It’s Hot!
by Micky Galloway
With the temperatures soaring over 100 degrees, it is the season for swimming and other water sports. It is also the season for bare or nearly bare bodies to be exposed in the name of summer temperatures. Please be assured, it is not the act of swimming that is a problem. Christians must give thought to how we should dress. All need to guard carefully against being seen in public in the immodest, unchaste, ungodly, revealing attire of the season. Please ask yourself, “Do my clothes send the wrong message?”
Our clothes do send a message! The promiscuous woman who set a trap for the “simple” young man “void of understanding” knew what kind of clothing would entice her victim. She met him wearing “the attire of a harlot” (Proverbs 7:10). Is it any wonder that we have been influenced by the humanistic philosophy that so dominates our society? Everything from toothpaste to cereal, is sold with lewd, sexually enticing commercials. Displays of near nudity have become so commonplace that young people grow up viewing it as a normal part of life. Ever hear the argument when you oppose what your kids want to wear, “Well, I don’t see anything wrong with it”? Parents, take heed, please share this article with your children. This is a problem Christians must address early if we are concerned about our children. We cannot wait until little “Sally Mae” is thirteen years old to address modesty issues.
When God had finished His creation He said it was “very good” (Genesis 1:27-31). Remember, God made the bodies of man and woman attractive to each other. He also created within each a desire for the other sexually. However, from the beginning, God placed boundaries on man and woman, limiting their desires to be fulfilled in the honorable relationship of marriage. “Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Only in marriage can they become “one flesh,” only there is the “bed undefiled” (cf. Genesis 2:18-25; Hebrews 13:4).
God has made us responsible. When men and women dress and behave in such a way as promotes inordinate and unlawful desires they promote lasciviousness. On almost every TV program there is vulgar and lurid filth that includes ungodly language, homosexuality, adultery, etc. Most assuredly these condition our thinking to accept without offense that which we ought to find shocking. When our children grow up in this environment, is it any wonder they adopt the attire of the world? One can hardly go to WalMart or the grocery store without being faced with women whose apparel (or lack of it) is immodest and unblushingly scanty and revealing. Recently, someone spoke of shopping for a wedding dress and found it extremely difficult to find one that wasn’t revealing. We are expected to behold without shock near nudity. Who would deny that such attire promotes lewd and lustful thoughts? Such is clearly within the scope of that which Paul calls “lasciviousness.” The apostle Paul said, “They who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). The term “lasciviousness” is found in the following passages: Mark 7:22; II Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; I Peter 4:3; and Jude 4. Lasciviousness “denotes excesses, licentiousness, absence of restraint, indecency, wantonness … The prominent idea is shameless conduct” (Vine). When one either in ignorance or deliberately displays their body in such a way to invite and provoke lasciviousness, they commit sin and share a responsibility in sin committed by others. No Christian who is interested in his or her soul’s welfare or the welfare of others would jeopardize that soul in the name of hot weather.
What should a Christian do? Rather than become upset at the preacher or elders, let us study what the Bible says. When Adam and Eve committed sin in the garden of Eden they sowed fig leaves together to make for themselves aprons (hagorah). They made themselves loin coverings. They were then as well attired as many today in their swimming attire. Yet, when God approached them in the garden, they hid themselves because as Adam said, “I was naked.” Adam was not totally unclothed for he wore the apron he had made, but God said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked …?” (Genesis 3:10). The Lord made for Adam and his wife “coats of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). God did not do this to protect them from thorns and elements, but rather to cover their nakedness. One does not have to be completely unclothed to be considered “naked” by God.
These principles are timeless and we need to be taught that human attraction is a powerful thing and the appeal generated must be respected and treated carefully. When women adorn themselves in clothing that reveals the most alluring parts of the body or when men dress so as to provoke impure thoughts, surely we are not thinking and living soberly (Titus 2:12). We are encouraging the sin of lasciviousness.
Though I am not a fan of the New International Version of the Bible, it sure gets this right in I Timothy 2:9-10, “I want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety … appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” Yes it is hot, but let us give appropriate attention to how we dress. Indeed, our clothes do send a message.