Hi, I'm David Bercot, and tonight we're going to be talking about what the early Christians believed on modest dress and cosmetics. You know, this is a topic that's hardly ever preached on anymore in what I call conventional churches. In fact, you'd get the impression that the Scriptures don't even have anything to say on the subject of modesty and cosmetics. But they do. Actually, the biblical teaching on modesty is simply the flip side of the Bible's teaching on lust.
I think all of us are aware of Jesus ' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, where He said, " You have heard that it was said to those of old, ' You shall not commit adultery. ' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. That's at Matthew 5:27 and 28.
Now, that part of the New Testament teaching is still preached today. Conservative Christians are very outspoken against pornography, and all of that is very good. Because I think Jesus made it quite clear what a deadly sin it is for a man to lust after a woman. But there are two parts to this issue. One is for men not to look at other women in any way that could lead to lust. The other part, however, is for women to dress and adorn themselves in a manner that will not invite attention.
And that's why we have two further teachings in the New Testament, one at 1 Timothy 2:9, where Paul said, " In like manner also, I desire that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing. " Peter gave similar counsel.
He said, " Do not let your beauty be that outward adorning of arranging the hair, of wearing gold, or of putting on fine apparel, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit. " That's at 1 Peter 3:3. Now, this second part of the lust issue is what has been almost entirely forgotten today in conventional churches. But it was taught in the New Testament church, as is obvious from the verses that we've just read.
And the early Christians as well focused on both sides of the lust issue. Clement of Alexandria, writing about the year 195, said, " Those who glory in their looks, not in their hearts, dress to please others. " So many clothes are designed to attract the attention of other people, particularly to attract attention to a person's body. Clement wrote as well, " By no manner of means are women to be allowed to uncover and exhibit any part of their person. Otherwise, both may fall.
The men by being excited to look, the women by drawing to themselves the eyes of the men. " And again, he wrote, " Much more must we keep pure from shameful deeds. On the one hand, we must keep from exhibiting and exposing parts of the body that we should not. On the other hand, we must keep from looking at what is forbidden. " Tertullian writing about the year 198, showing that the church was beginning to enter a period of spiritual decline that eventually led to the compromise with Constantine.
He says, " Most Christian women have the boldness to walk as if modesty consisted only in the bare integrity of the flesh and in turning away from actual fornication. " They wear in their walk the same appearance as do the women of the nations, from whom the sense of true modesty is absent. In short, how many women are there who do not earnestly desire to look pleasing even to strangers?
Who does not, on that very account, take care to have herself painted out, yet denying that she's ever been an object of carnal appetite? And another quote from Tertullian, he said, " Why therefore excite toward yourself that evil passion? Why invite that to which you profess yourself a stranger? " So a sister has a responsibility on the matter of lust as well. And I think if we're honest, we have to acknowledge that there's a lot of truth to what Clement and Tertullian are saying.
Women often wear dowdy but comfortable clothes around the house. Often they don't put on any makeup when they're at home. But when they go out, where the only people who are going to see them are strangers, or at least not their husband, they will carefully make up their face and carefully put on clothes that are very attractive. And then they want to say, no, I don't want somebody to lust after me. I don't want to be viewed as a sex object.
And yet, you're doing the very thing to attract sexual attention to yourself. Let me read to you some further quotations. Tertullian wrote, " I know not whether he allows impunity to him who has been the cause of perdition to some other person. For that other person perishes as soon as he has felt lust after your beauty and has mentally already committed the deed that his lust points to.
And you have been made the sword that destroys him, so that although you are free from the actual crime, you are not free from the infamy attaching to it. And again, he wrote, " Are we to paint ourselves out so that our neighbors may perish? What happened to you will love your neighbor as yourself? " Incidentally, these quotations are all in the dictionary of early Christian beliefs under the subject of modesty.
The final two quotations are from the work Apostolic Constitutions that were compiled around the year 390, although most of the material in the Apostolic Constitutions dates to an earlier time. But it's interesting that even at the close of the fourth century, Christians were still teaching about the need for modest dress and adornment. Now this work addresses men first and then the ladies. It says, " Do not adorn yourself in such a manner that you might entice another woman to you.
Do not further enhance the beauty that God and nature has bestowed on you. Rather modestly diminish it before others. Therefore, do not permit the hair of your head to grow too long. Rather cut it short. Do not wear overly fine garments either, nor should you put a gold ring on your fingers. Okay, that was said to men. Now, speaking to sisters, he said, " If you desire to be one of the faithful and to please the Lord, oh wife, do not add adornments to your beauty in order to please other men.
Do not wear fine embroidery, garments, or shoes to entice those who are allured by such things. It may be that you do not do these wicked things for the purpose of sinning yourself, but only for the sake of adornment and beauty. Nevertheless, you still will not escape future punishment for having compelled another to look so close at you as to lust after you. So the early church saw that this matter of lust is serious business for brothers and sisters alike.
For a brother, Jesus ' words about plucking out your right eye mean that we dare not treat this issue casually. Hopefully it will never be necessary for any of us to literally pluck out our eyes. But there are a whole host of other things that do need to be plucked out. Obviously, pornographic magazines and sexually oriented movies need to go, but that's hardly figuratively plucking out our right eye. That's not a particular sacrifice. Jesus expects us to go further than that if we're serious about fighting lust.
I find that most brothers who are really serious about living a life free from lust get rid of network television altogether. My family and I got off of network television back in 1989. I have absolutely no regrets for having done so. I still catch glimpses now and then of television programs. When I would visit my parents ' house, they had TVs going in just about every room of the house. It was pretty hard to get away from it.
And the immodesty that appears in so many commercials is embarrassing to a Christian man or to a Christian woman. I mean, I found I had to just find a TV-free corner of the house to spend my time in. It's going to be hard to live a life free from lust if you've got network television in your home. Likewise, you're going to want to stay away from beaches and swimming pools and places like that where immodesty is going to be all around you.
Personally, I don't like going to malls and a lot of public places just because of the immodesty that's thrust upon me. And of course you need to either stay away from the internet altogether or use a service provider that filters out what you can see because there's so much opportunity to lust that's present on the internet. And finally, I'd strongly encourage you to find a church where the sisters dress modestly so that church itself doesn't become a temptation to lust.
Now incidentally, we've talked about lust as a sin that men need to avoid and immodesty a sin that women need to avoid. But the principles apply to both sexes. It's not okay for a sister to lust after men or for men to dress immodestly. I think the Scriptures phrase it the way they do is that lust is a bigger weakness for men than it is to ladies and that dressing immodestly is a bigger issue for ladies than it is for men. But the principles would obviously apply to both.
For the sisters, taking Jesus ' words seriously about lust means that you never want to call attention to your body in the way that you dress. But what constitutes modest dress? Well, I want to read to you some passages that illustrate what modest dress meant in the second century, at least in Egypt. Now, all of the quotations I'm about to read are from Clement of Alexandria, written around the year 190. Interestingly, Clement is typically labeled as a liberal in Christian history books.
So this is what the liberal idea of modesty consisted of in the second century. He writes, " Luxurious clothing that cannot conceal the shape of the body is no longer a covering. For such clothing, falling close to the body takes its form more easily. Clinging to the body as though it were the flesh, it receives its shape and outlines the woman's figure. As a result, the whole make of the body is visible to spectators, although they cannot see the body itself. Dyeing of clothes is also to be rejected.
But for those persons who are white and unstained within, it is most suitable to use white in simple garments. Continues, neither is it seemly for the clothes to be above the knee. Again, women should, for the most part, wear shoes, for it is not suitable for the foot to be shown naked. Finally, he writes, " Woman and man are to go to church decently attired with a natural step, embracing silence. " Let the woman observe this further. Let her be entirely covered unless she happens to be at home.
For that style of dress is serious and protects from being gazed at, and she will never fall who puts before her eyes modesty and her veil. Nor will she invite another to fall into sin by uncovering her face. For this is the wish of the Word, since it is becoming for her to pray veiled. Well, did those quotations surprise you or maybe even offend you? I still remember how surprised I was when I came across them for the first time, which was nearly 20 years ago.
Number one, I realized that the New Testament teachings on modesty require something more than just following the customs and fashions of the times, which is basically all I had ever thought about it. So these passages from Clement made me rethink what the Bible really teaches about modesty. The second thing, I realized after reading those quotations that many of the dress customs that we associate with Muslims today were actually once practiced by Christians, at least by Christians in Egypt and the Middle East.
And this was centuries before Muhammad was ever even born. Now I'm not suggesting that we all have to follow Clement of Alexandria's counsel. He wasn't laying down laws, rather he was giving advice to new converts and to other Christians. In 21st Century America, I'm not sure that modesty has to be practiced just as it was in 2nd century Egypt. In fact, the standard followed by second-century European Christians was not as strict as that outlined by Clement of Alexandria.
On the other hand, the principles were the same, and the dress that Christian women wore in Europe was still very, very modest. The modest dress of Christian women in the early Middle Ages resembles very much the dress of nuns that nuns wore until very recent times. And I'm sure all of you have seen pictures of the pilgrims and the Puritans, how modestly both the men and women dressed at that time.
In a lot of the pictures that you see of Christian dress from the time of the Reformation through the 19th century, you'll notice that the sisters typically wear a double covering on the top part of their dress as a further step of modesty. We're going to be coming back to the issue of clothing in a few minutes, but right now I want to talk about cosmetics. Before I read the early Christian writings, I had always thought of cosmetics as a fairly modern phenomenon.
I do remember reading in Scriptures about Jezebel painting her face, but I thought that was more of an exception. After all, she was a queen and a wicked one at that. So I was a bit surprised to find that wearing cosmetics was a very common thing in the days of the New Testament and the early church. In fact, the early Christian writers have quite a bit to say on the subject. Here are some sample passages. All of these are from the dictionary of early Christian beliefs under the heading cosmetics.
Clement of Alexandria wrote, " Christ takes away anxious care for clothes, food, and all luxuries as being unnecessary. " What do we imagine then should be said about love of embellishments, the dyeing of wool, and the variety of colors? What should be said about the love of gems, exquisite working of gold, and still more of artificial hair and wreathed curls?
Furthermore, what should be said about staining the eyes, plucking out hairs, painting with rouge and white lead, dyeing of the hair, and the wicked arts that are employed in such deceptions? Tertullian, writing about the year 198, said, " Those women sin against God when they rub their skin with ointment, stain their cheeks with rouge, and make their eyes prominent with antimony. " To them, I suppose the artistic skill of God is displeasing. That quotation points out one of the big issues about cosmetics.
When we talk about modest dress, we're talking about having to cover up what God created. A body that in itself was created as very good. But because of the fall of man and the wickedness of men, sisters are commanded to have to cover up the very flesh that God created. But when we get to the matter of cosmetics, it's just the opposite. Now we're talking about adding on things to what God created. If a woman wants to plead innocence when it comes to dress saying, " I just want to wear comfortable clothes.
If somebody wants to look at me, they're the ones who have the problem. " But when you're applying cosmetics now, you're saying, " I'm not satisfied with the beauty that God has given me. I want to enhance that even more so that I will look beautiful to strangers. " Typically, the only people who will see a woman without her makeup on is that woman's husband and of course members of the family.
The only person she should care about who thinks of her as beautiful or not is her husband, but she'll go around without makeup in his presence. But so many women would never do that in the presence of any other man or any other people. So it's pretty hard to plead innocence when you're actually embellishing what God created in order to make yourself more attractive to men. Again, Tertullian writes, " It was the fact that Tamar had painted out and adorned herself that led Judah to regard her as a harlot.
" And when I first read that passage years ago, I thought to myself, " Hmm, I don't remember Tamar painting herself. " I went back and looked at the passage in Genesis. It's Genesis 38:14. And all it said there in my Bible was that she veiled herself and wrapped something around herself. Well, that would explain why Judah didn't recognize her, but why would he mistake her for a harlot?
Well, I checked and in this Septuagint, the Old Testament that the Apostles used and that the early church used, it says this about Tamar. It says, " And having taken off the garments of her widowhood from her, she put on a veil and ornamented her face and sat by the gates of Aenon. " Aha! So the Septuagint says that she ornamented her face. Yes, way back in those days, in the time of Genesis, women were already applying cosmetics. And it's interesting, it was this that made Judah think that she was a harlot.
Because obviously somebody being covered in veiled wouldn't make you think they were a harlot. It would probably make you think the opposite. But an ornamented face, probably heavily ornamented, would make others think that you're a prostitute. Novatian, who was an elder or presbyter in Rome, writing about the year 235, said, " She is not a modest woman who strives to stir up the fancy of another, even though her physical chastity is preserved.
Away with those who do not really adorn their beauty, but it prostituted instead. For anxiety about beauty is not only the wisdom of an evil mind, but belongs to deformity. Why is the color of hair changed? Why are the edges of the eyes darkened? Why is the face molded by art into a different form? A Christian elder writing about the year 240 said, " It is not right before God that a faithful Christian woman should be adorned.
" God's heralds condemn as being unrighteous those women who adorn themselves in such a manner. You stain your hair. You paint the opening of your eyes with black. You lift up your hair one by one on your painted brow. You anoint your cheeks with some sort of reddish color laid on. You are rejecting God's law when you wish to please the world. Cyprian, writing about the year 250, he was bishop in the North African city of Carthage.
He said, " Both sexes alike should be admonished that the work of God and His fashioning and formation should in no manner be adulterated, either with the application of yellow color, black dust, rouge, or with any kind of cosmetic. God says, " Let us make man in our image and likeness. " Does anyone dare to alter and change what God has made?
And finally from the apostolic constitutions compiled about the year 390, says, " Do not paint your face, which is God's workmanship, for there is no part of you that lacks beauty, because God has made all things very good. " But the want and extra adorning of what is already good is an affront to the creator's work. It's strange that nowadays we associate such teaching against cosmetics only with groups that are not in the mainstream of conventional Christianity.
I'm talking about groups like the United Pentecostals or the Mennonites and Amish. I personally know of no mainstream church or no conventional evangelical church or charismatic church that teaches anything against cosmetics. Instead, nearly all churches explain away the passages in 1 Timothy and 1 Peter so that in the end they don't mean anything. Now I realize that the issue of cosmetics can be a tough hurdle for many Christians.
When I first read those passages in Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, my response was, " No way! I want my wife to wear makeup. " In fact, I remember back in the mid-1980s visiting a holiness church in our town known as the Bible Missionary Church. They are basically the conservative remnant of the Nazarene Church. Anyway, one of the first things I noticed when we walked in the door was that none of the women wore makeup. To me, they all looked so strange and unattractive.
I couldn't imagine being part of a church where all of the women look like that. However, over the years, as I was around Mennonites and Amish quite a bit, as well as a lot of people in the Remnant Church movement, I slowly grew used to the natural look without makeup, and so did my wife. Now thankfully, she had never used makeup very heavily anyway, so it made the transition easier. But the exciting thing is that over time, I found that I liked the natural look a lot better.
God truly did give woman all that she needed in the way of beauty, just as He did man. So now I realize that cosmetics, rather than a blessing, are actually a trap for women. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean. I had never been much of a coffee drinker until I was attending law school. There most of us found we needed coffee to get through the long nights of studying, particularly around exam time. Well, at first it was just one cup was all I needed about seven or eight in the evening.
Well then it grew to two cups a day. And I think that's as far as it went in law school. But after I graduated from law school and began practicing title law, I found I needed coffee still to keep awake during the tedious hours of title work. Eventually, I needed three cups of coffee a day at various intervals throughout the day to make it through the end of the workday. Now that in itself would probably be no big deal. However, coffee makes me very jittery and hyper.
It's exactly what I didn't need, yet I couldn't see how I could practice law without it. Well, one day I came across a magazine article on coffee, and it explained that your body adjusts to the initial lift that you received from coffee. So the first few times you have a cup of coffee, it really wakens you up. It makes you more alert than you used to be. However, over a period of time, your body adjusts to that caffeine.
So eventually you need that cup of coffee just to have the same level of alertness that you used to have without coffee. In other words, you've gained nothing. So then you go from one cup to two cups. And at first that does the trick. You get that lift again. But then again, your body adjusts to that new level of caffeine. So now you need two cups of coffee a day to have the level of alertness that you once had without any coffee at all.
Of course, by this time you've forgotten what life was even like without coffee. And so you have to up it to three cups of coffee a day and so on. So I realized that I was having to have three cups of coffee a day, which would make me very nervous and jittery, only to have the same level of alertness that I used to have before I'd ever started law school and started drinking coffee on a regular basis. So one day I quit cold turkey.
Now I had to take aspirin for a few days because I would get horrible withdrawal headaches, not having my caffeine. And I rewarded myself each day with a Hershey's chocolate and almond bar at the various times when I used to drink coffee. And after about a month, I had kicked the habit. I no longer had any craving for coffee. And it was just as the magazine article said. I had the same level of alertness that I used to have with three cups of coffee, and now I had none. Well, cosmetics work the same way.
There was a time in England and America when most poor girls and farm girls didn't wear makeup. And they looked very pretty to the guys who were in that same economic level. But as cosmetics became cheaper and extreme poverty was eliminated, nearly all girls began wearing makeup. So men and boys got used to the look of women and girls with makeup on. As a result, women who didn't wear cosmetics looked very drab and unattractive to the men folk.
But now women looked no more beautiful to their men than they had when none of them were ever wearing makeup. It was like coffee. Now girls and women had to wear makeup just to have the same level of attraction that they once had without it. Now I've been away from makeup so long that today girls and women with makeup look very garish to me. I no longer find cosmetics attractive. I much prefer the natural look.
So for any sisters hearing this, don't imagine that you're going to look drab and horrible if you quit using makeup. Do men look drab and horrible without makeup? I hope not. Of course, it will be a major help if you and your family attend a church where none of the other ladies wear makeup. The only caution I would have for you whether you're a brother or sister is don't run ahead of your spouse on this issue. If you're a husband, you would be wise to let your wife go at her own pace on this matter.
There are far more serious commandments of Jesus that the two of you can work on together until the time that she's really ready to take a look at this issue of cosmetics. Likewise, if you're a wife, don't run ahead of your husband on this. If you just suddenly stop wearing makeup, you're quite likely to alienate your husband both from you and from a life of radical Christian discipleship. So why not work first on the more important aspect of the apostles ' teachings?
That is on developing the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit. See, when Peter said, " Don't adorn yourself with these other things, " he didn't just leave it at that. He said, " No, adorn yourself with this, with this quiet and gentle spirit. " Now, I don't think there's a husband on the whole planet Earth that would object to that.
So if you truly cultivate that aspect of Peter's teachings, I think your husband is going to be quite interested in learning more about these teachings that have made your home life a lot more tension-free. One final matter about cosmetics is the whole issue of falsehood. The early Christians commented on this issue quite frequently. Let me read to you just three of the quotations. Clement of Alexandria wrote, " What does God think of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as he does all falsehood?
" Tertullian wrote, " Whatever is born is the work of God. So whatever is plastered on is the devil's work. " How unworthy of the Christian name it is to wear a fictitious face, you on whom simplicity in every form is enjoined. You to whom lying with the tongue is not lawful are actually lying in your appearance. And finally, Cyprian, writing about the year 250, " In their manners, there was no discipline. In women, their complexion was dyed. Their eyes were falsified from what God's hand had made them.
Their hair was stained with falsehood. Now there's no question in my mind, but that marriages are actually much happier in what are called plain churches. That is Mennonite, Amish, and brethren churches. And I think the primary reason for that is because they maintain the biblical order in their homes that's set out by God. But I think the lack of cosmetics play a role as well. Now at first, that might seem counterintuitive to you.
Because you might think that all of those women out there with cosmetics are going to look a lot more beautiful than a plainly adorned wife. But I think in truth it works just the opposite. Let me explain. Most girls who wear makeup would never dream of letting their boyfriend or suitor see them without makeup on. So their future husband actually falls in love with a face that is an artificial face. So after they're married, the new husband discovers what his wife really looks like after all.
And the more makeup that she has worn up to that point, the more unattractive she's going to appear to him without her makeup on. Now, in contrast, at many typical jobs, this same husband is going to be around women all day long, and all of them are going to be wearing makeup. But he never sees these other women without their makeup on. Because they always wear it to the office. In contrast, he sees his wife quite often without it.
So it makes his wife appear unattractive in comparison to these other women at the office, and that certainly does not enhance a marriage. In contrast, in churches where the sisters don't use cosmetics and they dress modestly, a suitor is going to be a lot more attracted to a young lady's character qualities than he is being physically or sensually attracted to her or infatuated with her. Number two, the face that he falls in love with is his future wife's real face.
There's no unpleasant surprises after the wedding. And as I said, once you get used to the natural look of a woman, women with painted faces come across as gaudy and unattractive. So if you're a woman, you may think that cosmetics work in your favor, but really they don't. And I believe just like the early Christians did that cosmetics promote the concept of falsity. A woman becomes comfortable with presenting a false appearance to the outside world, of looking different than she really is.
Typically, she will then also dye her hair to appear younger than her actual years, and often she lies about her age or refuses to reveal it. And all of that is so contrary to the spirit of truth and openness that characterizes Jesus Christ. Up to this point, we've discussed modesty with regards to clothing and cosmetics. But modesty is, in many respects, a way of life, affecting how we act in public and particularly around members of the opposite sex.
Let me read to you some of the passages where the early Christians speak about this. This first one is from Clement of Alexandria, whom we've quoted pretty extensively tonight. He wrote, " They must not do as some do. For some women imitate the acting of comedy. They practice the mincing motion of dancers, and they conduct themselves in society as if on the stage. That is, they go around with voluptuous movements and gliding steps, pretentious voices, and casting languishing glances around.
Hopefully he wasn't talking about Christian women there, but women in society in general. Again, Clement of Alexandria wrote, " I would counsel the married men never to kiss their wives in the presence of their domestic servants. " I remember when I first came across that quotation years ago, nearly 20 years ago, I thought, boy, that is strange. I'd never thought about that. It seemed just natural for husband and wife to show affection in public and kiss each other and caress and do all that sort of things.
And of course, none of these quotations are biblical law. We're reading how the early Christians applied the laws that are in the Bible. But I think it's important for us to know how Christians applied these principles when Christianity was still new before it had become so commingled with the world. This next quote is from Minucius Felix, writing about the year 200.
He said, " So far, in fact, are Christians from indulging in incestuous desire that with some Christians, even the modest mingling of the sexes causes a blush. " Tertullian wrote in the year 207, " To blush if he sees a virgin is as much a mark of a holy man as of a holy virgin if seen by a man. " I mean, not that many centuries ago, this still would have been the general feeling of many Christians, particularly those who were committed to radical discipleship.
There was a modesty between the interactions of the two different sexes. A young man didn't just go up to a young woman and just talk to her as if she were a man herself or vice versa. I can't help but reflect on how much that's changed today. Today, nearly all churches have youth groups, and most youth groups throw teenage girls and boys together in situations that would destroy any sense of modesty.
For example, it's very common for youth groups to go on beach parties together or to water theme parks where they're all going to be running around in very skimpy clothing. It's not uncommon at youth group meetings to go to an all-night lock-in at the church, girls and boys together, where they'll watch different movies. Some of them may even be R-rated movies. And all of this is considered very normal today, but look how far we have slidden from where Christianity once was.
Now up to this point, we've talked about modesty and about clothing and adornment in the sense of decency and propriety and of being fully covered. However, there's another aspect to Christian dress and adornment, and that is simplicity and avoiding costly garments and adornments. In recent years, I've given a lot of thought about Jesus ' words concerning John the Baptist. Remember where he said, " What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?
Indeed, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in King's Courts. " That's from Luke 7:25. Well, from hearing those words, I think we can be pretty certain that neither Jesus nor his disciples, both men and women, wore fine or luxurious garments. Let's not forget what Paul said to Timothy that we read earlier, where he said, " In like manner also, I desire that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing.
" So not only did he rule out jewelry, gold and pearls, but also clothing that was expensive in itself. I have to admit, I've heard very, very little ever preached on that subject from a pulpit. But the early Christians talk about it quite a bit. For example, we'll go to Clement of Alexandria again. The reason we're quoting him so much is that he was appointed by the Church in Alexandria to be the mentor of new Christians, people who were called catechumens. They were learners.
And so he was giving these people some pretty specific instruction on how they should live, how they should dress, eat, things like that. Again, he wasn't laying down a law book. Everything that he wrote was just in the way of advice and counsel. But it's very interesting to see what the counsel was at that time in the second century. And as I stated earlier, generally Clement of Alexandria is labeled by most church historians as a liberal.
So if this is the instruction he's giving, you can be sure it was even stricter when it was Tertullian or somebody else who was giving it. Anyway, Clement wrote, " Christ permits us then to use simple clothing, that of a white color, as we said before. The proper dress of the temperate man is what is plain becoming and clean. " Again, he wrote, " Let a woman wear a plain and becoming dress, but softer than what is suitable for a man. Yet it should not be immodest or steeped in luxury.
" Again, he wrote, " It is never suitable for women whose lives are framed according to God to appear in public clothes in things bought from the market. Rather, they should be clothed in their own homemade work. For a most beautiful thing is a thrifty wife who clothes both herself and her husband. " Tertullian wrote about the year 198, " But it is argued by some, let not the name be blasphemed in us if we make any derogatory change from our old style and dress. " Well then, Tertullian replies with a note of irony.
" Let's not abolish our old vices either. Let us maintain the same character we had before, and then the nations won't blaspheme. " His point is, if we change everything else about ourselves, it should also be reflected in our clothing. And if people make derogatory remarks about Christianity because of the modest and simple way they dress, well, so be it.
And again, he writes, " Now these suggestions, this was against cosmetics and concerning clothing, are not made to you, of course, to be developed into an entire crudity and wildness of appearance, nor am I seeking to persuade you that squalor and slovenliness are good. Brother, I am seeking to persuade you of the limit, norm, and just measure of cultivation of the person. " Theonas of Alexandria, this was written about the year 300, said, " All of you should also be elegant and tidy in person and dress.
At the same time, your dress should not in any way attract attention because of extravagance or artificiality. Otherwise, Christian modesty may be scandalized. " The themes that I see throughout nearly all the early Christian writers, in addition to the area of clothing providing proper covering, is that it should be simple, not expensive, homemade, if at all possible, and that it should be clean and tidy. John Wesley is famous for saying, " Cleanliness is next to godliness.
" The Scriptures don't say that, but that does seem to have been a Christian teaching from way back, probably back to the days of the apostles, that neatness and cleanliness go hand in hand with modesty and with appropriate appearance for a Christian. Now I realize things have changed a lot since the second century. I'm not talking so much about changes of styles. I mean changes as to what is expensive and what is extravagant.
For example, a lot of the early Christian leaders encouraged the members of their congregation to not wear cloth that had been dyed. Because in ancient times, dyed cloth was usually quite expensive. It was a mark of luxury. It was something that royalty and the wealthy wore. But today, dyed cloth generally costs no more than undyed cloth. In fact, you might have to go to a considerable amount of trouble just to find undyed cloth. So I don't think there's anything harmful in colors.
The issue in the second and third century is that colors made clothing very expensive. So the principle of avoiding costly clothing is no different today than it was in the second century, but what is expensive in the way of clothing has changed. Now I want to read to you a passage from one of John Wesley's sermons in which he addresses the matter of Christians spending money on costly clothing. He says, " A further point is that the wearing of costly garments is directly opposite to being adorned with good works.
" Nothing can be more evident than this. For the more you spend on your own apparel, the less you have left to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to lodge strangers, to relieve those who are sick and in prison, and to lessen the numerous afflictions to which we are exposed in this vale of tears. So here there is no room for the evasion used before. I mean, somebody saying, " I may be as humble in cloth of gold as I am in sackcloth.
" Even if you could be as humble when you choose costly rather than plain apparel, which I flatly deny, yet you could not be as charitable or as plenteous in good works. Every shilling which you save from your own clothing, you may expend in clothing the naked and relieving the various necessities of the poor, whom you always have with you, as Jesus said. Therefore, every shilling which you needlessly spend on your apparel is, in effect, stolen from God and from the poor.
And look at how many precious opportunities of doing good you've defrauded yourself of. How often have you prevented yourself from doing good by purchasing that which you don't need? For what purpose did you buy these ornaments? To please God? No, but to please your own fancy, or to gain the admiration and applause of those who were no wiser than yourself. How much good you might have done with that money? And what an irreparable loss you have by not doing it.
For it is true that the day is at hand when every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. I pray that you reflect on what I have said. Perhaps you haven't seen it in this light before. When you're laying out that money for costly apparel, which you could have otherwise spared for the poor, you thereby deprive them of what God, the proprietor of all, had lodged in your hands for their use? If so, what you put upon yourself, you are, in effect, tearing from the back of the naked.
Just as the costly and delicate food which you eat, you have snatched from the mouth of the hungry. For the sake of Christ, don't throw this money away. Don't waste on yourself what may clothe a poor, naked, shivering fellow creature. Many years ago when I was at Oxford on a cold winter's day, a young woman, one of those who worked at the school, called out to me. I said, " You seem half-starved. Have you nothing to cover yourself but that thin linen gown? " She said, " Sir, this is all I have.
" So I put my hand in my pocket, but found I had scarcely any money left, having just spent what I had on some pictures for my wall. It immediately struck me. Will my master say, " Well done, good and faithful steward. You have adorned your walls with the money that might have covered this poor creature from the cold. " Are not those pictures the blood of this poor maiden? So Wesley now says, " Look at your expensive apparel in the same light.
Your gown, your hat, your headdress, everything about you that costs more than what need required you to lay out. All of that is the blood of the poor. I don't think I could say it any better than John Wesley. The only thing I would add to what he said is, not only should you do what he has advised, spend no more money on clothing and apparel and ornaments. Then what is really necessary, and in the way of ornaments, that's essentially nothing.
But it's not enough just to do that to save money on it, and then that money you save, you go spend it on some other indulgence. Make sure the money you save you really do spend to clothe the poor or feed the hungry. There are two more things on the matter of grooming and clothing that I want to briefly address before closing. One is the issue of gender distinction in clothing.
Now, there's no New Testament commandment on this matter, but we do know how God expressed Himself on the issue in the Old Testament, where He said in Deuteronomy, " A woman will not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor will a man put on a woman's garment. For all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God. " It's Deuteronomy 22:5. And the early Christians taught very similarly.
For example, Clement of Alexandria said, " What reason is there in the law's prohibition against a man wearing woman's clothing? Is it not that it would have us to be masculine and not to be effeminate in either person or actions? " Tertullian said, " I find no dress cursed by God, except when a woman's dress is on a man, for he says cursed is every man who clothes himself in woman's attire. " Not only that commandment in Deuteronomy, but God expressed Himself when He created man and woman and made them different.
And from everything I have seen from my studies of history, God's people have always kept that distinction in the way that they dressed and groomed themselves. And we do have the statement from Paul, where he said, " Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor to him. But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her for a covering. " It's in 1 Corinthians 11.
But today in human society, there is such a spirit of rebellion that wants to do everything contrary to God's way. So if God encourages or commands one thing, many people in society, probably the majority, want to do just the opposite. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a couple somewhere out in public, and the man has his hair down past his shoulders, and the woman has her hair cut extremely short.
And I'm sure I'm not the only person who's been in this situation where you can't even tell if a certain person is a man or a woman. Now, society still doesn't approve of a man wearing women's clothing. If you're a man and showed up to work in a dress, I don't think your employer would allow it. However, in society today, it is perfectly acceptable for a woman to wear man's clothing. But God's Word doesn't give us a double standard like that. And at first, the Bible-believing churches resisted this whole trend.
But nearly all of them now have totally capitulated on the issue. I said there were two final things I wanted to talk about. The first was this matter of gender distinction. The other is the matter of trying to hide our age. When we want to artificially look younger than we really are, or to hide our age, that's a dead giveaway of something wrong in our sense of values and in our worldview.
A Christian whose eyes are totally focused on the kingdom and on Jesus Christ looks forward to the end of his journey here on earth. Not that we're not enjoying the journey and we'll miss our friends and family members until they join us. But if in our minds and hearts we are truly strangers and pilgrims here on the earth, we're looking forward to reaching our destination, paradise.
Years ago, I heard that Andrew Carnegie, who was a very, very wealthy man, once said in his old age that he would gladly trade away all of his millions of dollars in everything he owned if he could just be young again. Now, I can't imagine anyone whose eyes are on the kingdom ever saying anything like that. Why would we want to be young again and start our journey over? It would be like the game of chutes and ladders, or sometimes it's called snakes and ladders.
You've probably played it as a child, where you go up the board and you're nearly to the top, but if the little figure you have lands on the top of a snake or a chute, then you have to slide all the way down to the bottom and start all over again. And so throughout this, you're trying to avoid all of the chutes. You want the ladders that help you get to your destination, but you don't want to land on a chute. Well, that's how it is as a Christian. We're trying to get to our old age. We're trying to get to paradise.
We don't want to go back and have to start all over again. But part of the problem is that modern Western society doesn't respect advanced age. But that's not the culture of the Bible. The Bible teaches the splendor of old men is their gray head. And again, the silver-haired head is a crown of glory if it is found in the way of righteousness. Those are from the Proverbs. So why would we want to hide what God says is our splendor and our crown of glory?
The truth of the matter is, the reason we want to hide our gray hair or white hair is that our values aren't fully the same values as God's. It shows we still hold to the world's values to some degree, which is youth is good, old age is bad. In fact, actually everything we've talked about tonight makes sense only if we truly have an obedient, love, faith relationship with Jesus Christ.
All the things we've said only makes sense if we are on his vine drinking in the Holy Spirit on a daily basis and receiving the guidance from Jesus and His Father. Because once our hearts become one with Jesus Christ, then His values become our values. We don't want to lust after another person, nor do we want to dress in a way that will attract lust to ourselves. We're satisfied with the way God made us, without feeling a need to artificially augment the way that He made our face and body.
We don't spend any more on clothes than we need to, and we use what we save to clothe and feed the poor. We're satisfied with whatever gender God made us, and we don't feel a need to try to look like the opposite gender. Finally, death is the dessert at the end of our pilgrimage. We look forward with gladness to entering paradise. Because as Paul said, " To live is Christ and to die is gain. "