Scott Tibbs
Modesty, humility and the need to be teachable
By Scott Tibbs, March 11, 2024
A debate over modesty broke out on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook a couple weeks ago, and the debate reveals a lot more about our culture - and modern Christendom itself - than the discussion around the issues of modesty.
First, why are so many Christians today unwilling to be teachable? Comment after comment, and tweet after tweet, confidently asserts that there is no Biblical teaching on modesty, or that it only refers to ostentatious displays of wealth, not covering body parts. But here is something to think about: Maybe Christians of generations past knew what they were talking about. Maybe they had wisdom that you lack. Maybe we should respect our fathers in the faith and take seriously their arguments about revealing clothing.
No, this is not a call to abandon
Sola Scriptura for church tradition. It is a call to be humble enough to recognize that Christians of the past might have a better understanding of Biblical doctrine than we do today, living in a sexually debauched and post-Christian culture.
Second, just stop with the comparisons to Sharia Law. Stop saying that those advocating modesty want to put women in burkas. There is a wide range of clothing options between a burka and a bikini. It does not have to be an either/or choice, so expand your horizons. You are the one coming across as a black-and-white thinker. Furthermore, many of the people trotting out the burka canard know this and themselves wear different clothing in different situations, so the "argument" is dishonest.
Not everyone is going to come to the same conclusions about what standards of modesty should be followed or what should be respectfully dismissed. But we should be humble enough to listen to the wisdom of two thousand years of church history, and we should be honest enough to avoid fabricating extreme arguments and assigning those "arguments" to people who have never advocated extreme solutions. We can be teachable and still disagree. We can disagree without being dishonest. These ought to be the two basic benchmarks for the debate over modesty.
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