I've never thought of myself as a Feminist, but now I realize that I probably am. God has been teaching me that the way I dress is not up to his standard, and it's been a hard pill to swallow. I posted a video on modesty some time ago, and now I see that what was on that video was not modesty all - at least not God's definition of the word.
Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." Now in this day and age, I have to admit that one can hardly tell the difference between the clothes of men and women anymore. That includes myself - I only own pants, I wear skirts or dresses only for church on sabbath. And part of me wanted to believe that this Bible text is outdated, and I don't have to pay attention to it. But I know better than that. Whether or not men adopted pants first (and it could just have easily been women that adopted them) the fact is that today, pants are men's clothing. And by wearing pants, women are adopting clothes that pertain to men. And the Bible says that this is an abomination to the Lord.
Women should not wear tight fitting clothes that stick to the body; but the clothes a woman wears should conceal her figure. Pants do the very opposite of concealing. I have learned that women want to attract attention to themselves - after all, men are visual creatures and are attracted to what they see. So women want to make themselves appear more attractive by wearing make-up and dressing in eye-catching clothing. However, modest women of God should as much as possible deny that inclination to attract attention to self.
Now a lot of the time, in church when the way women dress is discussed, I always hear members saying that the way women dress drives men to have lustful thoughts - almost like women are responsible for when men sin through lust. And that just bothers me. I agree, we should be our brother's keeper and not lead anyone to sin. But I also think it is unfair to put men's sins so squarely on the shoulders of women. Especially when what provokes lust is subjective.
I asked God to open my eyes, and now a part of me wishes I could close them again. But every word in the Bible is relevant even now - not just then. God does not change; so if it was abomination then, it's abomination now. I feel my thoughts on this issue as discussed here are so disjointed and confusing. But that's just because it's still an issue I am learning, and it's a difficult one. The Bible does not set clear parameters on how long one's skirt or dress should be, or how tight one's blouse should be. So any discussion on modesty to me seems like it would depend on our subjective opinions.
But 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." So to me, there should be no confusion, and in all things, not just the issue of modesty, we should all be of one accord.
It's a hard pill to swallow that the way I dress is not up to God's standard. The changes that are needed are going to be so difficult, but I can do all things through Christ.
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