FOR GLORY AND BEAUTY

“Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty”
(Exodus 28:2)

Modesty and beauty should go together. Both enhance one another. Modesty does not have to be old-fashioned and drab.

There are some dear Christian women who feel they must wear plain and drab clothes to be modest. But we don’t find this anywhere in the Bible. Far from the truth.

The Proverbs 31 woman was dressed beautifully in “fine linen and purple.” When Sarah went down to Egypt, the Pharaoh of Egypt noticed her and brought her to his harem (she would have been clothed in garments suited to royalty). When God designed the clothes for the high priest and his sons, He said: “Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2).

God was the first clothes designer. He loves us to dress for GLORY and for BEAUTY. God delights in beauty. “God has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He created us for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11) and I am sure He loves us to look glorious and beautiful. He clothes His animal creation with beauty and color. He creates the trees and flowers with glory and color. How much more His highest creation?

However, did you notice the other word God used about clothing? He said: “You are to make HOLY garments.” God wants our clothing to be holy too. In other words, we must make sure we are covered. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they became aware they were naked and sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. But they weren’t fully covered. Then God came, shed the blood of an animal, and made them “coats of skins, and CLOTHED them” (Genesis 3:21).

The word “coats” means “to cover, a coat, a robe.” It comes from a root word “katheph” meaning “the shoulder, upper end of the arm, the place from where the garments hang.” Does this mean that our garments should come from the shoulders rather than bare shoulders? And the word “clothed” means “to wrap around, to put on, to clothe oneself.”

In Mark 5:1-15 we read the story of how Jesus delivered the man who was possessed with a legion of devils. After Jesus delivered him, the Bible says the people found him “sitting, and CLOTHED, and in his right mind.”

I am troubled by the immodesty among many of God’s women today. It’s nearly impossible to go into the doors of a church without confronting cleavage! I beg your pardon? Are we going to a secular function or the house of God? Didn’t Jesus die, shed His blood, and give His life for the church to SANCTIFY and CLEANSE her (Ephesians 5:25-27)? The word “sanctify” means “to make holy, to set apart from the world.”

I know that many do it ignorantly because they follow what everyone else is doing. And, because no one says anything about it!

Sometimes the cleavage is bold; in others it is borderline. Not too much, but just a little. Very enticing! God’s people should never be borderline! Never compromise! Never sit on the fence! We are either one thing or the other. James 4:4 clearly states that if we are friends with the world, we are an enemy of God. We should always lift the standard high.

I am also saddened by many Christian women who publish pictures of themselves on social media, showing cleavage and dressed immodestly. And worse still. So many other Christian women LIKE it! Help! Do they love it? Do they love to see fellow saints showing themselves off? Or do they have no godly standard at all? Or are they so conditioned to immodesty that they don’t even notice it? When we LIKE something on Facebook, we affirm that we agree with it.

I am also saddened by many Christian movies that bring a wonderful message of truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet some of the actors are often dressed immodestly. It makes a double standard.

Forgive me for my little rave, but we each have a responsibility to keep each other in line, don’t we? We are our “brother’s keeper.”

Can I end on a positive note? Let’s dress for GLORY and BEAUTY. What we wear should bring glory to God. What we wear should be FEMININE and show that we are female. We are living in a world that wants to be more and more genderless. Let’s show the gender God created us to be. This doesn’t mean we have to buy expensive clothes. You can make anything beautiful.

Make modesty beautiful! Drab and boring are not biblical.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, I want to glorify You in my life. Please show me how to glorify You even in the clothes I wear. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I belong to the King of kings and Lord of lords. I belong to a royal kingdom and therefore I will clothe myself in a way that is a testimony to God’s kingdom.