RPM, Volume 14, Number 36, September 2 to September 8, 2012 GLORIFY GOD WITH YOUR BODY 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 Mike Osborne Introduction: New series, Honest Answers for Honest Questions Today: How should we think about and dress with modesty in the year 2012? It s a good question. We live in Florida. Florida is surrounded by beaches. It s hot in Florida. We don t wear a lot of clothes in Florida. Plus we live in east Orlando near the largest university in America. Our church is filled with young families, students, and children. Parents are worried more than ever about how to rear their children. I read a blog post from a distraught father the other day: I am the father of a 5- year old daughter and we can barely find clothing that does not communicate that she is a little hottie. Even the cartoon characters (Barbie, Dora, Strawberry Shortcake) are becoming sexualized. How do I teach a balanced view of modesty to my children in such an immodest culture? I feel for you moms. I m sure you ve had those mother-daughter shopping trips when you felt trapped between what you believe is appropriate to wear, what the culture says is beautiful, and what your daughter s friends say is cool. So it s a relevant question: how can we develop a Biblical view of modesty that avoids the extremes of legalism and license? So let s begin with a definition: What is modesty? To be modest means to be free from vanity, egotism, pride To be simple, moderate, not ostentatious or extravagant And so, since we re talking about clothing, modesty means not dressing for show. Modesty means not using clothes to draw attention to your body for the purpose of arousing or manipulating other people or exalting yourself before others. The Bible addresses this in several places. 1 Timothy 2:8-10 I want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. See, in the Roman society of Paul s day it was popular for women of means to wear elaborate hairdos and wear an excessive amount of jewelry. So the problem Paul saw was not skimpy clothes but extravagant, ostentatious clothes. You can be immodest in lots of ways, not just by showing too much skin. So let me offer five principles that will guide us as we develop a healthy practice of modesty: 1. The human body is a good thing. In 1 Cor 6, Paul is talking to believers in Corinth about sexual purity. Corinth was a place not unlike Orlando or any big city in the US. Corinth was entrenched in the pagan, immoral culture
of the day. There were 1,000 prostitutes at the temple of Aphrodite, and some Christians saw nothing wrong with visiting them. One of the prevailing philosophies was Greek dualism. Dualism was the idea that the spirit (soul) and the body are two totally different, disconnected things. Spirit is good; body is bad. Spirit is what s important; the body counts for nothing. Spirit will last forever, but matter will disintegrate and vanish one day. And this dualism gave birth to hedonism. Hedonism said, OK, since the body doesn t matter, do whatever you want with your body. Vs. 12 Everything is permissible a popular slogan of the day Vs. 13 Food for the stomach and the stomach for food i.e., sex is just an appetite, nothing more. Go ahead and indulge it any way you wish. And that s how people in the Roman Empire even many professing Christians justified their immorality. But Paul says (vs. 13), Hold on a minute here! The body is not meant for sexual immorality. Gk word porneia = any form of sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. The body is not meant for porneia. Why? Because the body is just as important as the soul; they are connected. One day (vs. 14) you will have a resurrection body just like Jesus has a resurrection body. And Paul goes on to say, vs. 15 Your bodies are members of Christ himself. Vs. 19 Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Vs. 20 Therefore honor God with your body. The body is a magnificent work of art by a God who created us with amazing creativity. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. It s OK to want to look good, to dress nicely, to be fashionable. Our God is beautiful, and we were created in his image to reflect his beauty. There are examples in the Bible of good looking people: Saul was an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites a head taller than any of the others (1 Sam 9:2). Of David it is said, He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features (1 Sam 16:12). Esther was lovely in form and features (Esther 2:7). There s a reason Ruth caught the eye of Boaz as she was gleaning in his grain field. There s a reason he didn t want her to glean in someone else s field. He was physically attracted to her. Song of Songs a celebration of our sexuality So a Biblical view of modesty is rooted first in the idea that God has created us body and soul, in his image, and we are astounding creatures. Yes, sin has spoiled the image of God. Yes, sin has distorted the way we express and view our sexuality. But Jesus came in a body to redeem both the body and the soul. Christianity celebrates the human body as a key part of who we are and who we will be throughout eternity.
2. Since the body is a good thing, the way we clothe our bodies matters. Clothing speaks a language all its own. It says something about what s in the heart. Jesus said, Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34). You could even say, Out of the overflow of the heart the clothes speak. Clothes communicate what you value, what you believe in your heart to be beautiful and important. They speak and are asking for a response. Illus.: I was in McDonald s working on this sermon, and I looked up and a young woman (17, 18 yrs. old) came in wearing pajama bottoms. Some of you think that s perfectly normal. I happen to believe pajamas belong at home. They send a signal, whether intentionally or not I don t know. 1 Peter 3:3-5a [Wives,] Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. Notice there what God calls beautiful: your inner self a gentle and quiet spirit. That s the kind of beauty that lasts. Physical beauty is very temporary. The beauty of character, of integrity, of faith is unfading. See, God s value system is different from ours. Our culture says you are what you project on the outside. God says you are who you are on the inside. Remember what God said to Samuel when he was looking for a replacement for King Saul? The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Sam 16:7). 3. The call to modesty is as much a call to men as it is to women. Now it s true, these instructions in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3 are directed at women. But men, you and I don t get a free pass. The problem of immodesty is as much our problem as it is theirs. Guys, why do you think so many women obsess about their looks? Could it be at least partially because the message we men send them all the time is that they are bodies and nothing more? Why are 85-90% of the people with eating disorders women? Why are 91% of the cosmetic surgeries in the US performed on women? And why have they increased in number over 200% in the last 15 years? I m sure it s partly rooted in the effects of the fall, but men have certainly contributed to it by our failure to love and respect women. Illus.: Guys in college dining hall rating women on a 1-to-10 scale as they walked by.
Men, I agree, women need to know what they do to us when they dress provocatively and seductively. But we need to realize what we do to women when we objectify them and reduce them to an image on a computer screen or in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Neither gender is without guilt. Both of us need to seriously repent. Women sin against men when they dress seductively. Men sin against women when we treat them as mere bodies and not whole persons with intrinsic value. 4. And that brings me to #4: The call to modesty is a call to the church to be the church. Vs. 12 Everything is permissible for me twice in that verse. 10:23ff. Two more times. The context is eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. Paul is saying, You are free. As a Christian whose sins have been forgiven, you ve been set free from works of the law as a way of being accepted by God. But, don t use your freedom in a way that hurts others. Vs. 32-33 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. What does all that have to do with modesty? Everything. If you are a Christian, you are free. Love God and do as you please, said St. Augustine. But as Paul said in our text today, You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Your body belongs to God. You can t just do what you want with your body it s not yours! And in a very real sense, your body belongs to this body. As we talked about last week, this is your band of brothers and sisters. This is your family. What you do affects them. What they do affects you. So don t use your Christian liberty as an excuse to make your brother or sister sin. Ladies, that means you have a responsibility to think about how your clothes speak to the guys around you. Are you dressing to draw attention to your body for the purpose of arousing or manipulating other people or exalting yourself? If I could be more concrete, as someone else has put it, are your clothes too much, too little, or too tight? If so, you need to ask yourself: Is that loving your brothers? You can t just say it s not your problem if some guy falls because of you. You can minimize the temptation. You can be a partner in his sanctification. And men, you have a responsibility to guard your eyes and not lust. Vs. 18 of our text says, Flee from sexual immorality. When you re tempted to lust, rely on the Spirit and flee. You don t have to stare, you know. If you do that, is that loving your sister? Don t you know that will cause her to stumble if you stare or come on to her? You can be a partner in her sanctification.
See, modesty actually boils down to a love-your-neighbor issue. And that means it s a great opportunity for the church to stand up together and be the church. 5. Modesty flows out of a heart firmly rooted in the gospel. Let s go back to the definition of modesty I gave earlier. I said that modesty means not dressing for show. Modesty means not using clothes to draw attention to your body for the purpose of arousing or manipulating other people or exalting yourself before others. But why do people dress for show in the first place? Why do people do anything to get other people to notice them? Why do people boast about what a great car they have? Why do people walk all over other people trying to climb their way to the top? Why do people parade their intellect in order to be noticed and admired? Why do people exaggerate the truth so that they ll be admired? Why do people act like know-it-alls? It s because every human being instinctively knows that something is wrong. Something is wrong in here. Something is missing. Pascal called it a God-shaped vacuum. There s this need for some source of transcendent meaning, something bigger than ourselves, something that will validate my existence and tell me I m OK. The Bible s word for that is righteousness. We all need righteousness an A on the report card of our lives, a validating performance record (a la Tim Keller), something that fixes what I sense is wrong down here. We all have this need to be justified, that is, to be told we re worth something in the grander scheme of things, or as C. S. Lewis put it, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside. So we show off our bodies, or boast, or power our way over others in an effort to fill up that hole in our hearts and get that righteousness we need. But it won t work. There s only one place to get that validating performance record, and it s from the one Person in all the universe who actually earned it Jesus Christ. Vs. 11 after Paul lists all those sins he says, And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified (i.e., made holy, set apart), you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. When Jesus died on the cross, there was this amazing exchange. He traded places with you. He took your sins and the punishment they deserved, and in exchange for your sins he gave you his perfect righteousness. He gave you something far more excellent than external beauty and handsomeness. He gave you that A you ve always longed for and brought you inside the door of God s love. There s nothing more you need to do. Your identity is now that of a saint, a justified child of God. As vs. 15 says, you ve been united to Christ. You are complete in him. So you know what that means? You can relax. You can stop trying to get people to like you. You can stop trying to power over people. Your struggle for significance is over. You don t have to build a record any more. You don t have to be cool. You don t have to be skinny. You don t have to have six-pack abs. You don t have to make yourself beautiful or handsome, because to the one Person who really matters you already are. Your value is not in your looks
or your sex appeal. Now you can concentrate on being who you are and serving others with joy. Now you can be modest. Now you can glorify God with your body. This article is provided as a ministry of Third Millennium Ministries. If you have a question about this article, please email our Theological Editor. If you would like to discuss this article in our online community, please visit our RPM Forum. Subscribe to RPM RPM subscribers receive an email notification each time a new issue is published. Notifications include the title, author, and description of each article in the issue, as well as links directly to the articles. Like RPM itself, subscriptions are free. To subscribe to RPM, please select this link.