HOW should a woman professing godliness dress? how adorn herself? ‘In modest apparel’ (1 Tim. ii. 9). With ‘shamefacedness,’ i.e., with no intent to draw the eye (1 Tim. ii. 9). With ‘sobriety,’ i.e., with nothing conspicuous (1 Tim. ii. 9). Not with ‘braided hair,’ or with ‘plaiting of the hair’ (1 Tim. ii. 9; 1 Pet. iii. 3). Not with ‘gold’ (1 Pet. iii. 3). Not with ‘pearls’ (1 Tim. ii. 9). Not with expensive clothing (1 Tim. ii. 9). Not with clothing as an adornment (1 Pet. 3 iii).
Observe, there are three points as to the clothing of the body. Let it be modest, let it be inexpensive, let it be unobtrusive. There are two points as to the sort of decoration to be avoided: no jewellery, no fanciful dressing of the hair. And there are two points to be observed as to adorning: ‘a meek and quiet spirit,’ ‘good works.’
Surely a woman professing godliness should be careful in this matter which the Holy Ghost has not considered unimportant. Surely she could clothe herself in all ‘modesty,’ ‘shamefacedness’ and ‘sobriety,’ while she adorns herself with ‘a meek and quiet spirit,’ and with ‘good works.’ Now if she be thus adorned she will not be anxious to attract the gaze of admiration by heaping jewellery upon her person, or decorating it with costly clothing, nor will she be much busied in the way she arranges her hair. If given to good works, she will have neither time nor money for the decoration of her body. The above is merely a summing up of Paul’s and Peter’s thoughts in the matter, as found in 1 Tim. ii. 9, and 1 Pet. iii. 3; and as it has made these thoughts very clear to my own mind, I now write it for others who may be exercised on the subject, and are honestly anxious to walk in simple obedience to the Word of God.—The Christian Treasury.