The soul of modesty in a porn-positive culture.
A young woman on a blog titled “girl talk” posted these words:
The fashion industry and our “porn positive” culture certainly doesn’t hesitate to push immodesty on us day after day, and so we must cling tenaciously to the gospel-promoting virtues of modesty and self-control.
At the Sovereign Grace blog they’ve done a series of posts regarding modesty. Apparently they are excerpts taken from a new book on worldiness writen by C.J. Mahaney with a forward by John Piper. This is a tough topic to address without falling into legalism. And yet it is an important issue to deal with in a culture as sexually charged as ours. I’m glad to see it being dealt with in such a clear, open, Christ-centered way.
Here is a section from one of the posts:
Several years ago I preached a message to our church from 1 Timothy 2:9 entitled “The Soul of Modesty.” Eventually, that message made its way into the hands of a young woman named Jenni. Prior to hearing my sermon, Jenni had no idea what God’s Word said about the clothes she wore, if anything at all. “Modesty used to be a foreign word to me,” Jenni later admitted in a testimony to our church congregation:
My friends aptly nicknamed me ‘Scantily.’ When choosing what to wear I thought only of what would flatter me, what would bring more attention my way, and what most resembled the clothes I saw on models or other stylish women. I wanted to be accepted and admired for what I wore. I enjoyed my attire, the undue attention I received, and the way it stimulated my feelings.
Perhaps you can relate to Jenni. Maybe modesty sounds unappealing to you. If we played word association you’d come up with “out of style” and “legalistic.” Maybe you think God is indifferent about the clothes you wear. What does he care?
But, as Jenni ultimately discovered, there is “not a square inch” of our lives—including our closets—with which God is not concerned. Even more, he cares about the heart behind what you wear, about whether your wardrobe reveals the presence of worldliness or godliness.
… Some of you may wonder, like Jenni once did, why make such a big deal about modesty? More importantly, why does Paul? Is it because we’re conservative people? Is it because we have personal preferences about how women should dress?
No. The reason is the gospel. Modesty is important because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why Paul is concerned about it. He isn’t simply a “cultural conservative.” This isn’t Paul’s version of The Book of Virtues. For him, the issue of modesty is about the gospel.
Go to the Sovereign Grace blog and read more about this here. Or click here to download a pdf file with discussion questions. I’d love to hear what you think about this.
Larry is the senior pastor at 
Wow, I am looking forward to reading this blog! Just found it. I’m for Larry with the goatee as well. Brian Howard
Hey Brian — It is good to connect with you again. Are you still on the board of Acts 29? I was looking at your blog at Copperhill and thought I might do a post on the “One for the Ladies” article on your blog. I also saw you were planning on reading a book titled “What Women Wish Pastor’s Knew.” Did you get to that and if so was that good? I’d love to have your contributions here especially on gospel-centered life and preaching. And — I’m planning on growing back the goatee this summer. Peace and grace.
Larry,
Very timely with our new men’s group studying ‘Every Man’s Battle’. Unfortunately todays environment is ripe with sexuality in the workplace and even the church with the outfits some women choose to wear. I think many women do not even think about how some of the outfits they wear, cause some men to stumble and look lustfully at them. For the men – one technique we use from the ‘Everyman’s Battle’ book is to bounce our eyes away if we are going to start staring and falling into sin……Wish it was only once in awhile that these sitatuions occur in our lives, but it seems to be a multitude of times daily that these occur in our lives….
I read this book last year and found a lot of the content helpful. Bouncing the eyes is a good practice as John Piper once wrote,
“We must not give a sexual image more than five seconds before we mount a violent counterattack with the mind….get a counter image into the mind” A lot can be said about good old fashion self discipline.
But I think this is incomplete. What I mean is one can do this and yet never address the heart of their sinful lust.When tempted sexually we must ask “Father what am I not trusting you for that your Gospel promises to provide?”Luther explains it this way,
“Any sin is rooted in the inordinate lust for something which comes because we are trusting in that thing rather than in Christ for our righteousness or salvation. Therefore, in sin we are always forgetting what God has done for us in Christ and instead are being moved by some idol. Luther says, that to fail to believe God accepts us fully in Christ and to look to something else is a failure to keep the first commandment-love God with all the heart thus beneath any particular sin is a general sin of rejecting Christ-salvation and indulging in self salvation.”
I read “Everyman’s Battle” also and I’m very glad a group of our men are going through it together. I also found it helpful but incomplete as you said. Sometimes it is very hard to find any one book that says it all. As far as the music and the dance dynamic in relationship to sexual sin there is a very holistic relationship. Somewhere I heard the acrostic HALT used to remind men that they are especially vulnerable when they are Hurt, Angry, Lonely or Tired. I think a man who is “deep rooted” in the love of God through the gospel is also better equipped to cope with all those challenges and struggles and this less vulnerable to quick escapes that are as you said “rooted in an inordinate lust…” Having said all this I also believe, because of the biological and addictive nature of pornography and the easy access through the computers in moments, even seconds, of weakness, a healthy view of our battle with sin would lead many of us to install accountability software like “Covenant Eyes” on all our computers. Sometimes the gospel has to be the inspiration and empowerment for a practical step like that.