Promoting Purity

Who is the responsible party for maintaining and promoting moral/sexual purity? Is there just as much that rides on the shoulders of women as that of men? Some have made the case that men are wholly responsible to show self-restraint no matter how a woman presents herself. The woman, therefore, would become exempt from any responsible in her deportment and any culpability in becoming a source of temptation and stumbling to men.  

  I would find from the Scriptures that women bear a great deal of accountability before God to live with discretion and propriety (1 Timothy 2:9; Prov. 11:22). The “attire of an harlot” is not becoming for a believer in Christ, for it reveals a heart that is not toward Him (Proverbs 7:10). The immodesty depicted by the prior phrase is rather clear and evident. A prostitute is all about revealing herself, thus bringing attention to what should be covered and hidden from view. The attraction, if a believing woman were to ascribe to such dress, would not be to the Christ one professes, but seeking an attraction to one’s body, and thus, inviting and arousing sensual pleasures that should not be fulfilled. Some things should be reserved and only observed for a husband and wife relationship within the context of their own home or bedroom (1 Cor.  7:4).

  It should never be the worldly mentality of “my body, my choice” that Christian women follow. Our bodies are not our own, but we are bought with a price, and ought to glorify God with our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20). A woman should clothe herself with that which is not tight, low-cut, or in any way putting what should be private on public display. The world is all about showing as much of a woman’s body as possible, but the believing woman should not love the world, neither the things that are in the world (1 John 2:15-17). The external should not promote an ounce of promiscuity, but the person or internal should be noted without any distractions (1 Peter 3:3-6). A woman of true inward beauty must guard against her outward beauty ever being flaunted.

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." Genesis 3:21