MODEST: Men and Women Clothed in the Gospel

by Tim Challies & R.W. Glenn

Let me start by asking a few questions I recently posed to our church teen girls: 

1. Can you dress immodestly and be sinless?
2. Can you dress immodestly and be sinful?
3. Can you dress modestly and be sinful?

These 3 questions were the start of a 3-week study on Gospel-Centered Modesty that we did on Wednesday nights based out of this book, MODEST, by Tim Challies & R.W. Glenn. Although I had certainly heard a number of “talks” and “sermon excerpts” regarding modesty throughout my growing up years, I’d never read a book specifically devoted to the subject. That may be because the very few resources out there seem to be nothing more than the same set of rules and guidelines that I grew up hearing and knowing about. 

However, this book is completely different - no lists, no “guidelines” - not the slightest bit of practical help for me as I tried to work through this topic with the teens. I knew everything I was reading was good and helpful, but I was starting to get a bit impatient and frustrated with the seeming lack of practical application. And it was at that point that I finally just stopped, and started over (the book is short enough that it wasn’t too much wasted time). I realized that instead of really trying to understand the point of the book, I was, unfortunately, just looking for some easy answers to give to our girls instead of doing what I’d set out to do - give them a Gospel-Centered way of working through this. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Gospel-Centered is rarely a quick and easy list of “do-this-don’t-do-this.” 

As Challies puts it, “Modesty is a virtue that shows love to others and brings glory to God by appropriate dress.” Does that seem vague? Maybe at first. But in reading this book, you’ll find that immodesty is an issue whether you are old or young, wear dresses and sweaters or shorts and tank tops. Modesty will always want to bring attention to God and God-alone. So anytime I am not actively doing that, I’m being immodest, whether in speech, dress, or conduct. This short book does a really fantastic job of truly getting to the heart of the matter - idolatry - and helping both teens and adults (women AND men) to think through the issue of modesty from a biblically gospel-centered approach. I highly recommend it to all women, both for yourselves and as a good discipleship tool. You can get it here for $9 for a paperback or $5.50 for a kindle. Another great book to read that would supplement this well is Idols of the Heart, by Elyse Fitzpatrick. 

Megan
for The Sisterhood