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Summer Clothes
It has been hot for some time now and, as is usually the custom,
it is the time of year that clothes get smaller and smaller. Just
the other day, while driving through downtown Franklin, I looked
to the left side of the street and there was a scantily clad
woman. So I looked to the right. There was another one. It
occurred to me I was driving, I ought to look straight ahead. So I
did. Guess what? There were two ladies crossing the street in
revealing outfits.
What’s a Christian guy to do?
First, let me ask you sisters a big
favor. Obviously, women of the world are not going to care about
the temptations we men face. In fact, some of them, continuing the
role of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis
39), like playing the temptress. Let me ask you, however,
to please give us some consideration and let us rest from
temptation when in your company.
I recognize we must be on our guard and
work to overcome temptation no matter what Satan hurls in our
path. But please, don’t let Satan use you as a stumbling block
for us. That is bad for us. It is worse for you (Matthew
18:6-7).
Remember I
Timothy 2:9-10: “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” (ESV).
Please, dress with modesty and self-control. Please, dress in a
way that we don’t see your goods but your good works.
Second, let me encourage us men.
Whether the women of the world or even our sisters in Christ ever
take pity on us and start dressing in a way that steers us away
from temptation or not, we have to buck up and serve the Lord. We
sometimes have the mistaken notion that just because we are on a
diet, doesn’t mean we can’t look at the menu. The reality is
looking at this menu is breaking our diet.
Matthew
5:28 says if we look on a woman with lust, we have already
committed adultery in our heart. Granted, I guess if you can look
at a woman and admire her beauty with the same detachment you can
a beautiful mountainside, maybe that is ok. But don’t deceive
yourself. God didn’t make women beautiful so we could goggle and
gawk at them. We need to be like Job in Job
31:1, making a covenant with our eyes not to gaze at women
no matter how they are dressed.
Whether we are a brother or a sister,
we have responsibility here. Let us put Jesus first in our lives,
dressing with self-control as those who profess godliness and
controlling our eyes and our thoughts.
May God bless us as we turn from the lusts of the flesh to
pursue righteousness.
Edwin L. Crozier
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