Three Basic Principles We Must Understand Before We Can Truly Submit to Modesty

The following is a summary from Nancy Leigh DeMoss's radio program "Revive Our Hearts" from May 27, 2005 "Free to be Modest."

OWNERSHIP

1 Corinthians 6:19 - "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

An immodestly dressed woman is giving something away that doesn't belong to her.


LORDSHIP

Romans 14:9 - "For this very reason Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living."

You know what it means when we say that Jesus is Lord? It means that God has the right to regulate every area of our lives, including what we wear. Are you governed by fashion? Are you governed by the culture? Are you governed by your friends' opinions? Or are you governed by Christ and His Word? Who is your Lord? You see, you and I are not to be enslaved to anything or anyone other than Jesus--to have any Lord other than Him is to be a slave.


CITIZENSHIP

Leviticus 18:3 - According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.

The fact is that you and I do not belong to this world--we live in a different kingdom.

1 John 2:15 - Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

First, it means that we are not to be conformed to this world.
Second, we're not to love the world--having a heart for this world and its system and its way of thinking. When using the word "love" we're talking about gravitating to the way this world thinks.