Titus 2:4-5" "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste...."

The word translated "chaste" in this verse is Hagnos, which means "1. exciting reverence, venerable, sacred; 2. pure; pure from carnality, chaste, modest; pure from every fault, immaculate; clean."

In Chapter 19, Mrs. Pearl says

We aged women are to teach the young women to be chaste:, pure in thought, word, and act, and to be modest and honorable in all things.

Oh, how we need this message today!!! When we were visiting churches after moving here, we visited one that had wonderful preaching, and we truly did enjoy it. But there was just far too much SKIN. I'm fine with "casual." I'm fine with a few immodest ladies here and there, because for all I know they are not believers. But when the majority of women have lots of skin exposed, that tells me that immodesty is tolerated and not even confronted. I saw many a young girl wearing short basketball shorts and spaghetti-strapped tank tops - AT CHURCH! Needless to say, we don't attend church there LOL!

On page 201 Mrs. Pearl shares:

A chaste woman is a modest woman. God speaks of a woman maintaining her chastity and purity by the clothes she wears. "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works" (1 Timothy 2:9-10). God says that a woman's apparel should profess godliness. Her clothes, hair, and adornments - not just her mouth - make a profession to all who see her that she is modest and godly, or that she is immodest and ungodly. Our Heavenly Father has dress standards! Would you employ the standard argument and dismiss God as "legalistic" when he tells us that there is a proper way to dress and there is an improper way?

Nancy Leigh Demoss has done several radio programs on modesty, and they have all been transcribed and posted on her website. You can find them all here. We should examine everything we wear as God might, and not only because of the men around us, but because of God. "Does this clothing glorify God?" "Why do I want to wear this, do I want men to notice me?" (Not necessarily in a l*stful way, but just in a "I'd like them to notice me" way.) "What does this outfit reveal about my heart - that it is pure before the Lord or that it is impure?"

I know that this is an unpopular concept in today's church, but it is one that needs to be discussed. I'm glad Mrs. Pearl has tackled it in her book. I know I personally need to go through my closet (yet again). Sadly some clothes that used to be modest on me aren't anymore. (LOL)

What about women that are not modest? Mrs. Pearl says this on page 202:

If you find pleasure in being a source of temptation to men, you are definitely an ungodly woman and are in desperate need of repentance.

Jesus said that a lusting man commits adultery WITH a woman, not against her, meaning that the woman is included in the lusting adultery. Women have told me that they are "not convicted" about the way they dress, as if God has to chase them down and torment them about it before they will obey his Word. Many are offended when their "style of dressing" is called into question. They say they are not going to be legalistic about it, even when God has clearly stated his will. The Holy Spirit convicts according to the will of God. If you are not convicted by the Holy Spirit for your immodest dress, then you are not being led by God. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). If you are God's child in more than just name, you will be led by the Spirit of God. If God is not leading you consistent with his Word, then you must face the fearful truth that you do not have that Spirit indwelling you. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9).

Some women are not modest because they are just ignorant about it. This is where solid, Biblical teaching needs to come in. We attended a church for a while in which I never actually heard it preached from the pulpit, and there weren't rules about what constituted modest dress, but overall the people (both men and women) dressed very modestly. What was taught? Personal holiness, and modesty was a part of that.

Some women may claim that the Lord isn't convicting them of modest dress, when in fact He is. I have no idea who those women are, nor is it my job to know. The Lord knows though.

And then there are women like Mrs. Pearl is discussing - women who truly aren't being convicted of modesty, even when they read about it in the Bible. I have to agree that perhaps they aren't being led by the Spirit because they aren't saved. Of course it is not my place to judge who is and is not saved based on their behavior, and only the Lord knows what is truly going on in their heart. But their fruit (or lack thereof) does give a good picture of what is going on inside.

I do applaud Mrs. Pearl for tackling a particular subject:

What About Pants?We cannot leave this subject without dealing with an issue that comes up over and over again. Is it permissible for a woman to wear pants? Deuteronomy 22:5 is cited as a prohibition against a woman wearing pants: "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God." To cite this verse as prohibition against women wearing pants, one must assume several doubtful concepts. Do pants pertain to men? What verse? According to the Bible, the common garment for a man is a skirt or cloak. Seventeen times the Bible speaks of men wearing skirts, such men as Boaz, King Saul, and Aaron. One time, the Bible speaks of a woman's skirt, and another time it speaks of God's skirt. So, even God wears a skirt, as did the Scottish men and the Roman and Greek men of old. American Indian men wore mini skirts. During Bible times, as far as secular history reveals, the only people who ever wore pants were Eastern women.

I'm so glad she addressed this, because oftentimes modesty is taught as being dresses/skirts only. I've heard tapes, read articles, etc. that attempt to argue that point. If a woman is convicted to wear only dresses/skirts for whatever reason, then that is fine, but the Bible does not teach that women need to wear only dresses/skirts.

A great article online examining this issue is found here. (I cannot vouch for the other articles on the site and found some that I definitely couldn't recommend, but this one is very well done and is true to Scripture and logic.)

And then on page 204, Mrs. Pearl begins to tell the story of Bad Bob. "Bad Bob" is a composite character. He happened to see a bit of soft p*rn one night as he changed the channels on TV, and thus began a lifelong struggle for him. It was exacerbated by all the immodest women he was surrounded by at church. One in particular was the youth pastor's wife, "Lydia." Bob struggled so much with lust that he eventually dropped out of the youth group so he wouldn't have to be around her.

He married and things got better, but after his wife had their second child things slowed down in the s*x department. So he tried to be vigilant against lust. Then one day in church his wife said she wanted to sit behind a particular family with immodest girls. Bad Bob reluctantly went and

knew he was Bad Bob, full of lust, anger, frustration, and defeat.

I asked my husband about this scenario, and he said that to some extent it is true. But he said the same thing that I was thinking: nothing is mentioned regarding Bad Bob's responsibility in this.

I realize that this book is addressing women and not men. However, to lay the complete and total blame for Bad Bob's problem with lust at the feet of the women with whom he comes into contact is unfair. Does Lydia have somewhat of a role? Yes. She should have been dressed more modestly. Does his wife have a role? Yes. However, Mrs. Pearl once again completely dismisses any legitimate reason his wife is disinterested in s*x:

Her excuses were exhaustion, sickness, didn't want to get pregnant, didn't feel like it, it hurt because "something seems wrong inside me now," etc.

While she probably did have too many excuses, Bad Bob should have cut her some slack, especially since there was something physically wrong with her!

So I don't discount any of that. But as my husband so eloquently put it, "Bad Bob needed to get over it." He agreed that it is difficult, YET IT IS POSSIBLE, to take his thoughts captive. And it was no reason to allow bitterness to fester. Again, I realize that this book isn't addressing the men and what they need to be doing, but it's unfair to the women reading this book to insinuate that the women and their immodesty are The Problem. They are a problem and yes, we need to learn from these examples just how our immodesty affects men, but the full blame should not be put on the women's shoulders as Mrs. Pearl has done.

A few months back Rebecca wrote several posts on her blog on the responsibilities of men and women regarding the men's lust and the women's immodesty. Very thought-provoking. Here are the links for you to check out: Rekindling controversy, Speaking of controversy, and Excuses, excuses.

Mrs. Pearl discusses Bathsheba and David once again, and once again she lays the blame on Bathsheba.

Because Bathsheba was indiscreet, she caused great calamity...Her lack of discretion...She provided the opportunity for him to lust by her lack of discretion in where she chose to bathe.

Scripture doesn't indicate that Bathsheba was being indiscreet. At this point in time the fighting men and the kings were out battling. But David had stayed home. Perhaps she didn't know that he was still home and thought she was being discreet since she was bathing at night and figured there weren't any men around anyway? Or perhaps she did know and, yes, was indiscreet. We simply cannot know based on what Scripture says. I do know that Scripture never faults Bathsheba for what all occurred. But it does fault David.

At the end of the chapter Mrs. Pearl lists some traits of a good help meet regarding chasteness:

A good help meet is chaste in her heart, actions, and looks.
She considers the potential temptation of others with gravity.
Her conversation with her husband is lovely and kind. A good help meet looks out for her man.

ALL EXCELLENT ADVICE. And the "meat" of this chapter is right on - women must strive to dress more modestly. (I do believe there is more to "chasteness" in Titus 2:5 than just being modest, but the whole point of this chapter is modesty in dress.) Unfortunately Mrs. Pearl places the sole responsibility of a man's sin in this area on women's shoulders, and that is unfair. Women do play a role, but "the woman made me do it" didn't work with Adam, and it won't with men of today.