[Editor’s] While I was busy reducing Scita>Scienda’s traffic count last month, Shemaromans quietly produced the busiest traffic month in the history of the Areopagus. Congratulations, Shema…[note]

So how should women dress? Like all Christians, women should clothe themselves in Christ’s righteousness and humility, desiring God’s beauty to shine through them.

“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:1-4)

“…likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.” (1 Timothy 2:9-10)

While these verses appear in a context addressed to wives, the message remains clear to all women: clothe yourselves in Christ’s righteousness. But how does that goal manifest itself given current fashions and most women’s penchant for shopping? 

While Christ fulfilled the Law for us, we’re still called to not sin. A look at several of the Ten Commandments (two in this installment, one in the next) will guide woman in their quest for fashionable fulfillment.

You shall have no other Gods before me.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:19-24 explain all we need to know about fulfilling this commandment with regard to our practice of dress:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Do we shop more than we serve others? Do we spend more on clothing and maintenance of the clothing than we do in helping the less fortunate? Do we allot more time to reading advertisements and studying the latest fashions than we do reading Scripture and praying? Do we delight more in our new outfit we slip on before church than we do in our expectation of worshipping and learning from the day’s sermon?

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

We’re charged with living in the world but not being of the world. Psalm 73 provides us with an antidote for not succumbing to the tempting pleasures found in the world, the ones that make us desire what is not ours:

“Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
 
“But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.” (Psalm 73:1-17)

How easy it is to desire expensive garments and the luxuries that many women of the world accumulate. How easy it is to want to appear stylish, up-to-date, and hip. However, the Psalmist reminds us that these desires and pursuits prove meaningless when we focus on God. Psalm 73 reinforces Jesus’ word regarding laying up our treasures in Heaven. In His sanctuary, in His presence, we find eternal peace, a peace that the material items of this world will never provide.

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
 
“For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.” (Psalm 73:23-28)

The comforts of material items do not sustain us for more than a trivial period of time. God’s peace sustains us eternally. Furthermore, God promises to clothe us (Matthew 6:25-33), and He is faithful. We’ve no need to keep up with the Joanies and Junes in an effort to blend in with the world’s trends and standards.

“The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.” (Psalm 19:1-11)

Proverbs 31:30
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.