There was a meme image, screenshot from a Twitter post, I saw a while back. It was a woman mentioning the fact that Jesus never told women to cover up but told men to pluck out their eyeballs to avoid sexual temptation. The implication is that the onus is all on men, though the idea ignores what Peter and Paul had mentioned about women’s modesty.
The Sermon on the Mount’s actual location isn’t known by scholars, but there were a lot of people gathered there to listen from many walks of life, so it’s no stretch to assume women were present. If covering up was a pressing issue, He likely would’ve said something, and depending on other circumstances, it likely would’ve been documented.
Indecent Exposure (mirrored on archive.org):
Indecent Exposure
19 October 2021Let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is the living Law of God. His life and teachings are divine justice.
Jesus warned in the Sermon the Mount that it’s not enough to obey the law code; the whole idea is that the code was to give you a clue what God thinks is important. So when you can cite ancient law code, that’s the bottom edge, the street level of justice. For those who would like to actually live in the Presence of God, it requires a far higher moral standard.
One of the things Jesus spoke of that day was how staring at a woman with lust in your heart made you just as guilty as having ravished her. So guys, if you get turned on by what you see, all you’ve done is show just how fallen and weak you are.
What to do? Try to avoid exposing yourself to sights that provoke that kind of thing inside your flesh. In the same sermon Jesus mentioned the idea of plucking out your eye or cutting off your hand to prevent yourself from getting too wrapped up in the fires of temptation.
Well, of course that means don’t watch American TV or movies, for the most part. It’s not as if Jesus doesn’t understand how hard it is; this isn’t legalism. He’s trying to impress on us the sheer necessity of changing the context in which we live as much as possible. Don’t hang around places where women expose themselves — or little girls, or boys, if that’s your sin. Having a desire for something that you cannot righteously fulfill means you have a problem.
And of course our society has a serious problem; Americans are obsessed with sex. Jesus was only half-joking when He mentioned gouging out your eye. It’s exceedingly hard to find a situation where the women aren’t defiling themselves with a level of exposure that transgresses the biblical standard. But if you act like it doesn’t matter, then you belong in the street, not in God’s throne room.
I’m not going to offer a legalistic standard. In the book I’ve already provided a rough outline of how things might work in our current American context: covered shoulder to shoulder and down to the knees. No cleavage in front and nothing too form fitting. Take it from there. And I don’t live in a tropical climate, so I’m not talking about that, either. The Lord can speak to you just as well as to me. The question is whether you’ve ever bothered to ask Him.
And just so you’ll know: Looking at nudity in images and even drawings is a sin. God is not impressed by all the claims that some of that great art includes nudes, and how talented the artists were. Painting, drawing or photographing a nude is a sin, worse than the sin of those who look at that stuff. No, we don’t expect sinners to understand that. Sinners will sin; it’s all they know. They can’t possibly do right in God’s sight because they aren’t His covenant children.
The resounding theme must echo over the land without mercy: America is under God’s wrath. The land and people are defiled. Turn away from sin. How much holiness can you handle? Pray and work toward the standards of God’s Law. Come out from among them; escape while you still can.
The proper spiritual response to seeing too much flesh is to turn away in embarrassment.
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