Defining Respectable Apparel

One day last week, while listening to the car radio, I caught a snippet of this program on Revive Our Hearts, with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It's been stuck in my head ever since. (Aaaah! Get it out! Get it out!)

I'll tell you why it's been stuck in my head. 1 Timothy 2:9-10, a well-known Bible verse relating to women's apparel, reads:

9Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments,
10but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.

That, I knew. I have studied, to some degree, every verse in the Bible relating to women's apparel. But I have not gone as deep as I could. For instance, I did not know that:

... the word that is translated adorn. Women should "adorn themselves." That is the word kosmeo. Now, there is a similar word, and that's the word respectable. Women should adorn themselves in "respectable apparel." The word respectable is translated from the Greek word kosmios. Kosmeo, which means "adorn," and kosmios, which means "respectable."

Now, when I say those Greek words kosmeo and kosmios, what English word does that make you think of? Cosmetics. The word, cosmetics: makeup, putting on our face. That comes from these two Greek words: kosmeo, "to adorn" and kosmios, respectable."

Let's look at those words. The word adorn, kosmeo, is a word that means "to put in proper order." It's used of decorating a house, of arranging furniture, of trimming oil lamps in the New Testament culture: "to put in proper order, to arrange, to decorate." It means "to make ready."

We are to be in respectable apparel, to adorn ourselves in respectable apparel. That's the word kosmios. It's a word that means "orderly" or "decent." John MacArthur says that word is the opposite of chaos. Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Tell me, what could possibly be more orderly than a wardrobe based on one's own personal coloring, natural silhouette, and God-given personality? As I have mentioned before, God does not equate modesty with unattractiveness. That would be a human mistake. And there's more good news: Revive Our Hearts, with Nancy Leigh DeMoss allows comments. Let's all say, "YAY!"