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Balanced & Beautiful
Dressing for the Glory of God
Part 1
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BLESSED PROTECTION
by Laurel Damsteegt, Part 5
When God created Adam and
Eve, He gave them coverings of light. They lost these coverings
when they sinned. In the coldness and darkness, they realized
that they were naked, and they immediately felt a need to cover
themselves.1 In fact, nakedness in the Bible became a symbol of
emptiness, of sin, of apostasy, and of attempting to save
oneself.2 Scripture does not talk about nakedness in a positive
way.
Fig leaves were flimsy and rather disposable. God made the first
durable garments, and clothing became a symbol of God’s
willingness to cover our emptiness and destitution with
Himself.3
In several places, the Bible gives careful instructions about
covering the body so that nakedness does not appear.4 Yet body
exposure is a prominent feature of today’s fashions. Designers
seem determined to show off the body in an infinite variety of
ways. And even conservative styles that are tight or sheer can
be as immodest as something short or low-necked.
Today we hear a lot about sexual harassment. Whose fault is it,
anyway? If a woman wears suggestive clothing, is she at fault,
or is it totally the problem of the harasser? Often women are
naive to the way clothing affects men. Short skirts attract
attention to the legs; slits in the skirt or blouse are
suggestive and play “peek-a-boo.” Low necklines leave little
to the imagination. Possibly a few Christian men may be able to
resist lustful thoughts, but men of the world do not even try.
Yet we women sometimes do not take responsibility for the lust
we create in their hearts.
A man writing in the Washington Post, a secular magazine, said
he could not understand “why a woman would say wearing a
miniskirt makes her feel more like a woman yet not expect me to
feel more like a man.”5
He has a point, doesn’t he? He went on to write, “I believe
that women have the right to wear anything they want, wherever
they want, but help me understand why I am still supposed to
look them in the eye. In this age of the ‘new man,’ let it
be known that just because a woman does not hear lewd and
obscene utterances does not mean that men aren’t thinking lewd
and obscene thoughts.”6
This is a serious matter for us as Christians! Jesus said, “Whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart.”7 A woman’s clothing can
actually encourage a brother to sin! Then, who harasses whom?
True modesty certainly includes covering our bodies adequately,
in a neat, pleasant, and decent way. But modesty must include
even our behavior. We can be modest in our clothing and immodest
in our actions, by flirting or encouraging playful small talk.
As Christians, we should be kind, friendly, and helpful, but we
also need to keep a careful reserve. This type of modesty is not
only Christ’s will for us—it is a blessed protection.
Part 1
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| 5 | 6 | 7
| 8 | 9 | 10
| 11 | 12 | 13
1. Genesis 3:7.
2. Exodus 32:25; Deuteronomy 28:48; 2 Chronicles 28:19; Job
1:21; Hosea 2:3; Matthew 25:36; Revelation 3:17, 18.
3. Ezekiel 16:8; Matthew 22:11, 12; Revelation 3:18. In Christ’s
Object Lessons, page 312, Ellen White shows fig leaves to be a
symbol of human works and God’s clothing as a symbol of the
righteousness of Christ. “When we submit ourselves to Christ,
the heart is united to His heart, the will is merged in His
will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are
brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it
means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then
as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not
the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of
righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.”
4. See Exodus 20:26; 28:42.
5. Courtland Milloy, “A Lecher’s Prayer,” Washington Post,
September 29, 1987, page B3.
6. Ibid.
7. Matthew 5:28.
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