In our previous study we briefly discuss where GOD first ever established modesty and why we as CHRISTIANS should follow this principle. And in this study we will look at the principles of Modesty into more detail.
In the beginning before the fall of man...
*Genesis 1:26-27
"[26]And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
[27]So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
GOD created man in HIS own image. (That meaning Adam and Eve were replicas of GOD'S CHARACTER and GOD'S Physique).
Yes....before sin Adam's physical structure was like that of his Creator. (E.g. He had eyes and ears, GOD has eyes and ears etc.)
♡So where does clothing fit in?
*Genesis 2:25
"[25]And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
GOD said: "Let us make man in our own image.".
Now... I do not think that GOD would make humans without clothes before sin and then suddenly after sin go..."Oops now they are naked I must make coats of skins for them." Then man began to wear clothes 👘 Uh...No.🙄
GOD said HE would make man after HIMSELF. So everything the man looked like and dressed like had to be like HIMSELF.
YES, I said dressed like. GOD does have a covering round about HIM. So if Adam was made in his image (a copy of HIM) then he had to have a covering like that of his Creator. I don't think GOD would create a human who looks like HIM and not give him any covering like HIMSELF.
When studying the bible it is important not to take one verse as it is and make doctrines out of it as if it supports itself the way it is. As the bible teaches us you can not gather one witness (in this case a verse) from the bible and make a complete unquestionable doctrine out of it:
*Deuteronomy 19:15
"[15]One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established."
*Deuteronomy 17:6
"[6]At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death."
*Isaiah 28:10,13
"[10]For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
[13]But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."
So when we study scriptures we must always compare scripture with scripture to get an all rounded picture of a matter, to establish truth and doctrine and to understand what other verses mean so that we are not deceived by any man and that is why it is important that we study for ourselves to understand the truth and not what other man tells us is the truth and we thereby get answers to the prevailing questions in our minds when we study.
It is important that we forget not to the question:
"Why are these things so?"In this instance the question is "If Adam looked like GOD, Why didn't he have clothes on?"
The bible answers this question so vividly that it leaves no doubt in my mind.
*Psalms 104:1-2
"[1]Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
[2]Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:"
I like even the good news version of the verses which puts more clarity on this verse:
*Psalms 104:1-2
"[1]Praise the Lord, my soul! O Lord, my God, how great you are! You are clothed with majesty and glory;
[2]you cover yourself with light. You have spread out the heavens like a tent."
As clear as the WORD can be. It tells us GOD is covered with GLORY as bright as the light and this light is like clothing for HIM. The GLORY OF GOD is HIS covering for clothing.
If GOD is clothed in GLORY as with garments/like clothing and is making a creature resembling (looking like) HIM... Of course HE would also clothe Adam with the same GLORY as HIS.
*Genesis 3:7
"[7]And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
And that is why after Adam had sinned when GOD'S GLORY departed from them (Because GOD'S GLORY does not dwell in sin) Adam and Eve came to the understanding that they had done something terribly wrong because they could now behold each other naked without the covering of warmth and light which is GOD'S GLORY for them.
I mean think about this common misconception of Adam and Eve literally naked and with no covering of GOD'S GLORY...
🤔[👉all this time Adam and Eve are walking around literally naked and not ashamed to bare their flesh and now after sinning the modesty issue kicks in...(😐which doesn't make any sense by the way)....
And now all of a sudden their like....😮😯😲"oh no! We're now naked, we didn't have any clothes on all this time and now we realise we must clothe ourselves by making aprons out of these fig leaves 🍃because we were naked all this time and we didn't know and now we don't want immodesty no more!"🤨 Does that even make sense? Because to me it doesn't... 🙄
And why would GOD make them coats of skin if modesty was not a serious issue back then? 🤔
I think now its clear in our minds that GOD established Modesty even before the fall.
After the fall Adam and Eve became immodest (no GLORY as a covering) and naked because of sin. GOD had to kill a lamb to clothe their nakedness (by making them coats of skins).
The literal Lamb was not only killed for making coats but it was also a spiritual representation of JESUS CHRIST (the spiritual LAMB who knew no sin but who was to be made the sin offering for us and to die for the sin of the world and cover us with HIS own precious blood and cleanse us from sin through HIS atoning sacrifice)
*John 1:29
"[29]The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
*2 Corinthians 5:21
"[21]For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
And there is this protruding question everytime we read Genesis 3...("Why did not Adam and Eve Immediately Die?" 🤨)
Ofcourse I would like to beg to differ. Adam and Eve did immediately die after committing sin.
Why do I say that?
A day to GOD is worth a thousand years as we read according to scripture...
*2 Peter 3:8
"[8]But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
So 1 day = 1000 years according to GOD. So the question is how long did Adam live?
*Genesis 5:5
"[5]And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."
Less than a thousand years so Adam died the same day as GOD told him that he would die if he did go against HIS command not to eat from the tree.
Now I would like to quote this statement that explains what Adam and Eve were really wearing from GOD'S prophet.
*Christ's Object Lessons Pg. 310 Par.4
"The white robe of innocence was worn by our first parents when they were placed by God in holy Eden. They lived in perfect conformity to the will of God. All the strength of their affections was given to their heavenly Father. A beautiful soft light, the light of God, enshrouded the holy pair. This robe of light was a symbol of their spiritual garments of heavenly innocence. Had they remained true to God it would ever have continued to enshroud them. But when sin entered, they severed their connection with God, and the light that had encircled them departed. Naked and ashamed, they tried to supply the place of the heavenly garments by sewing together fig leaves for a covering."
The prophet of GOD puts it very clearly that there is now no doubt in our minds that Adam and Eve were dressed. Just as the bible confirms they wore a light for a covering.
♡Why is Modesty so significant?
GOD is the author and establisher of Modesty. And that is why in the bible there are repetitive warnings about immodesty and artificial decorations placed upon our mortal bodies.
If GOD wanted us to walk around half naked with our bare arms and bare chests and legs showing (which are common fashionable practises) and our clothes looking like this...
👉
HE could have stated in HIS WORD.
♡Subliminal Effects of Pictures
Such pictures have a subliminal effect upon our subconcious minds that our conscious thinking gradually adapts and adjust to ideologies that are not biblical such that we think man's inventions and ideas of what Eden looked like and what Adam and Eve looked like especially in regards to modesty are true when infact they are not.
We just think Adam and Eve were literally naked before sin and that they somehow gained wisdom after sin to know that they were being immodest all this time. When that is infact not true the only knowledge they got after sin was the terrible realisation of what going against GOD'S commandments was like.
GOD did not roughly cut awkward looking immodest animal skins to dress Adam and Eve and worse with their limbs showing.
All these pictures, paintings and drawings are all just what they are man's paintings, man's drawings, man's pictures, man's thoughts on reality, man's ideas with no biblical facts to support these claims.
And we never even realise how much of a subconscious effect they have had on society until you go around asking people about this story of Genesis 1-3.
And this is why modesty today in this millennial generation is such a huge issue when infact in the past it wasn't even that much of a big deal. People during biblical times and the past eras knew that they had to be covered male and female, especially Christians.
♡Why should we worry about covering our bodies?
*Genesis 3:21
"[21]Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them."
A definition of a coat in the dictionary "is something with long sleeves and extending below the hips"...although I believe Adam and Eve wore coats extending to their feet to cover them during the changing weather conditions because of sin, so that they neither feel too hot or too cold but that their body temperature would stay warm causing the blood to circulate throughout the body with an equal and well regulated temperature preventing disease and sickness.
Here is a link to a website that sheds more detail into covering the limbs for a well regulated body temperature so to prevent sickness and disease from a doctor who explains more of the physiology of dress reform. If you are more interested in learning of this subject:
Here is a link to the website
Hope that read will be a blessing to you.
♡Why should Christian's especially practise Modesty?
Modesty is not just about wearing clothes that cover the body but it is also about your character, what the bible is to you, your worship to GOD and your relationship with CHRIST.
♡How does Modesty affect Character?
First of all modesty helps you especially as a woman to be less concerned about artificial things meaning you spend less time on worrying about and trying to impress people with your physical appearance.
Not that you don't take care of how you look but that you take caution how you take care of how you look and you start asking questions:
*Am I becoming vain in worrying and paying attention to how I look more than paying more attention to how GOD wants me to look? 🤨
*Is my heart right with GOD?
*Am I living according to biblical principles?
*What do I want GOD to think of me when HE looks at me?
*Does my character attract others to the religion of CHRIST or appall them? 🤐☹️
♡How does Modesty affect what the bible means to me?
The bible is clear:
*1 Timothy 2:9-10
"[9]In 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;
[10]But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works."
We might argue all we want and cat fight over why modesty is not important and why we don't need to be modest. But GOD'S WORD still stands GOD wants women to be modest. Especially women who are more prone to a vanity of appearance.
So at the end of the day it is about how much you are willing to sacrifice in order to be obedient to GOD'S WORD. If you are willing to pay the price of your own soul's salvation then you will comply with the biblical standards GOD has placed in HIS WORD and if you are not willing to pay the price of your salvation and you are more worried about what people will think of you and you would rather blend your religion with that of the world, then you will surely reap the seeds you are sowing.
♡How does Modesty affect my worship to GOD?
*1 Corinthians 3:16-17
"[16]Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
[17]If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
Everything done in our bodies is a service of worship. It is either you worship GOD or satan.
If you are a child of GOD you will do all the things GOD wants you to do with your body which is rightfully HIS temple.
GOD is the author and creator of our beings. If we want to rob GOD of the service due to HIM with all our faculties there is nothing good that can ever come out of that.
GOD deserves all the GLORY due to HIM in our bodies and shouldn't we put on our bodies things that would best glorify HIM and not self-worship which is practically the worship of satan the author of all pride and self exaltation.
When we put those artificial things (make-up, weaves, wigs, hair extensions, jewellery, gold, tattoos, piercings, fake nails, nail polish, high heels, embroidered clothes, immodest clothes revealing the flesh, tight clothes that we can barely breathe) that are only invented to worship self and get compliments we should ask ourselves:
*What does GOD think of me when I put these things on my body? 😔
The answer is inevitable and you will know personally what GOD is saying about this issue.
♡How does Modesty affect my relationship with CHRIST?
CHRIST says:
*Matthew 22:37-40
"[37]Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38]This is the first and great commandment.
[39]And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[40]On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
The whole point of the bible is about the ten commandments of GOD (LOVE TO GOD and LOVE TO OUR NEIGHBOUR).
If one knowingly dresses immodestly because of the knowledge of the effects it has on the opposite sex and says:
"its not my concern if men can't control their thoughts and want me." 😎🙄😒💃
And you know they are look at your body to lust after it, you are literally aiding them in sin and professing your enjoyment of it.
And just like Cain you are asking GOD.
*Genesis 4:9
"[9]....And he said,.... Am I my brother's keeper?"
Men also need to take responsibility for their own words thoughts and actions as CHRIST says:
*Matthew 5:27-28
"[27]Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
[28]But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. "
But let's not aid them to sin. If they sin to their own graves and eternal loss let not the blood of their lives be required at your hands and thus loose salvation.
Everything we do in the world affects someone else whether we like it or not. Whether we would admit it or not. Our actions have consequences and our actions influence someone else. It may be one person or multitudes but we are all responsible for the influence we exert on one another and my plea is that love your neighbour as to not influence someone else into doing something that would make them eternally lost and let us love each other to the point where we would sacrifise our prideful ambitions and selfish interests to do good to one another and thus reflecting the Character of the one we love JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SOON COMING SAVIOUR...what a world of Christian's that would be.
Stay Blessed and Informed
Love ♡ Modesty
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