.
- Promotes lust
The church is meant to be the vehicle in which the truth of God’s word is packaged and transported. God commands the church to be holy by imitating the Father (Ephesians 5:1). What the passive tolerance of immodesty does is destroy the work of discipleship, particularly where young men who are struggling with pornography are concerned. It, as it were, “fans into flame” the dimming fires of illicit desire. This is even worse if it is the older women whose conduct and apparel are unbecoming of Christian women. How can the young men possibly view the older women as mothers when the dressing communicates something else? Could this be one of the reasons why Zimbabweans are rated as one of the top countries with the most traffic on porn sites?
- Disintegrates godly influence
Whilst the responsibility for teaching the body of Christ falls squarely on the shoulders of elders, there are particular contexts and occasions where those who do not particularly hold the office are called to have a more robust and focused influence. This is true of the older women who have long walked with the Lord. Now, older doesn’t necessarily mean “grey-haired”; it also denotes maturity in the Christian faith. These women are to teach younger women, essentially the whole counsel of God’s word, which includes modest apparel and adornment. If the older women are not passing down precious biblical truth for doctrine and conduct, what hope is there for the next generation of Christians in this critical matter?
- Blurs the differences between the world and the church
The Scriptures never paint a portrait of the world and the church being in tandem or holding hands in unison. There are always distinctions and major differences. Different federal heads, different values and different actions. I wonder if the idea that the world holds to, that Christians are hypocrites or that the church is not uniquely distinct, would hold water if Christians actually took the bible and what it teaches seriously.
At the very core of our response to this escalating problem is the consistent preaching and sharing of the Gospel. One aspect of the person of Christ that is usually ignored is his humility and emphasis on loving our neighbour. Our Lord Jesus showed love toward us by humbling himself to die on the cross for our sins. He didn’t use the fact that He is God to halt the crucifixion, but he became man so that He would accomplish all that He was sent to do
If we show this kind of love to one another as children of the living God, we would truly be transformed in our thinking and application about the issue of immodest dressing. Summertime is here, pray for men and women in the Lord, but mostly men.