Legalism Part 1 Women, Fashion, Makeup and Jewelry

1 Timothy 2:9-10 "In like manner also, that women in modest apparel, with shamefacdeness and sobriety, not with broided hair, or gold or pearls or costly array; but which becometh women professing godliness with good works"



I wanted to to start a series of about legalistic man-made rules often enforced within the church and Christian community altogether that often hinders Christians walk with Christ.  These rules are well-meaning but very misguided in it's way to be used to keep Christians on the right path with God due to misinterpretation of the bible, scriptures often taking out of context and often has more to do with controlling and policing Christians. Sometimes these results with Christians being kept under law where they are scoring points with God and trying to earn his favor rather than being under grace which is the true way to live godly.

My first post on legalism is about women regarding, fashion, makeup, jewelry and even modesty.  I've posting this topic because of the many times I've read and heard on internet be it articles, blogs, websites and youtube videos on this matter which has occasionally left me quite concerned, baffled and uneasy.  Apparently, there are many Christians who believe it's wrong for Christian women to wear makeup and expensive jewelry or clothes and be fashioned-oriented. Some churches even teach against this using the above bible verse 1 Timothy 2:9-10 as their reasoning.

Another scripture used to justify this reasoning is 1 Peter 3:3-4 "Your Beauty should outward adornment such as elaborate hairstyles and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.  Rather it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight".  

Other scriptures include Jeremiah 4:30 "What are you doing, you devastated one? Why dress yourself in scarlet and put on jewels of gold? Why highlight your eyes with makeup?  You adorn yourself in vain. Your lovers despite you; they want to kill you."

 2 Kings 9:30 "Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out the window".

The comments I've read or heard was that Christian women shouldn't wear makeup or expensive attire be it jewelry or clothes since these are worldly things. That they shouldn't wear flashy clothes or wear anything that draws attention to themselves.  That only cheap woman or whores were makeup.  No matter how well-meaning, none of these things has anything to do with a woman's walk with Christ or her godliness.  In fact, these mentalities only encourage the Christian community to play fashion police where they police and delegate what a woman should or shouldn't wear becomes legalistic and basically about control. 

Maybe to truly comprehend what Christian women who profess God should put on their face and what clothes they should wear, we need to understand what these  verses really mean. Regarding, 1 Timothy 2:9-10,  Apostle Paul who had written a letter to his disciple Timothy who he left in the city of Ephesus to oversee the church, he left instructions on its oversight.  Apparently during that time, the city was where the temple of the cult of Artemis, a Greek goddess. While many of the former  followers of this cult had converted into Christianity, the problem was many of the wealthy women in the city were flaunting their wealth during worship service by dressing very extravagant with their expensive clothes and expensive jewelry worn on their braided hairstyles. This was their way of showing off  their attire and it was causing the poorer women who couldn't afford such these to be envious. It is also possible that these women were also copying their material from the temple cult prostitutes in the way they were dressing as these cult prostitutes would dress sensual and provocative hoping o attract lustful men.  This could have caused disruption in the church, as the focus was more on the these wealthy women and their attire rather than the service who was turning the service into basically a fashion show.

Paul in his instructions was not banning women from wearing jewelry, or expensive clothes or braided hairstyles which was common at the time. He was condemning their vanity, their need to flaunt their fancy attire and dressing immodestly disrupting service. Instead he wanted to dress more appropriate for church service and they should be adorning themselves with good works instead.  The Greek translation for adorn is "kosmeo" meaning to put in order, to arrange, to decorate, render pleasing and metaphorically to embellish with honor.  Other words, women shouldn't be too focused on their outward appearance to the point of being vain, materialistic and flaunting their attire, dressing so provocative in order to show off their bodies. This encourages conceit, vanity and shallowness and causing women to lose focus on what a godly woman should be concerned with which is professing the Lord with good behavior and good works.

Many have used this verse for the modesty movement where women and girls are encouraged to cover up and dress less revealing and non-provocative attire. Although this is well meaning and can be quite empowering for young women and girls alike this, the verse about dressing modestly may not be referring to this at all. The Greek translation for modest was "kosmios" which means well arranged, proper, respectable. Paul likely was referring to women dressing appropriate for the occasion. The Greek word for shamefacedness was "aidos" which meant a sense of shame, honor, modesty, bashfulness, reverence and regard for others.  Meaning the women in that church shouldn't be flaunting themselves but have a sense of honor and modesty in their attitudes.

Even in today's society, there as been a  hyper-sexualization of women and girls in the media and pop culture for a while now that only encourages them to believe that they should flaunt their bodies, look very sexy in order to be attractive. The old phrase was "If you got it, flaunt it".  There is also the shallow and materialistic mentality that encourages them to fixate too much of their physical appearances to the point of defining their worth on their looks.  This has led to superficial attitudes, where females tend to judge others or get judged themselves by more of their outward appearances, create envy for each other. Sometimes it even leads to insecurities and low-esteem, where sometimes females as young as their preteens, resort to eating disorders, older women getting plastic surgery, face-lifts or using botox and or other women having surgeries to change, their breast size etc, too look more attractive to measure up to the high standards of beauty. 

The most common mentality is females in young thirteen dressing in provocative clothing to feel sexy, hoping to get the attention of boys.  Too much of these indulgences can be quite unhealthy and causes females to stray away from what really is important which who they are inside, focusing more on good moral character and doing good deeds rather than just than their appearances.   Although it's nothing wrong with wanting to look beautiful and wear makeup, jewelry or nice clothes, for Christian women, it shouldn't be their main focus or what defines them but their walk with Christ and bringing glory to Him.  A true godly woman knows, that their devotion to the Lord and following His calling is what truly matters in the end. 

I will continue more on this topic in part 2 of this post.