Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: "...everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt. 5:28). Men should not look at women lustfully. Women, Christian women especially, should do everything they can to help their Christian brothers NOT sin.
Anonymous Guy, age 30.
Is it the women's responsibility? Yes, we all have a responsibility to not cause another to stumble. The Bible is clear on that. The fact is that as a pastor, I deal with ladies that struggle with lust too. The lusting that they do is not necessarily physical, it is emotional coupled with physical, coupled with care and needs being met. Seeing a guy washing windows or carrying water in for the water cooler can trigger a female to lust. So what is the guys responsibility for that situation? Likewise, for women, in the statement, "women...should do everything they can to help their Christian brothers NOT to sin..." does that mean wearing burkhas so that the lustful man cannot see anything...what about the guy who is turned on by the eyes the most? Yes, modesty has its place in all of us and it shows that there is something different about us. We should not dress like the cover girls do because they don't even look like that
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v_azJv50KQ.
So then we have to ask the question, "How should a Christian look?" Our society has distorted beauty so much that men are turned on by women in burkhas and ladies are turned on by the water delivery man. Matthew 5:28 makes us all guilty and that was the point of Christ saying that. It was true for the people of that time too. You cannot tell me that David fell after looking at Bathsheva only once. Have you ever thought that he maybe looked at her several times bathing and would go to that spot to bath often and he engaged in voyeurism on several occassions before flirting with her and then fornicating with her? The idolatry in his heart got the best of him. The point of modesty is to not be "intentional" about causing someone to be drawn to our appearance. There needs to be something else that causes people to look at our person because they see something different in our disposition.
"For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him." - Isaiah 53:2
So if Christ showed modesty in his appearace to this earth, we should to the same, but that means to not over emphasize our features, but rather to emphasize our dispositions to loving our neighbor as ourselves. So we should love our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to not cause them to give into their idolatrous minds and assist others who are chosen to see Christ in our lives...not by braided hair or fine jewelry, or mini skirts, or bikinis, or any outward showiness.
Anonymous Guy, age 35.
1 comment:
This was a great post-- and I liked the modesty series.
I'm part of a team of bloggers that write for Is This Modest? tackling the question of whether various outfits are or are not modest.
We're glad to have you out here proclaiming the virtues of modesty. Keep up the good work!
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