I agree, PO, but there is a part of our outward appearance (esp. women) that attracts the world and let's them know "something is different about that one!"
BUt that was never stated in scripture to be the purpose of modesty. It is simply to be modest. Never does the bible say the way we dress is our sign to believers of our Christianity. And I do not think we should take it to be so. It leads to error.
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I work in a hospital. I can spot the housekeepers from the nurses and them from the doctors.....WHEN they are dressed according to our system's standards. If I were to need a doctor, I'd KNOW (if they are dressed per "standards") who to run to. When they are walking around dressed any ol' way they chose, you can't tell one from the other (some- or most times).
Along those lines, I've always used this example (and pardon me that it works best with, but not exclusively with, women): if you desperately needed prayer at a car accident and two women were walking your way and one was dressed "worldly" and the other like an Apostolic who holds to the stricter standards of dress, who would you run to first?
But it still stands that clothes are never stated in scripture to show who we are. Love is the only thing. And love handles all the rest anyway. If you have genuinbe love, you will dress right. But if we emphasize dress and not love, then we may dress right, but not be genuinbe believers.
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Please don't assume I think outward dress saves anyone, but there is a place for it in the world. There may not be time for someone to see your fruit, even though I think that is the best indicator to the world of who is a Christian.
Just a thought.
Fruit is fruit. It is what people see. That is the context of the thought when speaking about fruit in Matthew 7 and Gal 5. If it is not seen, it is not fruit. And the fruit can ever only be love and joy and peace, etc.
I am all for modesty. But not for modesty to be our "fruit" and indication to our salvation. Never.
However, I disagree with saying clothing is to be considered as to whether or not we are Christians. Like I said, it leads to error in many cases. The Bible said anything about clothing being our indicators, and God obviously had a good reason why. All these theories of how we recognize officials in the way they dress are not biblical reasons for modesty.
Let's just leave it as the need for modesty and that is ALL. That way, we will not get into error. I truly believe that if we propose standards of dress as indicators of who is saved or not, MANY WILL GET INTO LEGALISM and make it their salvation. And many have. It's bound to happen. But when you leave it as an issue of modesty alone, and propose the fruit of the Spirit ALONE indicates who is saved, the error is avoided. Let's emphasize everything exactly the way the bible did, and that includes NOT saying clothing tells the world who we are.
I voted option 1, ummmm, squeemishly. Holiness is a heaven or hell issue. Standards and holiness aren't necessarily the same thing.
But the poll never used the term HOLINESS, just STANDARDS.
How "holiness" ever became synonymous with clothing is beyond me. NO ONE reading the bible would ever come up with that unless they were primed and pumped from outward emphasizers. Because I know what most who read the polls think of "holiness" I voted 2.
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