Liberty vs. Legalism

Views on dress today cover the spectrum from ‘anything goes as long as my private parts are covered’ to ‘I cover myself from neck to ankle and never wear anything bolder than navy blue.’

It is unfortunate that modest dress is a controversial topic in Christian circles. What should be a fairly easy issue to decide upon (and obey) has been fragmented into dozens of ‘sub-arguments’ about liberty versus legalism, law versus grace and shamefacedness versus ostentation.

Our culture is so saturated with immodesty that we have become desensitized to it in many ways. What was once considered pornography is now brazenly displayed on the magazine covers that assault our eyes at the grocery checkout.

The world chides us for being ‘repressed’ or ‘uptight’ if we attempt to uphold the barest shadows of modest behavior and dress. Even fellow Christians tell us that there are no absolute guidelines for dress, and that we mustn’t hinder another’s ‘liberty’ by insisting that Scripture gives us boundaries for our attire.

In the midst of this confusion, we find it difficult to ‘rightly divide the Word of Truth,’ dividing instead into camps of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ and wasting all our ammunition on our sisters in Christ when we should be building one another up in love.

And cursing the darkness may make us feel good temporarily, but we had better start lighting candles if we expect anyone to take God’s Word—and His commands for modesty in particular—seriously.

– Mrs. M. L. Chaney [God’s Women on Modesty]

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.