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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Glorifying Jesus in Attire

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." -- 1 Timothy 2:9,10

Leave it to your typical, American "Christian" to distort and/or ignore the plain teaching of the scripture above (and many other passages of scripture). The Bible is not by any means silent when it comes to instructions (commandments) on how a Christian's attire ought to be. Not only do we have plain texts like in 1st Timothy, but we also have general principles of conduct and attitude as the verse below:

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." -- 1Peter 5:5

I will agree that this passage does not deal directly with physical clothing, but the principle that is borne from the text is this: Your entire life should demonstrate humility. Most Christian will excuse principles and commandments in the Bible by saying, "You don't know my heart" as if one could be inwardly righteous without the fruit of such righteousness showing forth outwardly. An attitude of humility will certainly be revealed in one's attire. Obviously (to those who feel like people ALWAYS have to give a balancing truth statement to every point they make) no one believes that dressing in a plain way automatically makes one humble. But if someone is truly humble, their daily clothing will prove it.

There are generally two heart attitudes that are displayed outwardly when it comes to clothing:

1) I want to draw attention to myself

2) I want to do what is pleasing in the sight of the LORD.

The first category certainly includes those who dress overtly plain to a ridiculous extent, in order to draw attention to themselves as being holier than everyone else. Please note that the definition of "modest" comes from the word "moderate"; this would imply that you can be "immodest" in more ways than just dressing like a harlot.

But women and men are to be modest and show forth humility in their attire. All the glory should go to Jesus Christ alone. And it just so happens to be that women are the chief means by which God shows his character (in attire); this is because most women in America in the 21st century dress more abominable than whores did many year ago. A women who dresses to please God and not reveal herself, and who demonstrates an attitude of humility, is going to stand out; but she stands out for the glory of God and exaltation of Jesus Christ.


Modesty and Humility in Men's Attire

Just so all the "balance" worshipers will not cry and whine that I did not mention men, I will mention men; actually no, it really is important to point out that many men dress in an immodest way. But I do not mean by revealing their bodies, as women do. As stated earlier, the word "modest" is not primarily about whether you dress to entice someone to sexual arousal. Definition number 4 in Webster's 1828 Dictionary states it pretty well:


4. Moderate; not excessive or extreme; not extravagant; as a modest request; modest joy; a modest computation.

So when you have men gathering to worship God (or supposedly doing so) while seeking to impress others with fancy suites and ties, and all that, you have an example of immodesty. The same goes for fancy accessories and the like. These are demonstrations of the pride of life or even variations of the others marks of "all that is in the world (1John 2). Friend, you are not wearing that to "give your best to the LORD", you are doing that to impress others and to make yourself stand out, or get complimented, etc.

Now here again is the passage of scripture in 1st Timothy that I mentioned at the onset of this blog entry, that Christians of almost every denomination utterly distort, hide from, and dance around with all their might:

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." -- 1 Timothy 2:9,10

Let's try to put this in even more plain English, so the folks who do not want to take up their cross, bear the reproach of Christ, and suffer for his sake, can improve their dodging, ducking, and dancing skills:

Women; wear modest apparel; do not be excessive or extreme. Do not be extravagant. Have a spirit of humility and quietness/seriousness. Do not be bold and brash (yes, the spirit of your attitude is part of your adorning). Adorn yourself in this way, however, do not try to draw attention to your beauty by braiding your hair and making it all fancy. Do not adorn yourself with gold. Do not adorn yourself with pearls. Do not wear costly array. Do not adorn yourself in a manner that in your subconscious you desire people to say, "Look how beautiful she is!" Women who are truly godly and pleasing to the LORD do not do such things. But rather, they let their good works show forth true beauty, as defined by the LORD, not men.

Point out the plain text of scripture here to almost any church-goer or professing Christian, and you will hear the 1001 excuses of why they really do not have to obey the word of God or why the scripture really does not mean what it plainly says.

Whatever the excuse, we all know the real reason is this: Modern Christians do not want to lose their life for the sake of Jesus Christ. They want to remain comfortable and "be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease" (Am I a Solider of the Cross?). So forget dying for the sake of Jesus Christ. Forget confessing his name before men (Matthew 10:32) in the face of persecution; Christians will not even be uncomfortable for Jesus, let alone die for him!

Perhaps on another post I will mention two other subtopics that go along with this theme:

The objection that The Bible does not say that women cannot wear pants
A Meek and Quiet Spirit


Swiss Kinist

6 comments:

  1. The women in my church are Godly and beautiful without all the cake-up and tight pants. A problem has been that I think many, if not all of the young girls, and not a few of the younger married women, have started adorning themselves in other ways to make up for the lack of make-up, having to wear dresses, not getting their hair professionally styled, no jewelry, etc. Key word there "having". I'm afraid they feel bound under law of sorts within our church to do or not do certain things and attempt to make themselves appealing in other ways, seemingly missing the point of the Holiness standard altogether. And many will say they are glad to dress in "holiness" attire as they spend an hour or two on their hair. You're spot on here as usual. Or so my convictions tell me.

    I'm not innocent of this same spirit myself. I've always been extremely self conscious growing up tending to overeat and be fat in adolescence. Now I have a hobby of lifting and exercising and I can't lie to myself by saying this is building up God's holy temple. Although I don't feel it makes me arrogant if I were to achieve my fitness goals I can't say I wouldn't be proud of this accomplishment. Though I would give God glory for giving me discipline and good health, would this be contradictory? Any thoughts? I think by your writings, I might know your thoughts but please shoot straight.

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  2. Hi Weston,

    I appreciate your honesty. And I am definitely not afraid to give a judgment in almost any situation (I loathe the constant drum beat nonsense from most Christians that say “Don’t judge”); however, I think there are (few) exceptions where we should refrain from a dogmatic opinion. The problem with Christianity in America is that they view the mere possibility of an “exception” as a license to do their own will. It is good you recognize a potential area of change in your life.

    That being said, this is a tough area to make a judgment. What most Christians would do is call it a “grey area”; and what they mean by this is “do whatever your own will is, because God has not spoken on this area”. But there is no such thing as a grey area or an area that we are free to do what we want. We are to deny self and do God’s will. But I struggle to have a good answer to your question because I do not think there is a good answer in our context.

    The right and good thing to do to obtain exercise, get in shape, etc. is to do physical labor. Ideally, most of us, at least the ones of us who are not very old, would have an occupation, trade, or make a living, working with our hands (1Thes 4:11). This would eliminate most people’s need for “working out”, as we call it. My goal for my children is for almost all of the boys, if not all of them completely, to be farmers primarily; not the cash crop type of farmer, but one who provides most of his basic necessities by himself and by his local community. I plan to write about that more, later.

    Myself, I am not in really good shape even though I used to be extremely athletic from my sports playing days. I probably should be about 30-40 pounds less, and would be if I did not work an office job, with very little time for exercise, especially during the winter. I am not “unhealthy” in many ways; I have a very good diet based on a lot of local and natural foods. But I am not “in shape” by any means like I would be if I did physical labor every day.

    Neither solution/answer is ideal at all. If you have to spend a lot of time exercising after you make a living, then you are really wasting a lot of time you could be using doing much more productive work for the LORD. But if you do no exercise at all, then you are going to cut years off of your life and not be healthy as you should. It’s a lose/lose situation in my opinion; the only “good” solution is physical labor to make a living; or maybe you can find a way to get physical labor in by volunteering and being a servant to your church (the people, not the building) or community. My children and I have been working with a church member every other Saturday, with various tasks around his farm (we live in the city currently). It is helpful, but not enough; at least it’s a start; at least it is something, I guess. But I am thankful we can try to serve instead of always looking to benefit our own selves, or just “having fun” by playing sports and other frivolous games.

    Anyhow, just check your own heart for any self-seeking in what you are doing; better to cast off something, even if temporarily (you can always come back to it later should you find it something God wants for you), to avoid sin. Sorry for the long answer, but I felt the need to clarify. I hope it was helpful and am sorry if it was not the type of answer you were looking for.

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  3. No sir, fine answer. I'm a motor shop foreman so I push a pencil about 5% of the time just on billing/ordering but the actual motor work is none too strenuous either. The fieldwork slightly more so. It's nothing like what old school farming would be or even basic construction. Technology has made modern man generally soft. Hence the "need" to lift weights. I don't need to. I could eat right (which by the grace of God my wife and I have been able to get a hold on this year) and just do the occasional military style pull-up/push-up thing at work and maybe jog a couple times a week. That would do for health and strength. My goals are excessive and so there it is. I appreciate your advice.

    Were you raised in the faith you hold now? I was raised in the church of Hollywood/cultural Marxism so a lot of doctrine is (and this is my fault because I should be well studied in the scriptures by now) relatively new to me. I've been born again a touch over five years now so wasn't raised with even the basic Sunday school stories.

    Your desire for an agrarian, self sufficient lifestyle has got to be the best way for a man to live. I oftentimes think about how families used to depend on God so much for everything; from the crops to healing. I suppose they still do in some places. It would certainly make your children strong, spiritually healthy young men and women in the middle of a weak, sickly, spiritually malnourished population. Few and far between they'll be.

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  4. Well that is a bit of a blessing that you are not at a desk all day.

    We have a gym where I work, but I refuse to let exercise cut in on my family time so I go on my breaks only and do not go before/after work. We go for walks as a family at metro parks in the nice weather. At work I lift weights a little bit, maybe 10-15 minutes every other day. It has built upon some strength in me, but I do not do any cardio because I do not want to have to change into other clothes at work.

    I was raised in a non-Christian do-gooder type of home; that had professed Sunday Christianity. I remember going to the United Methodist Church as a young child, and then only went on Easter as I got older. But if you know anything about that church of Satan, they do not teach anything out of God's word. It's basically what the mainstream news says from the pulpit; that and, "just love everyone" and "everyone goes to heaven.. except for Hitler... maybe". Even the non-Christians! Seriously. But I was so devoid in any knowledge of God or his word, that I thought that Jesus was some guy who came back to life every Easter. They would always say, "He is risen today", so that is why I thought that! LOL. It wasn't until my girlfriend (now my wife) told me about Noah's ark and the gospel that I knew anything of Jesus Christ. But my conversion story is something I will have to write about more, later. My wife preached the gospel to me without even being converted herself, LOL. It was an accident by human terms, but not by God's.

    And we've been through different doctrinal places throughout the last 14 years. From Fundamental Baptist, to AnaBaptist, and Reformed (non-Baptist). We had several years of not going to any church, but started back at the Reformed Baptist a little over a year ago.

    I learned the Christian Agrarian view from a guy named Scott Terry, who has a blog and a radio show:

    northcountryfarmer.com

    He has been a huge blessing to me and I am utterly convinced that the current system we are in is an abomination to God. By God's grace our children will embrace the vision God has given us.

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  5. That's a pretty neat way to come around to the Truth. I don't know that I've ever been in a Methodist service. It's a disgrace that they sell out the gospel for high attendance. They ruin so so many people like that. I came out of basic atheism/agnosticism and from what I've heard it can be more difficult to come out of false doctrine. It really just takes the Word and God's grace. Did the trick for me!

    It sounds like you guys have been on a long journey throughout your walk. I'm so blessed to have such a solid church. We're looked on as a cult (read that article) here in town but I'm proud to know that they see us as separate. And the locals know who to call when they need prayer. God is so good to allow us to be seen in that light. It's remarkable to me that though they may not believe as we do, they have faith enough to know that we can touch God for them. That's beautiful to me. They may ridicule or jest at our expense but those who believe know that we've been with Jesus. Glory! I've been praying for you and yours that you'll be blessed and have God's will in your lives. And that I could be edified by the knowledge I gain from your own revelations. He's more than able.

    I'm guessing when you say system, you mean the capitalist/materialist system? I couldn't agree more there. It's as if satan raises up these ideologies directly contrary to the Word of God. In your podcast with Grey/ay (can't ever remember) you said something that really stood out to me. Something along the lines of self denial is the central tenet of the New Testament. That was pretty profound to me at the time. Our ENTIRE system is based on my four and no more. Oh my, me, mine as the Beatles said. iPhone, iPad, we've turned ourselves into our own great I ams. I suppose, Westerners in particular, have made the self, god. Social media comes to mind in particular. Narcissism runs rampant. It's disgusting.

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  6. Well, the attendance in United Methodist Churches is basically nil. They have to keep consolidating churches because basically no one goes there anymore. And the only people that do go there are in their 60s or older. The more the older generation dies off, the more of their churches will die; and I for one, will celebrate each of their deaths. They are nothing more than the agent of Satan.

    That is a blessing to hear about your church, though. And thank you for praying for us. Please pray that there will be multiple generations of godly families through our children. You have been a huge encouragement to me.

    When I say the system, I am referring to the industrial system we are currently under. Industrialism, in my opinion, has been what kick started the entire capitalist system of evil that we are currently under. It has destroyed the community and localism, and families.

    Thanks for reminding me about that podcast. I went back and re-listened to it. I need to do another podcast sometime, but I am not sure if I will do it on Tribal Theocrat.

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