Showing Shoulders is a Sin

Whether a young lady believes that walking around in her underwear in public is something that’s becoming for her or not, pretty much everyone agrees that wearing a bikini is immodest.  However, after a certain line is crossed, there is big disagreement among those that want to be known as dressing modestly about just wear the line is and what is and is not modest.

Modest Fundamentalism

There is a danger any time there is a discussion about modesty, and that danger is that there are people that are very passionate that their standard of modesty is the correct and only one, and if you violate that standard you are immodest.

While some may believe that it is modest to wear a strapless formal gown, there are others that would say that anything that is strapless is immodest and therefore wrong to wear.

Legalism comes into play when people do not just have opinions or convictions about modesty, but they go the next step further and pass judgment on the person because of the way they dress.

A New Testament Principle

In Romans 14 of the Bible we see the apostle Paul discussing legalism versus liberty.  In that passage, Paul recognized that there would be two types of individuals.  In the passage, he referred to them as those that would eat “meat” and those that would not.  Or those that would “respect a day” and those that would not.

In that passage he had two sets of commands, which we usually term the stronger and weaker brothers.

The one that believed that he had freedom within the law to eat the meat or to disregard the day was the stronger brother.  The other the weaker.

Once we go further we see that there were specific commands for each brother. 

• To the weaker: Do not judge the stronger person’s liberty.
• To the stronger: Do not cause the weaker to stumble.

Each of them were to have a conviction about a thing before God and to give God thanks.

How Does This Apply?

We all know that we should dress modestly, though there is some disagreement about what is modest.  However, this disagreement should not get in the way of fellowship and should not cause us an opportunity to speak bad about the other.

Our tone and our talk should not be something that tears down, but something that builds up.  Meaning, if we find that someone is not dressing modestly, we should encourage them to dress modestly—even if they do not listen.  And those that believe that they have liberty to dress a little less modestly should take into consideration the thoughts of those in attendance.

We need to judge less and love more.  That doesn’t mean that we cannot discuss modesty, encourage modesty and discuss what makes something modest.  What it does mean is that we need to be respectful in these discussions and continue to think of others first.

I'm a 35 year old guy married to the most beautiful woman in the world (VirtuousBlonde) for 10 years, and has 5 mostly adorable children-- depending on whether they've had a nap, of course. I'm a software developer by trade, though I like to write on various topics. I got my start in blogging at MInTheGap in 2004 writing about culture, politics and got started talking about modesty on this site just 3 years ago.