Speaking from a male’s perspective, everything is WRONG with bikinis. They certainly don’t help a man pursue godliness in this present world. Recently, however, Nancy Wilson at the Femina blog has taken up the topic of beach wear and bikinis. She points out that emphasizing what Bible verse condemns bikinis or any other specific item of clothing is not the best perspective. What would be RIGHT about bikinis for a woman to choose to wear one? Consider her thoughts:
Let’s come at it another way. Rather than looking for the absence of evil motives, let’s look for the presence of good ones. The Bible says women should be (to list a few things) sober, discreet, chaste (Titus 2:4-5), meek and quiet (1 Peter 3:4) holy (vs. 5-6), modest, dressing with propriety and moderation (1 Timothy 2:8), characterized by faith, charity, and holiness with self-control (vs. 15). So let’s say a Christian woman is wearing a thong to the beach. She says her conscience is clear and her husband doesn’t mind and she has no impure motives at all. But that is not the same thing as having good, Christ-like motives as she puts on her thong. Is she being discreet, chaste, holy, etc.? Show me how a thong (or a bikini) is a demonstration of propriety and moderation, chastity and self-control….
We want to measure the amount of skin, the hem length, or the neckline in square inches and defend our ground based on our lack of evil motives and the lack of a Bible verse that mentions skinny dipping. But we should be looking somewhere else entirely, and that is to Christ. How does our clothing demonstrate that we belong to Him? How does it display our discretion, holiness, chastity, moderation, self-control, and meekness? When we look at it that way, we are getting closer to the truth.
And one last point. Christian women are to adorn themselves (1 Peter 3) in a manner that impresses God. But dressing to be attractive is not at all the same as dressing to attract. [read the whole post]
Nancy has two recent posts on the topic: Beach Treats and More on Beach Wear. As much as I hope women help us guys out in the fight for pure thoughts, Nancy’s thoughts on how immodest clothing affects women and reflects their heart may be even more helpful in promoting virtue in this area. With the summer heat upon us, I thought it would be good to highlight these helpful posts and encourage my readers to consider this matter more fully. [HT: Sharper Iron Filings]
Whew! When I read the title, I almost bounced you from my blogroll!
Nice recover – I wish the sharperiron guys – the ones who are using ‘second-premise arguments’ to build a (not kidding) ‘theology of worldliness’ could wrap their heads around Biblical argumentation like this.
LOL. I guess the title was a bit more alarming than I intended. I was just trying to come up with a catchy title…. Yes, a list of Bible-sanctioned no-nos is not really the point, is it?
Thank you for posting these resources!!! Ms Wilson has a refreshing take on the argument for modesty for the time we live in. I have two daughters; one is 12 and the other 1. I also have a son who is 4. We live in Florida; nuff said. I feel I need to put blinders on my son’s eyes just to get to the grocery store because of all the billboards and XXX stores we pass between our house and there! My daughter is also entering an age where it becomes difficult to not want to dress like her peers. Thankfully, we have instilled modesty in her and she is following that path hard; but other girls her age do differently.
I hear ya. I personally couldn’t live in Florida or southern California anywhere near water. Only by the grace of God I guess.