Modesty Matters: The Heart of Modesty

By: American Decency Staff

…And this is what so many modesty discussions turn into. “Only this high. Only this short. Never in this combination.” We feel what may be a good desire to be modest and we address it through rules. Soon we become captive to the rules; the rules become our salvation and our sanctification. (Of course not all rules are bad. There is a time and place to talk about dress codes. But it needs to be gospel first, and then specific rules and specific applications.)

Paul wrote to this church with a far better solution than rules. He went straight to the gospel to show them that if they wanted to put sin to death, if they wanted to live holy lives, they would need to do it by and through the gospel of Jesus Christ. This tells us that before we even think about limits and rules, we need to think about the gospel and all the freedom it brings. The gospel frees us from thinking that obeying rules will save us. It frees us from thinking rules will actually stop behavior God hates or motivate behavior God loves. It frees us put aside and to deny our freedoms and desires out of love for others.

Before we get to a text that speaks directly to modesty, I want to cover two things: A little thought experiment and a definition of modesty.

Read More: http://www.challies.com/articles/modesty-matters-the-heart-of-modesty
Part 2: http://www.challies.com/articles/modesty-matters-imperishable-beauty
Part 3: http://www.challies.com/articles/modesty-matters-what-not-to-wear

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