Is Feminine Modesty About Sex?

During the summer, the topic of modesty comes out from hibernation. But with the renewed conversations come many assumptions about modesty, assumptions that are always worth re-thinking.

Here’s the main assumption: Feminine modesty is about sexual provocation. If a woman’s skirt is too short or blouse is too low, it will cause her Christian brother to lust.

Two Important Texts

This assumption raises two challenges. The first one is whether feminine modesty is about sex in the first place. If it is, the two main texts in the New Testament don’t make this point very clear.

1 Peter 3:3–4:

Do not let your adorning be external — the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear — but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

1 Timothy 2:9–10:

. . . women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness — with good works.    Continue at Tony Reinke

Modesty Q&A with Tim Challies

Last month The Book Club at Desiring Virtue read Modest: Men and Women Clothed in the Gospel by Tim Challies and R.W. Glenn. Toward the end of the month I asked you, the readers of Desiring Virtue, to share your questions on modesty (either from the book or on the topic of modesty in general). I sent five of these questions off to Tim who was kind enough to reply to each of them.

 

I would like to thank everyone who submitted questions (you made it really hard to choose just five!) and also of course thank Tim for taking the time out of his busy schedule to address Desiring Virtue’s readers. So, without further ado, here are your questions and Tim Challies’ answers…

I really liked how, in the book Modest, you discussed modesty as a heart issue, rather than simply giving a list of dos and don’ts. I could tell from the tone of the book that you were trying very hard to avoid making legalistic statements, but I was left wondering–how would you describe a modest heart? -Amy

Thanks for the kind words, Amy. It has been interesting to me that one of the most common critiques of the book is that we did not provide that tear-out list of do’s and don’ts that could be taped to the mirror or stuck to the fridge. Somewhere in all of us is the lazy legalist that really just wants to cut to the chase and deal with rules.    Continue at Desiring Virtue