Being in India has given me a whole new meaning on modesty. In this country, it isn't fairly decent to show your ankles. When wearing a punjabi, make sure you wear a chunni to cover your chest area. Granted their saris show a whole lot more of your torso, it is still quite modest than most women in the western world wear.
I decided to visit the Taj Mahal while I am in this blessed country. After I bought the ticket, I felt terrible. It seems wrong to spend money on myself after I raised so much money to be able to go out to the field, and I got overwhelmed with guilt.
Now what does this have to do with modesty? Well, it introduced me to the common factor of the two: Christian Ethics.
I was talking to a good friend of mine about my moral dilemma about going to the Taj Mahal. He said, "Christian Ethics is when we see what the Christian knows about God and how do they apply it in a practical sense." He then asked me a few questions to help me discern if I am making the right decision, and what governs it.
The first is, is it sinful? Second, is what I am about to do profitable (1 Cor 6:12)? Third, does it have the potential of stumbling a believer? And lastly, does it honor God?
As I contemplated on the answers regarding my trip to the Taj Mahal, my mind wandered to modesty. The biggest reasoning for dressing modestly given to me was that I might make my brothers stumble. And as women of the modern era, with all the influences of media and the perpetual mantra "sex sells", it is very easy for us to lower our standards just as well.
The most common retort to modesty by Christian women is, "What if I'm around men that think showing our ankles is indecent? Our culture is evolving. What about my freedom? What about my rights?"
I could quote plenty of verses in the bible about not making other believers stumble, and outdoing one another in showing honor, and considering others above yourself, and even dying to one self.
But I have a feeling they already know of those bible verses. I knew of those bible verses. I held on to practicing my freedom in dressing however way I wanted anyway. I wasn't sinning in my heart, it's not my fault the men are. Why should I suffer a heat stroke and wear jeans because men can't handle seeing knees without thinking what I look like with less clothing?
Honor them anyway.
Now before I get remarks like, "Well then, should I ask every single guy I potentially bump into today if they would stumble when they see my ankles?", get off the defensive.
As women, we should practice Christian Ethics and ask those questions everyday when we decide what to wear. What is the reasoning behind wearing that dress? Where is your heart when deciding to wear that shirt? How am I honoring God, and my fellow brothers by wearing this and not that?
As my friend said, "God gave us Christian liberties to use." John MacArthur said it the best, he adds: "I have the Christian liberty, to not use my Christian liberty, so that I can glorify Christ".
And better yet is this passage I read as I was studying Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. I pray that this serves as an encouragement rather than condemnation to us young women and future mothers:
"If lustful looking is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with the desire to be looked at and lusted after… are not less but perhaps more guilty. In this matter it is not only too often the case that men sin but women tempt them to do so. How great then must be the guilt of the great majority of modern misses who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of young men. And how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses" – Arthur W. Pink (An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount)
Women, we know what we're doing. It's called dying to self for a reason, it can't be easy. Cover your ankles if you need to.
