Modesty is for a protection. Let me explain.

At an assembly of hungry truth seekers many years ago I heard a definition for the word "modesty" given, the memory of which impresses me ever increasingly as that memory gains more comparison to experience through time. The definition was this:

Modesty means - "Knowing ones limitations and humbly living within those limitations."

Abiding this truth is a protection to us, for we have the power within ourselves to either sensitize our self or to harden our self. There is a spiritual parallel to our physical responses in this regard. When one first tries to smoke a cigarette their body rebels against it coughing and gagging but as we continue the self abuse our body begins to not only tolerate it but it even begins to crave it. So also it is with sin.

Hebrews 3:13 informs us that sin is deceitful. In other words, sin has the power to deceive us, trapping us and dulling our perceptions to its badness. We can become beyond true repentance, though we may seek to facade it and even be sincere about our facade, believing it is real. Hebrews 12:16-17 “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”

It is a fool’s folly to say to our self, “I have the maturity to handle these little improprieties without their affecting me.” This is lying to one’s self. Further, it displays a need to cultivate to a greater degree our love for what is good and our hatred for what is bad. It reflects not only a lack of love for our self and our neighbors but for God. Do we imagine that He will allow us into sharing in His holy kingdom while we hold fondness within us toward the things He hates? And, are we such fools that we do not see that He hates these things because they are harmful to us? Do we not see that His counsels to us are not about controlling us but about loving protection to us?

Play with sin if you choose, but be not surprised when He proves true. Ignoring God’s loving counsel can only put you in the place of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, the real and living hell here and now, before your body has died.

Galatians 6:7-8 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Isaiah 48:17-18 “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:”

Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Be not a presumptuous fool, as though you know better than He who loves you. Obey and be safe-guarded. Why should you be so cruel to yourself as to do otherwise?
Luke 16:10  "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."

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