A4P Guest: Can you please teach women how to dress modestly?

A4P: Sure I will but why did you ask me to do that?

A4P Guest: I am a Christian man and I really get bothered and distracted these days, in church, by the way women dress up.

A4P: What do you mean when you say, “bothered and distracted?”

A4P Guest: I mean, you know, they don’t cover their bodies appropriately. So, I get distracted from worshiping God.

A4P: And?

A4P Guest: What do you mean, “and?” I am a man.

A4P: And, you are a man, I get that. So tell me how your “man-ness” relates to those women.

A4P Guest: Well, I get forced to lust.

A4P: Oh, I got you. So, for you to stop lusting, the solution is those women have to cover themselves appropriately, am I reading you right?

A4P Guest: I mean, yes. I won’t lust if they cover themselves as Christians.

A4P: Are you a Christian?

A4P Guest: Yes!

A4P: Okay. Then tell me what the Bible says how to fight against lust.

A4P Guest: Not to look at women?

A4P: Is that possible for you? Can you stop looking at women?

A4P Guest: You see, now you are coming to my point! No, it is impossible for a man not to look at women.

A4P: My point is this: The Bible doesn’t command you to do that you are not able to do. So, the Bible doesn’t say, “Do not look at women?”

A4P Guest: Then what does the Bible say?

A4P: That is my question to you. Okay, let me help: Does the Bible say something like, “Make sure that the women in your church, neighborhood and town cover their bodies properly so you won’t lust?”

A4P Guest: No!

A4P: Why not?

A4P Guest: I guess I know where you’re going with that.

A4P: I hope you do. You see, my brother, our soul is sick with a disease called sin and we need to get healed from this sickness, at our soul level. If our environment changes in whatever way, it is not going to change the condition of our soul. We remain the same. The Bible says, “by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5b) Jesus healed our sickness by His wounds, wounds He got from being beaten for our disease called “sin.” First, we need to know that, that you and I are dead for sin and alive for righteousness in Jesus (Romans 6), that we are healed by His wounds and we are free from the bondage of sin. Second, we need to know that this freedom that we have in Christ can only be ours if you and I let the truth of God, the word of God, live in us. As we let the word live in us, we give our bodies as instrument of righteousness. So, our fight is not against our surroundings and environments, but against the war that is raging inside our souls, a war between flesh and spirit (Galatians 5). We strive for our spirit to get the upper hand all the time!

By the way, the Bible doesn’t say “do not look at women,” but it says, do not look at women lustfully. (Matthew 5:27-28, Job 31:1 – The first look is an innocent look for it is instinct act but the second look is the one that puts you in trouble since it is a look that is motivated by lust.)

I hope the point is clear. And I am with you when it comes to teaching women how to adorn themselves appropriately, but not to sanctify the men in the church or in town but because man is “the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.” (1 Corinthians 11:7b)

For example, when a married woman covers herself appropriately, she honors and glorifies the God who created her to be the glory of her husband. She also honors her husband by covering her body, the body that is given to him by God (1 Corinthians 7). Not only she honors God and her husband but she also honors herself as she chooses to be the person that God created her to be.

“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” (1 Timothy 2:9-10)

Remember, the Bible doesn’t say, “Women should dress modestly so the men in the church won’t struggle with lust.” If you struggle with lust, unless you put “lust” to death in your soul (Colossians 3), no amount of woman’s modesty can save or rescue you from lusting and sinning against God, yourself and the women you are lusting after. Please don’t forget that! ///