Life Project Blog

In the last post, I began telling you a story from the time I took a group of students on a Holy Land Tour, if you missed it, you might want to get caught up before you read the conclusion.

As I mentioned before, we all came together in the hotel courtyard in Jerusalem to discuss the matter of modesty; my students brought a text which was this one:

I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Tim. 2:9-10, in context, 1 Tim 2:1-15)

In context, this is a passage that deals with the worship assembly, and doesn’t necessarily apply directly to the situation on the seashore that began the conversation. However, there could be principles that apply. Paul said that women should dress with “decency and propriety”. Looking to the Greek we have aidōs (rendered “decency”) meaning “modesty or reverence”, and sōphrosynē (rendered “propriety”) meaning “sanity, soundness of mind, a sane mind,” Paul continues to amplify his meaning by saying that women should not dress in a manner that demonstrates their wealth, social position and status when he says “adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes followed by but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. I think it is safe to say that Paul is saying that worship is not an appropriate occasion to make a fashion statement, or dress in a “look at me” manner, and it would seem to me that such a view would be consistent with Scripture generally.

This would seem to go against our traditional thoughts about wearing our “Sunday best” to church.

At any rate, notice that Paul didn’t say anything about how men should dress in worship. We can conclude from that absence of guidance for men that Paul is addressing a cultural situation, and that Paul is really not giving universal dress code or fashion guidance, but addressing a common situation that he had run into; some wealthy women were over-dressing for worship and probably causing a stir that provided a distraction to worship, and that this passage, as well as other similar ones really don’t apply to the seashore.

The lesson from all of this should be fairly obvious: “Modesty” in the New Testament doesn’t mean quite the same thing as it does in our contemporary culture, at least in America, where it has traditionally centered on how much skin is showing. We have already seen that the physical image of God is not a shameful thing, and that the body doesn’t turn people in raving maniacs, unless they were already raving maniacs, and that in and of itself, it doesn’t cause others to sin, and I think there is a certain amount of liberty here… but, even though our cultural norms may not be exactly the same as the ethic of the Scriptures, we are Christ’s ambassadors in the culture in which we find ourselves, and trying to make some kind of a point in opposition to the culture, will not help us win the culture for Christ.

On that day at the Dead Sea, those Germans who skinny dipped in the Sea didn’t sin against God, in my view, even though I suspect they might have violated the local rules; it ended up being quite educational experience for my students, and that was the whole purpose for the trip. Did they do the right thing? I’d say that is a matter of opinion, as for me, I couldn’t care less… as long as the Gospel is not brought into disrepute, and our brother or sister isn’t caused to stumble.

The real lesson is this: From time to time, we will run into things that we don’t like for whatever reason. For example, we might find ourselves in the company of a smoker and we don’t like smoking. We might run into someone with tattoos, and we don’t like tattoos; I’m sure you can think of other examples. Each person has a right to their individual “likes” and “dislikes”, but what none of us has a right to, is to bend the Scriptures to our personal preferences to try to compel others to do what we like, for that is false teaching. I don’t care for smoking; I think it’s pretty dumb, but it isn’t a sin. I really don’t like tattoos, so I don’t have one, but they aren’t a sin (in the New Covenant). It is a little like saying that Jesus was a liberal, so you can’t vote Republican; that would be a misapplication of the Scriptures, an abuse.

Not a good thing.

I can hardly wait to hear your thoughts!

Next time: The Image of God and Death, suggested by a reader. Don’t forget to let me know if you want me to discuss another topic in light of the image of God!

A number of years ago, I took a group of undergrads on a Holy Land Tour; I had a great time, and I think that most of them did as well, but there’s a slight problem of going on a tour like that with a theology professor: everything gets turned into some kind of a lesson. One such lesson happened entirely by chance on the day that we visited the Dead Sea. Many of the students were looking forward to swimming in the Dead Sea; it’s legendary for swimming because the water is so heavy you can’t sink; the students said they felt almost weightless. When the bus pulled up, many of them rushed over to the changing rooms to put on their swimming suits, but I didn’t join them, for the idea of swimming in a huge lake of poison water has never appealed to me. Instead, I walked over to the shore and stuck my finger into; it felt kind of oily, and then I touched it to my tongue. The water tasted like throw up! Confident that I had made the right choice, I remained on the shore, enjoying the amazing scenery of the mountains and the sky.

While my group was enjoying the poison water, another bus pulled up, and people emerged from it. A great many of them walked directly to the shore, took their clothes off, and waded into the Sea. I was a little surprised, thinking that it might not be strictly legal, but no one stopped them. A man from the other bus walked up to me, and said, “You must be Americans,” in a strong German accent. With a chuckle, I admitted that we were, and over the next 20 minutes or so, we had an amusing conversation about both ”silly” Americans, and the “silliness” of swimming in poison water, half in English, half in German. Yes, both are a little silly. In due course it was time to go, and the students changed back into their regular clothes and struggled to figure out what to do with their wet suits…

Back on the bus, the students were all talking about those “crazy” Germans just taking their clothes off and jumping into the water where everyone could see them, when I mentioned that they were a church group, my students were shocked; “they can’t be a church group!”

I had been chatting with their pastor.

“Professor, they were sinning!”

Enjoying myself, I asked for a show of hands: “how many think what they did was a sin?”  About two thirds said they were sinning, the rest weren’t sure, so I asked another question, “What was their sin?”

“They were naked” was the response of the two thirds.

I took a twenty dollar bill out of my pocket and held it for all to see, “The first person who shows me a passage containing an imperative voice command, in context, that tell us that being naked is a sin, owns this 20.” There’s nothing that gets seminary students into their Bibles faster than an extra twenty bucks on a road trip!

While my students were busying themselves in a little research, I went up to the front of the bus and sat on the step by the driver; we had a nice chat… I knew I wouldn’t be giving the money away that day.

When we arrived at out next destination, nobody had come up with the command, since there isn’t one to be found anywhere in Scripture. The best anyone could come up with was that they sinned because they hadn’t been modest. I had to admit that modesty hadn’t been on display as most Americans think of it, for what we had really learned that day was that what constitutes modesty differs from culture to culture; for the people on the other bus, jumping into the Dead Sea naked wasn’t particularly an issue, and for most of my students, it was an issue.

Late that afternoon, the issue came up again after we had returned to the hotel: Modesty; hadn’t those people been immodest? Several of my students were really quite concerned about this question, so we all got together in the hotel courtyard for a discussion centered around 1 Timothy 2:9-10:

I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

This passage falls within a larger context (1 Tim. 2:1-15); a context of general instruction regarding worship. He speaks of how women should dress obviously, with decency and propriety.

Since my word count is mounting, and I always try to respect you time, I’ll tell you how the rest of the conversation went next time. Until then, here are a few questions to consider:

1. Shouldn’t the context have a bearing on our understanding of this passage?
2. Did Paul tell us what he meant by “decency and propriety”?
3. How did he say men should dress?

According to Merriam-Webster, lust means “a strong feeling of sexual desire” or “a strong desire for something”. With this in mind, is lust a sin?

As any good lawyer will say, “it all depends”.

A strong sexual desire for your spouse isn’t a sin, but a strong sexual desire for you neighbor’s wife is trouble. A strong desire for a thing is likely to border on idolatry.

Years ago I was at my best friend’s house one fine Saturday, and his father told a story about my friend. One time when he was very little, he was sitting in the child seat in a grocery store shopping cart that his father was pushing around the store looking for groceries. They passed a young lady, and his father whispered under his breath “wow wee!” They continued along their way and passed the young lady again with the same result. Finally, they got into the checkout line, and guess who was right behind them? My friend said in a loud childish voice, “Look Dad, there’s the wow wee lady!” Needless to say, many years later, his father still remembered that day.

So, if a man sees an attractive woman, or vice versa, and the reaction is “wow wee” have they sinned?

We don’t need a lawyer for that one, do we? Of course the answer is “No”. Are you surprised? It doesn’t become a “yes” until you go the next step and say “Would I like to get my hands on that!” Once you arrive at that point, you have lust in your heart and you have turned God’s image bearer into a mere object. Noticing that a woman is beautiful or that a man is handsome, is no sin; and the jump to the next step is not a given, and we as a species, are not wired to automatically do that.

Yet reacting in that way does reflect where a person’s head and heart are. If a man sees a woman who is dressed provocatively, the sight will not change the man into a sex-crazed maniac. That is, of course, unless he was one of those already: Think about it…

You see, we’ve come back to temptation here; a temptation may arise to indulge one’s self in erotic fantasies when we come across an attractive person, but it is entirely our choice as to whether or not we indulge ourselves in it. I would suggest that such a response is more a result of culture, conditioning and habit, then anything else.

Let’s take a break and think about it, and we’ll pick up on Monday; have a great weekend, please leave your comments, and I’ll see you next time!