For this post I just want to briefly summarise how we can be sure and firm on what scripture teaches on dress and not have to be tossed to and fro with man's changing standards, particularly in the word "modesty". This is not a really detailed teaching on the subject, but I want to say that we can know how God wants us women to dress.
While
it might be good if we did not have to focus on dress so much and just get
on with it ourselves, it has become a serious problem and area of sin in
today's culture so truth must be taught and error avoided. And perhaps there may be someone reading this in time who was like me who had been deceived by the lack of biblical answers and teaching on this subject.
First, we need to take scripture exactly as it says. And study deeply in God's Word and see what the original words actually meant. In short, women are to wear plain long form-covering clothing and a head covering (of decent size to cover head and hair).
And we can cling to the Word in this ever changing world. This is a matter of obedience and bringing glory to God and nothing to do with working our way to heaven or earning our salvation. If we claim to follow Christ, there is absolutely no room for us to say we can do what we want when we have been commanded by God how He wants us to cover ourselves.
In accordance with 1 Peter 3 and 1 Timothy 2, we know women are not to add external adornment of any kind. That's pretty simple...no place for jewelry or makeup or such like (including adorned dress fabric itself) for God's daughters. It doesn't say don't "focus" on the outward adorning as most say it does, it says let it NOT be.
So there we have our firm foundation in dress for godly ladies:
Long loose garment (from 1 Timothy 2, Genesis 3)
Head covering (1 Corinthians 11:3-15)
No adornment (1 Peter 3:3-4, 1 Timothy 2:9-10)
...pretty simple really.
I see so little biblical answers on this subject and it is all left to people's opinions and "convictions". But praise God we can find what He wants and obey that or be in sin.
Yes there may be some pride and vanity to crucify...but Christ died to redeem us and so is it worth clinging onto any piece of clothing or "self image" that you want people to have of you in light of the mercy and sacrifice of Christ for you?
I grew up (from about 5) wearing only long skirts and dresses but as I obeyed the gospel and grew in the faith as an adult I had to implement a few changes in order to
obey the Lord's commands. That included forsaking patterned clothing (and a few other minor changes here and there) and also wearing a headcovering in order to conform to what scripture teaches on this.
And if you look diligently you can find biblical clothing today in most areas, or sew some yourself, or get someone to sew for you. My greatest source of biblical clothing is op shops/thrift stores/second hand stores (whatever you call it in your country:-). But you just have to be prepared to spend a lot of time looking and perhaps have some skills to modify them to work for you.
If anyone says to you that they like your clothes or think they are pretty...beware! That's just what I have found. Though of course we don't go by what people say but by what God's Word teaches it does give me questions if someone says that. Our dress was never meant to "look good" but to cover ourselves after mankind fell into sin right at the beginning and when God Himself clothed humans in animal skin tunics (I don't think that would have looked 'beautiful'.).
You can see a post here on more of my testimony in dressing biblical.
May those of us women who are dressing biblically shine our light to a lost and unclothed society. May we bring honour to our Holy God by our outsides but may our insides be holy and pure also...lest we be as the Pharisees who Christ said were "whited sepulchres...full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness". We have been given a new heart and mind and starting from the insides our outsides have conformed also to our Lord's words.
Perhaps this post might help someone who is truly seeking, as most everyone in Christianity today has no real biblical answers. Make sure you are truly in the faith and born again in Christ as none of this truly matters if you are not. See more on that here.
Love and blessings,
...from a daughter of God striving to be obedient in all things.
