7.
Conclusion
We
know from the Word of God that our bodies must be clothed, that they must be
covered according to the will of God expressed in Scripture and taught by
nature itself, and that women must be clothed distinctively from men. We
must therefore, in love to God and our neighbours, endeavour in the strength
of Jesus Christ to set a holy example in wearing only such clothing as we
know to be pleasing to Him. “For
ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:20). That
the man may not wear dainty, effeminate styles of clothing, and that the
woman, created for the domestic sphere, ought to be covered with modest long
dresses (or equivalent garments such as skirts and blouses), is seen in
Scripture, the example of our godly forebears, and from the light of nature
itself. “The purity of the heart will show itself in the modesty of the
dress, which becomes women professing godliness”,[1]
observes Matthew Henry. Moreover, far
from procuring any advantages and dignities that pertain to men alone, the
woman who behaves and dresses like a man loses that comeliness, those graces
and benefits peculiar to the tender sex, that are
too rare in these times.[2]
These things should be carefully weighed up by those whose hearts’
desire is to please their Lord and Saviour. If we love God because He first
loved us, let us demonstrate our heart’s love for Him and, being clothed
with the imputed righteousness of Christ, let us put off the body of sin and
live in holiness, as doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving our
own selves (James 1:22). Instead of succumbing to the wiles of our adversary
we must believe Him to be faithful who promised to our father Abraham so
long ago, “That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and
righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74, 75).
But are
you an unbeliever, still in slavery to sin and Satan? Are you afraid to die
and meet Jesus, your Maker, as Judge? Then come to Him for safety from the
wrath of God; come now and be reconciled, be justified by faith in His blood
and not by the law which you have broken (Gal. 3:11). Faith alone will
justify and sanctify a man, so that he may say, “Surely . . . in the LORD
have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:24). God
has graciously chosen multitudes to be saved through His Son, and none who
comes to Him will be cast out (John
6:37). So
may the Lord pour out
His Holy Spirit upon this generation, plucking sinners as brands from the
burning, converting them from the
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and
inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18). Then will the tide turn on the curse of doctrinal
liberalism and theological scepticism, and men will look to
Mount
Zion, to the Church of
the living God and sing,
Great is the Lord, and greatly he is to be praised still,
Within
the city of our God, upon his holy hill.
Mount Sion stands most beautiful, the joy of all the land;
The
city of the mighty King on her north side doth stand.
The Lord within her palaces is for a refuge known.
For,
lo, the kings that gather'd were together, by have gone . . .
Walk about Sion, and go round; the high tow'rs thereof tell:
Consider
ye her palaces, and mark her bulwarks well;
That ye may tell posterity. For this God doth abide
Our
God for evermore; he will ev'n unto death us guide.
(Psalm
48:1-4 & 12-14, Scottish Psalter, 1650)
John Chrysostom: “But if any say, ‘Nay, how can this be a shame to
the woman, if she mount up to the glory of the man?’ we might make
this answer; ‘She doth not mount up, but rather falls from her own
proper honour.’ Since not to abide within our own limits and the laws
ordained of God, but to go beyond, is not an addition but a diminuation.
For as he that desireth other men’s goods and seizeth what is not his
own, hath not gained any thing more, but is diminished, having lost even
that which he had, (which kind of thing also happened in paradise:) so
likewise the woman acquireth not the man’s dignity, but loseth even
the woman’s decency which she had. And not from hence only is her
shame and reproach, but also on account of her covetousness” (Homily
26, On the Veiling of Women).
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