(Continued from yesterday)
I remember years ago a young Christian lady told me about her coed exercise class.
She told me what she wore, which wasn’t much.
I quoted the Timothy scripture and asked her was she worried about what kind of thoughts the men might be having.
She told me that was their problem – not hers!
There are a couple of scriptures that I believe say differently.
Paul says, “You must be careful with this freedom of yours. Do not cause a brother or sister with a weaker conscience to stumble.” 1 Cor 8:9 NLT
He also says, “If what I eat is going to make another Christian sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live — for I don’t want to make another Christian stumble.” 1 Cor 8:13 NLT
Now maybe Paul quit meat altogether or maybe he just never ate it in front of those that would be offended by it; the truth of the scripture is you are sinning against Christ when you sin against other Christians by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong (1 Cor 8:12 NLT) and causing others to lust is sin.
Therefore, no matter how comfortable you want to be you should never allow yourself to become a stumbling-block to someone else.
Now I speak to the church, as Paul did, because the secular world has no conscience of sin.
So I was real pleased when one of my younger church ladies came by our booth and was very appropriately dressed as was her husband.
You may be thinking, “they should be because they are married!”
I don’t read where Paul made a difference between married and not married.
Dressing in a Godly manner is not determined by marital status.
Men are visually stimulated and once the seed of skimpy dress is planted in the male mind it is extremely difficult to just dismiss it.
This is why pornography is so profitable among the male population.
That is why it is so important for Christian women to help Christian men from being tempted by dressing appropriately.
Now I don’t want to place the responsibility or blame on just women.
Let’s take a look at the male response next time.