Ah, the pendulum swing... round 2

One of the most interesting current characteristics of Christianity to me is that of the good ol' pendulum swing. Basically, we lack balance. We see an extreme and we swing as far as we can the other way. I believe this is the current case in modesty. It's often either dress no differently than the world around us and don't even think it through or swing away to the other extreme of anti-fashion and the worship of rules.

What I'm saying is that the two choices aren't A. either show more than you should or B. cover up as much skin as possible because it's allll tempting. What I'm saying is that we need some balance.

To a point, I understand the confusion. There's a lot of conflicting messages today, aren't there? Let's listen for a second to what we're being told...

1. From the world: "If you've got it, flaunt it!" "Men are pigs! How dare they look at you... what pervs!" and, though not cleary stated with words, clearly stated nonetheless: "Your body is what defines you, what gives you worth, and without showing it, you will never be noticed nor fully appreciated."

2. From the other extreme of the pendulum swing: "Skirts are modest." (really? try this one in the Iowa wind, getting out of a car, etc.), "Don't show your knees!", "Culottes are a must!" and basically it's a lot of rules, rules, rules..
.
3. From the church: (silence)


*sigh* oh for a voice of reason.

Wait... what's that? The Bible??

1 Timothy 2:9- Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments."

Now, I'll pause while some chuckle thinking to themselves, "This isn't applicable! There's a cultural difference here! Surely we can braid hair and wear pearls, right?"

*sigh again* And so often we toss out principles from Scripture because we read of specific practices from these principles that are outdated. In fact, many do that also for the verse before this one that talks about "men raising holy hands in prayer". Readers who do not want to accept that this verse could be approving, even commanding the raising of hands start knit-picking it and say "that was a different culture... we can't take this literally anyways, we don't have holy hands." And we miss the meaning of the message, again and again. If you think you still don't have a problem with tossing out these verses becauese of cultural differences, stop and think about how much more of Scripture we could ignore because of the same reason.

I'm sure if 1 Timother 2:9 were written today it would indeed give culturally appropriate examples; instead of pearls and braided hair, I can just imagine what would be put in place. I'll let you fill in the blanks.

Be careful of the messages that are being whispered to you from the extremes. Notice the silences as well. And be careful of your pendulum swinging to extremes because it is afraid of the other end of the swing.