Leviticus 16:4 (ESV)
He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on.
So in the context this is God giving Aaron instructions on how they are supposed to offer the sin offering. When the priests offered sacrifices on the alter they would go up steps and be standing a little above everyone else. Anyone who was standing close to the alter would have potentially have the ability to look up the priests garments and see if they were wearing anything underneath.
What does this tell us? Well, what I got out of it was if you are leading worship it's important that we are to avoid dressing in such a way that we are distracting especially in a way that draws attention to ourselves in a sexual manner.
Notice it is the priests, the ones who are leading worship, who God calls to be modest. Not necessarily the worshipers.
Is it important for us to be modest? Yes, but it is especially important for those who are leading worship that they be modest so that people don't become so distracted by what you are wearing (or aren't wearing) that they can't focus on God but rather are focusing on you.
Does this mean that when we are gathered to worship that we don't allow anyone in who is dressed immodestly? Absolutely not! Jesus welcomed the worship of a prostitute in Simon the priest's house. He was known to be friends with tax collectors and sinners.
It is preposterous to think that we should suddenly become unwelcoming of someone just because they sin differently from us. It makes us no different from the Pharisees.
I once was with a family who made it obvious that they disapproved of a shirt that I was wearing. It was a tank top that had no sleeves. Now I know every family has different views as to what is appropriate and what is not but at the time I felt that I was being judged just because I was wearing something that this particular family didn't approve of.
This was a shirt that my dad had never said anything indicating that he disapproved of and my mom said looked fine when I asked her about it later. If they had talked with me frankly about it and then been gracious to me showing that they still loved me even if I did make mistakes I might have received the rebuke better. At the time I was a little upset at how the whole thing came about.
Now was I right? My attitude might not have been. I should be just as willing to recognize others for making mistakes as well and be willing to forgive them. Nobody is perfect and I'm sure they felt that they were doing the right thing.
Was what this family believed Biblical? I don't know that it was. I haven't come across a passage or verse in scripture that says "thou shalt not wear shirts without sleeves".
I think that it's good to have boundaries for your own family but to be gracious towards others who have different rules from your own.
John 13:34,35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Now I still will wear tank tops on occasion and people may disapprove but it's a man made rule that I'm not required to follow. I am required to love my brothers and sisters in Christ though no matter what they believe about what is modest and what is not. I shouldn't let their rules distract me from what's really important and that is loving Jesus.
Modesty is a good thing and something that we should strive for but we must consider why we are being modest. Is it because we are so in love with God that we have lost a taste for the immodesty of the world or are we being modest because of rule
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I'm the crazy older sister of 11 children. If I were a splotch on the page of history I most definitely would be purple.
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