We recently visited an old restored fortress, now a museum, containing clothing, furniture, cooking utensils, rifles and other things from an era well over two hundred years ago, when it was used. Many of those interesting items, which made up the fabric of daily life then, are now quite valuable. Each individual room was roped off to keep visitors from touching or handling the antiques. Everywhere we looked, whether in the fortress’s private living quarters or its large public rooms, we noticed signs displaying the same warning: “Look, But Don’t Touch.”
Those signs, wise and reasonable, were meant to protect that historic environment and its artifacts.
Unfortunately, twenty-first-century Western culture uses these very same words as one of its guides for morality—becoming a kind of mantra for a godless, licentious lifestyle increasingly marked by unrestrained violence and corruption (see Gen. 6:55And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)).
Moral Darkness on Display
Western lands, once guided by the light of Christianity, are presently engulfed in hedonistic (pleasure-seeking), materialistic (possession-seeking) and humanistic (self-seeking) lifestyles all using “look, but don’t touch” as a common tenet. The abandoned morality of these philosophies, marking almost every facet of life, is specially evident in much of the clothing fashions available for women.
Unclothed Idols
In cultures previously regulated by Christian morals, the female has been made the supreme idol of unbridled lust. Many styles of women’s clothing display the female form with the express purpose of causing men to look at that which they are tacitly forbidden to touch.
Reaping the Results of Idolatry
North America is daily reaping the appalling results of such blatant godlessness (Gal. 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)). Over half of all marriages are ending in divorce, adultery is rampant, and many couples now live together outside the marriage union. Physical intimacy (a wonderful delight God has reserved for marriage; Heb. 13:44Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)) is accepted as normal, expected conduct within casual male-female relationships.
Worse yet, “look, but don’t touch” as a moral code has spawned unspeakable crimes of violence and lust against women and children—awful, abominable debauchery which victimizes even little boys and girls—while at the same time society is flooded with pornography glorifying wanton nakedness.
Gods and Goddesses of Immorality
Though the natural heart of man—“deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”—is the root of such decadence, we firmly believe the entertainment industry, especially movie and rock stars, have taken the lead in promoting the debased standards of immoral conduct and immodest dress prevalent today. Sadly for many, they have become twenty-first-century role models (though some are young teenagers themselves), promoting vile standards of dress and conduct for young people and children. Satan seeks to use their abandoned licentiousness to destroy the people of God today, even as he used Pharaoh’s violence to destroy them in Moses’ day.
A Loving Entreaty
Without their realizing the potential dangers and consequences, dear Christian sisters’ attire may also be affected by the “look, but don’t touch” code. This is not said critically or to propose rules concerning acceptable sisters’ clothing. But in view of unseeming and suggestive clothing common today, we lovingly beseech beloved sisters to prayerfully, in God’s presence, consider the manner of clothing they wear so “that the younger [women] . . . give no occasion to the adversary in respect of reproach” (1 Tim. 5:1414I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. (1 Timothy 5:14) JND), and “the aged women likewise . . . be in behavior as becometh holiness” (Titus 2:33The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; (Titus 2:3)).
Dishonor and Danger
Wearing immodest clothing renders public dishonor to the Lord of glory, while for sisters, especially, such attire presents another great danger.
Scripture is clear that in the last days of professing Christianity the spirit of apostasy causes man to act as “natural brute beasts” (2 Peter 2:1212But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; (2 Peter 2:12); Jude 1010But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. (Jude 10)). No intelligent person would light a match by an open container of gasoline, yet dear sisters who wear provocative, revealing clothing risk igniting an uncontrollable explosion of passion—becoming victims of unspeakable brutality and depravity.
Pride in Nakedness
Let us soberly consider what Scripture says as to the roots which have produced seductive clothing—styles which promote and glorify nakedness. Before they sinned, Adam and Eve in innocence were naked and were not ashamed (Gen. 2:2525And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:25)). But they sinned, and the “eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and . . . made themselves aprons” (Gen. 3:77And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Genesis 3:7)). Having lost their innocence, they realized it was now wrong to be uncovered. And the death of an animal to provide them suitable coverings proved nakedness was no longer acceptable before God. Yet today man delights in uncovering as much of the female body as current social standards will allow.
The Shame of Nakedness
How solemn to consider the Lord’s assessment of Laodicea’s moral condition—so spiritually dead they didn’t feel their “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” state. His remedy was that they buy from Him (not the world) clothing “that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear” (Rev. 3:17-1817Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Revelation 3:17‑18)). Oh! what an awful insult to God’s holiness is immodesty and nakedness—what sad dishonor by it is done to that blessed name of Jesus that we bear!
A Word to Sisters
Beloved sisters, there will be a cost to you if you submit to God’s desire that you clothe yourself in modest apparel (1 Tim. 2:99In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; (1 Timothy 2:9))—a real, felt and painful sense of reproach and scorn from the world. But is not the Lord Jesus, who “became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich,” infinitely worth the world’s reproach for dressing modestly to honor Him? Surely the intensity of His suffering for you demands nothing less than such a response.
A Word to Parents
By example and by command, see that your daughters are taught from their earliest years to dress modestly (Prov. 22:66Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)). Be especially careful of the seemingly harmless heroes and heroines of fantasy presented by entertainment giants such as Walt Disney. The clothing that the Hunchback of Notre Dame’s Esmeralda or the Indian maiden Pocahantas or The Little Mermaid wear shamelessly accentuates those parts of the female body that godly modesty would cover. It is in such seemingly innocent, harmless fiction that tender, impressionable little ones quickly learn to accept and desire (as normal) corrupt Babylonish garments (Josh. 7:2121When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. (Joshua 7:21)).
A Word to Brothers
Brothers, what do we feed on in our private, daily lives—the new man in Christ or the flesh? What do our eyes see when no one else notices—Christ in glory or an immodestly dressed woman? Regardless of age, we all have the flesh with its lusts. Let us be careful that we do not feed its desires, for what we feed on will have a marked effect on others too—our wives, our daughters and our sisters in Christ. Act like men—men of God (see 1 Cor. 16:1313Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. (1 Corinthians 16:13)). Let us individually appreciate the beauty of holiness characterized by modest, Christ-honoring clothing and seek grace to help others learn to value it too.
Ed.