Sermon Cloud

The Spoils of the War on Modesty:  In 1 Timothy 2:9-10 Paul the Apostle exhorts women to use modesty and self-control to inform their fashion choices.  While American culture since the 60s has waged war on modesty--so much so that many young women have no concept how slutty and "available" they look with their painted-on Spandex workout shorts--girls have become the casualties of that battle.

The spoils of a war that was supposedly fought for them.

A Return to Respect:  In the book A Return to Modesty, Wendy Shalit observes regarding our former appreciation for relational and sexual etiquette: "Respect for modesty made women powerful."  Modesty was protective; it kept men from harassing women, or even pursuing them without an appropriate basis.  Men, who were raised to treat women as different and precious, actually worried about taking the proper steps in approaching ladies they were interested in.

Then modesty came to be seen as repressive to women, so they began acting and dressing immodestly and promiscuously, so men lost the sense of the uniqueness of women, the mystery of femininity.  Sex was torn away from romance, love and marriage.  And now young women of integrity have to prove themselves worthy of respect (Shalit, 46).

This message attempts to bring modesty out of the closet and into biblical focus.  At root is God's desire that Christian women would direct their desire to him above all things, and not seek inordinate attention from men through immodest clothing and character.