What God Wants from the Women Part 1

1 Timothy chapter 2. Man, I'm excited about the message today. 1 Timothy chapter 2, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of 1 Timothy and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9. And my goal this morning is to cover verses 9 and 10, and the title of the message is what God wants from the Women.

Part one. What God wants from the women. Part one. Last week we looked at the subject of what God wants from the men.

And we thoroughly and utterly exhausted that topic. And so today we move on to the first part of a 34 message series. On what God wants from the women. Actually, it'll probably just be a two-parter.

So. What's happening in this section of First Timothy, as we began to see, last week, is that Paul tells us his purpose in chapter 3, verse 15, when he says, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the, the church. So he, he's saying, I, I, God has placed the church in the midst of a dark, sin. Broken world to make an impact upon, your society, even all the way up to your governing, leaders, and to glorify God, each local church.

And what I'm doing here is I, I'm, I'm explaining to you how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. which is essentially the, the local church, showing us how we can have the church that God wants us to have that ends up wielding a tremendous impact, upon the world around us and, an impact and glorifying God. And interestingly, as I said last week, this is an interesting section of the Book of First Timothy because as Paul begins to get very specific about what this entails, he divides up the congregation into men and women and speaks to both of these groups.

separately, in verse 8, Paul says, I want the men too.

And then he begins to describe for the men the one basic thing that he wants to. the men to make sure that they are doing in every place, and that is to pray. And then in verse 9, Paul says, likewise, I want the women too. And then he begins to instruct the women and to teach the women what it is that he is an apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So in other words, God speaking through Paul, what it is that God wants from the Women, Christian women in the local, church. And, and I, I hope you feel something of this. and ladies, I want you to feel both the weight and the encouragement of this., think about it. Paul says, listen, I, I, I want to show you guys how to conduct yourself in the household of God in the local church.

So men, here's what I want you to do. And then he begins to speak directly to women and women. Here's what God wants from you. As we noted last week, Paul speaks one verse of instruction to the men, 7 verses of instruction to the women, 1 verse to the men, 7 to the women, and we posed the question last week, what does that mean?

That God would speak 1 verse to the men and 7 to the women? Well, as I pondered this, I have several theories. And most of them, I will never speak aloud. But, but I do know, ladies, that you can draw a few things from this passage in terms of what it means that God speaks extensively to you, that he speaks to you at all directly, and then that he speaks so extensively to you.

At the very least, you can look at that and say, wow, women are important. Women are very important to the life and the well-being of the church. if you were not important, God would not address you, and he would not address you as extensively as, he does. You also should legitimately infer from this passage that, that we as women have enormous power and potential, both for good and for evil.

God must know that we as, as women, excuse me, That we as women are a force to be reckoned with, and if we're not properly instructed, we can end up accomplishing great evil. but if we are instructed and use this power that God has given to us, we can be used by Him to accomplish great good. So you are important in God's economy. You are important to the health and the well-being of the church, and that you as women must have enormous power for God to want to address you the way that he does.

In fact, we're going to see. in this section, not today, but next week, how God speaks about Eve, and how Eve in a moment of, of sin wielded her enormous power to contribute to the plunging of the entire human race into sin. That is power. God understands the power that you possess.

The power you possess is a power that he's given to you. So you are important in his economy. If our church is going to be everything God wants it to be, then it's not just up to the men to be what God wants them to be. It's absolutely critical for the women to do what God instructs them to do because you have huge power.

I also want you to notice something else before we actually get into the text. Because on the surface, if you've never really thought about the subject of dress before, you would think that it is something that should not merit that much time and attention. But look at what Paul does beginning in verse 8. Paul is speaking to, the men first, and he says, Listen, I'm going to show you how to conduct yourself in the household of God.

And then he says, men, let me talk to you, men, I want you to pray, lifting up holy hands. And on a certain level, you hear that go, well, that makes sense. That's a spiritual activity. everything comes from Earnest prayer to God, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

So yeah, I guess that makes sense that God would tell men to engage in this spiritual exercise. So men, here's what I want you to do. I want you to pray. Women, let me talk to you now.

God says, I want you to adorn yourself with proper clothing. Does that feel a little surprising to you? Men pray. Women dress properly.

I think as you look at that you can infer a third thing, and that is not only are women powerful, not only are they important, but how we adorn ourselves, how we dress must be a matter of great importance. Maybe you're sitting here and you've never really thought about the clothes you wear, how you carry yourself, the clothes that you buy, the clothes that you put on, you've never really thought about what the gospel has to do with that. You don't think it's that important of an issue.

And yet here is God.

He speaks to men. And now he speaks to women in the local church, and the first thing out of his mouth to you. is how you dress. So you should be thinking, well, I guess if I never thought it was that important of an issue, but God is speaking about it with the importance that he seems to be giving to it, then it's important to Him.

And if this matter is important to Him, then I will make it important to me. And I will listen to what God says to me in this passage. What we're going to do this morning is look at 51. That God has regarding the adorning of women.

Five things that God wants from Christian women in the church regarding their adornment. Let me just read verses 9. And 10 Paul says likewise I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works as is proper for women making a claim. To godliness.

There it is. First instruction out of God's mouth is on the subject of adornment as he speaks to women. So what does God want from women regarding their adornment? Well, let's begin to break this passage down.

The first thing that God wants is that God wants Christian women to adorn themselves. He actually wants you to adorn. Yourself. Paul again, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, likewise, I want women to adorn themselves.

And let's stop right there for a few minutes. This is God telling you that it's OK to adorn yourself. In fact, he's actually instructing. This has the weight of a command.

where God is declaring his will for you, and that will for you as a woman is that you actually be continuously about the task of adorning yourself. Now, what does it mean to adorn oneself? Actually, the English word adorn is a beautiful translation of the Greek wording that we find in the passage for, for someone to adorn themselves, means to enhance one's appearance with beautifying objects. in other words, wearing clothing that would beautify oneself.

It's, it's using clothing. It's anything that a woman might wear, and that's articles of clothing. Women also wear makeup and apply different things to their hair and to their face, and the agenda of all of that is to beautify themselves, and that's what it means to adorn. To adorn means more than just to put on something.

There's a Greek word that just speaks to put on something. this means to, to put on something that has a beautifying effect upon you. In fact, let me show you this literally in the Greek text. Paul says in verse 9, likewise, the women are to cosmae themselves with cosmeo.

Attire. Women are to cosmae themselves with cosmeo attire. What English word do we get from the root word cosmae? Cosmetics, all right.

Cosmos, which speaks of an organized harmonious whole, but also cosmetics, it comes from this root. And think about what a woman is doing standing in front of the mirror. She's seeking to arrange, her face, essentially. In fact, sometimes women will say that, let me go arrange my face.

And she looks in front of the mirror and she applies, I don't even know what all this stuff is called, but she's applying different things and a foundation and then on top of that foundation something else and, and bringing things with different colors and shades and hues to to bear, and she then looks at herself and it's like, no, I'm not done, and she pulls something else out of the drawer and she, does something in addition and the agenda of a woman, even if she's in there for 30 minutes to an hour.

Her agenda throughout is to beautify herself, right? if, if there's a blemish that she doesn't feel is especially beautiful, she will seek to conceal that with the cosmetics that she wears. If there is some feature that is beautiful about her, then she will try to enhance that by the cosmetics that she applies.

There is something inside of every woman. That loves beauty and that desires to be beautiful. By the way, the difference between men and women. I was reading this this week that When men look at themselves in the mirror, their eyes are immediately drawn to their most attractive features.

Women's eyes are immediately drawn to their most unattractive features and the work that needs to be done to beautify themselves. That's why men typically don't wear makeup. They look at themselves amazingly and say, I look great and they're off to their day. They look at their clothes and say this looks great, not realizing that it doesn't match at all.

Women are much more clued into this, and they, they, they have a desire to be beautiful. God in this passage is actually saying that's a good thing. It's a great thing. In fact, I gave you that desire, and so I'm instructing you as women to adorn yourself.

I'm not forbidding you. From adorning yourself, and, and to think about beauty and how you can beautify yourself, I actually want you to do this, beautify yourself is almost literally the idea. The women are to beautify themselves with beautiful applications of the things they wear, whether that be clothing or whatever else that they put on. See, God is saying, I want the church, amongst other things, I want to be, I want the church to be a place of great feminine beauty.

In this dark and sinsick world, I want the church of all places to be a fantastic place of genuine feminine beauty. In fact, John Stott in his commentary on this passage says the church should be a veritable beauty parlor because it encourages its women members to beautify themselves or to adorn themselves. So have at it, ladies. God instructs you to adorn yourself even when you're getting ready for church in the morning and you're thinking about what to wear and, and, and so forth.

your, your thoughts should be, I want to be beautiful when I go to church. I want to be beautiful when I'm not at church. I want to be beautiful all the time. I want to adorn myself.

God actually instructs you to do this, all right. there's a second thing that God wants, however, and that is that God wants Christian women not just to adorn themselves, but he wants Christian women to be motivated and influenced by the gospel in adorning themselves. He wants you to actually factor the gospel in. To be motivated by the gospel and to be influenced by the gospel as you seek to set about the task of adorning yourself.

Look at where we see this in the passage. You guys remember how in the context of chapter 2. Paul has been giving gospel truth. In verse 3, he talks about God, our Savior.

Verse 4, he desires all men to be saved, to come to the knowledge of the truth of the Gospel. Verse 5, there's one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, verse 6, speaking of Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. Paul. Not only that, he gave himself as a witness to all of the love of God.

Paul, up to this point in chapter 2 is just rehearsing some very precious gospel truths. Look at verse 8. Therefore, he says, in light of these gospel truths that I, I just mentioned, therefore, I want the men to pray. Because of the gospel, and the truths I've mentioned, I want the men to pray.

Now look at verse 9. He doesn't then say, and by the way, on a completely different subject. No, look at the first word of verse 9. Likewise.

In other words, in the same way. being motivated in the same fashion. Here's the gospel. Therefore, because of the gospel, I want the men to pray.

That's what I want from the men. And because of the gospel, I want the women to adorn themselves. So your instruction to adorn and beautify yourself, ladies, is tied to the gospel as much as the instruction to men to pray is. You should be motivated by the gospel and influenced by the gospel and adorning yourself, you see.

Think about it. Whenever we adorn ourselves. we're, we're striving after some standard of beauty, are we not? Every culture, by the way, has their own ideas of beauty.

And we might look at other cultures and go, what are they thinking, that this cone head shape that they strive so hard to achieve is beautiful, or these massive lip rings that leave gaping holes in the lower lip, what are, what are they thinking that this is beautiful, but every culture has their standard of beauty, and who knows where those standards actually come from, but they have it in their minds and hearts, the standard of beauty that's what they strive after. what, ladies.

Any woman who has had a genuine encounter with the gospel is forever changed by that, and her conception of beauty is forever changed. By her encounter with the gospel.

Think about what you see in the gospel, you see a savior who clothed himself in frail humanity. Jesus is, man, his glory was unbelievable in heaven, and we got a glimpse of that glory on the Mount of Transfiguration for some. fleeting moments, that utterly blew the disciples away, but Jesus didn't come into this world flaunting all of that. No, he dressed himself in frail humanity and as to the form of humanity that he clothed himself with, it specifically says that he had no stately form or comeliness in terms of all the human bodies, that he could have chosen.

He didn't even choose the most attractive of them. Christ was born and he lived in poverty. We see Christ on this earth choosing to reveal his glory another way, rather than through brilliant splendor that blinds everyone who looks upon him. He chose to reveal his beauty and His glory by taking the enormous omnipotent power that he possessed, and always using it miraculously in service to the needs of other people.

Doing many, many good works throughout his life on earth. We see Christ sacrificing himself utterly for the salvation of man. We see Christ, get this. Who was literally willing to be made repulsively ugly on the cross.

It was not a pretty picture, guys, and we all know that. And the prophet even says that he was a person from whom men hid their face. People recoiled away because of the horror and the ugliness of what they saw. But Christ, having died, was buried and is now raised and is seated at the right hand of God in utter amazing, unimaginable beauty, splendor, and glory.

And what, we look at that full narrative and say that is beauty. That is beauty. And somehow, that ends up changing a woman's standard of beauty, her vision of beauty, and it's like, that's the beauty that captures her heart. That she invests more energy into seeking to strive after and to obtain.

The gospel also affects the way a woman dresses from a variety of other standpoints. I wish someone would write a book. It'd be a good exercise to just start with gospel truth and then reason from the gospel to the subject of dress for. for women, I'm really having trouble here.

Give me a moment to get dressed here. OK. You think about the gospel, you observe that Christ died for sin. That must mean sin is a big deal.

So a woman who knows that would never want to sin with her dress, and she wouldn't want to cause someone else to sin because that's what Jesus got slaughtered for on the cross. A woman thinking gospel thoughts would know Christ has ransomed me. He's redeemed me. That means that I belong to Him.

That means that my body belongs to Him. That means that my clothes belong to Him. That means that my closet. He's the Lord of my closet, so it's not a matter of what do I want to wear, but it's what does he who now owns me want me to wear.

It's no longer a private decision. That is just mine to make. I make it together with my Lord and in obedience to this one who has redeemed me. Not only has he redeemed me, but he's redeemed my brothers and sisters, so they belong to him.

They're precious to him. He cares about them. So I don't ever want to dress in a way that causes them to stumble. Jesus loves those that belong to him.

My brothers and sisters to such a degree that he actually tells me to never cause them to stumble, that I should rather have a 100 pound block of concrete tied around my neck and thrown into the sea than to ever cause one of his precious ones to stumble. These gospel thoughts and so many others should be brought to bear. At the very least, Paul is saying women. I want you to adorn yourself, but I want you to be motivated.

I want you to be influenced by the gospel, as you seek to adorn yourself. There's a third thing that God wants regarding the adornment of women, and that is that God wants women, Christian women to adorn themselves with modesty. He wants Christian women to adorn themselves with modesty. Verse 9, Paul says, likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly.

So modesty is a good thing. It is something that God commands of women. It is a part of what God believes is truly beautiful. That's modesty.

Now the Greek word that is translated modestly is an interesting word. It's the Greek word for shame. It's almost literally the idea is adorn themselves with proper clothing with shame. But we know that God's not saying, I want you to be ashamed.

That's not his point. A good way of rendering this is God wants you to adorn yourself with a shame consciousness, with a consciousness of shame. In fact, I believe the King James says with shamefacedness, which has the idea of a shame awareness and awareness of the reality of shame. So God wants women to dress themselves, to adorn themselves with a shame consciousness.

In other words, they have an understanding of what's right. They have an understanding of what is wrong. They understand that. That sin brings legitimate shame.

And so as a woman is thinking about something to buy, as she is contemplating what to wear, she genuinely feels a sense of dread. A dread of ever doing anything that in itself is shameful. She dreads the thought of wearing something or wearing it in a way that ultimately is actually sinful and thus shameful. So she herself does not want to be guilty.

Of sinful and shameful behavior, but for a woman to dress herself with a shame consciousness also means that she has a dread of ever dressing in a way that provokes thoughts or actions in other people that are shameful. She doesn't want anyone else to be thinking shameful, or sinful thoughts, or to ever be provoked to shameful or sinful actions. As a result of the way that she is dressing. The encouragement here ultimately is to realize there is a right and a wrong when it comes to dress and adorning yourself and the way you choose to beautify yourself.

Realize that beauty is power for good or for evil, and a woman thinks about her attire, and she says, I will not dress in a way. That might produce thoughts in my brothers that they would be ashamed of if they stood before God. I really want to commend to you ladies this selfless. Other centeredness as you think about your attire.

Some women, they're thinking. does not go beyond themselves. Their thought is, I've got a great body and I want the world to know it, and I actually like, a lot of women would never admit this, but there's a part of them that would confess if they were honest, I like turning heads. I like people looking at me.

If I've got especially attractive features of my body, then I want to wear clothes that accentuate. That and you see this all the time in our culture. It just seems like if a woman or even a guy has an especially, attractive feature of their body, they always seem to figure out a way to wear the clothes that especially accentuate that or reveal that. I was noticing recently this guy had a tattoo on his arm that he was very proud of and And every time I saw this guy at the gym, he always seemed to figure out a way to wear his shirt in a way that that tattoo was revealed.

It was just amazing. and both men and women can be this way, and that's as far as their thinking goes, rather than how will this affect other people? And will this produce shameful thoughts, sinful thoughts or actions in other people. in the book worldliness that we actually have in the book, information booth that we're going to be recommending to you guys, there's a chapter on modesty written by CJ Mahaney, an excellent chapter, but in that chapter he has a quote from a guy named Jack, and listen to what this guy says.

And ladies, you would want godly men like this to say something like this about you. He says, I am so grateful for the friendships that God has given me with the ladies in my church. I am so appreciative of the sacrifices that these ladies make to glorify God and to serve and care for the guys. I heard of one girl in our church who went shopping and really liked the shirt she was trying on.

But then she thought, no, I can't do this to the guys. That was the first time I'd ever heard of anything like that, and it made me so grateful. It is such a blessing to have friends who care for me enough to be selfless and to sacrifice to help me and other guys with sexual lust. Now, ultimately it's every man's responsibility to be pure in his thoughts, to have victory in this area, but God is cluing you women into the fact that you can show love to your brothers by being unselfish.

And the choices that you make of clothes to buy and clothes to wear. Listen to another guy that CJ Mahaney quotes from a guy, a young man named Kevin. Kevin says to the women who don't follow the pattern of the world, thank you a million times over. You are following Scripture's commands and helping your brothers in the process.

A godly person. Feels genuinely loved by sisters in the Lord, who dress modestly. They, if, if they felt comfortable doing so, they'd go up to every one of them and say, thank you for loving me. Thank you for being considerate of me.

And by dressing modestly, you are showing great love to your brothers, in the Lord. And, the church of all places should be a place of modesty. but what, even in our church, I've had men come to me and say, I came to church last Sunday, and It was a battle. I had a woman sitting 3 rows in front of me who was not dressed modestly.

And it was a battle through the entire service to stay focused on what I should be focused on, and women, you don't want that. You don't want that. But thank you to those of you that do think about this and And who think about others and you dress with modesty as shame consciousness. When people come from outside into the church, they ought to notice a difference.

They ought to notice a difference even in the way that we dress. There's a 4th thing that God wants, which is a Paul is saying something very similar but with a different nuance, and that is that God wants women to adorn themselves with self-control. He wants women to adorn themselves. With self control.

This is another way of saying with modesty, but the emphasis here is on self control. Now the new American standard says discretely, and that's a good translation, but that's a word we hear all the time, but we don't really know exactly what it means self-control or restraint. would be clearer words to translate the idea here. God wants Christian women to adorn themselves with restraint.

He wants them to adorn themselves with self-control. Implied in this term is that God knows that there's a part of you that might want to wear something different, but you have to say no to that part of you. and restrain yourself from doing what a part of you might like to do out of consideration to the glory of God, the glory of the gospel, and out of consideration to the spiritual well-being of those around you. So let's go with the word restraint, just as we think this through, a woman is to dress with restraint, so as not to consume too much money and time and energy.

On her adornment. Obviously, God is telling you to adorn yourself. He wants you to invest time and energy and even money in that, but you are to do that with self control, with restraint, you are not to expend an inordinate amount of time. and money and energy on your physical adornment.

Some of you may say, well that doesn't apply to me. I don't have any money, so I'm never going to spend too much money on extravagant adornment. OK, OK, but how much energy does it take from you? How much time do you spend standing in front of the mirror?

When you're getting dressed to go somewhere, are you frequently frustrated and upset over, you're not achieving the look that you would love to have and that maybe other people have, and you just can't seem to get that particular look and, and so you're frustrated and, you might walk out of the home and you're dressed sexually modest, and in a sexually self-controlled way, but you're not dressed with self-control from the standpoint of there has been a huge expenditure. A wasteful expenditure of time and energy.

So dress with restraint. So as not to consume too much money, time, and energy, dress with restraint so as not to distract.

Especially when you come to church, you want to dress in a way that doesn't distract anybody from the gospel, that doesn't distract anybody from the Lord. and You don't, you want to dress in a way, ladies, that doesn't distract men or women. You don't want us to be singing Lord, I lift your name on high, and everyone's all focused and someone's looking over at you, some sister even and, and she's thinking, where did she get that dress? Man, I have got to get an outfit like that.

And, and what did she do to her hair? here we are worshiping God and, and you're the focus of attention. Because of something that you've done by way of adorning yourself that ends up being a distraction, so you actually want to think about that also, and also restraint so as not to stumble a brother, sexually. And again, this is just another way of saying what we've already said, but you need to think about your brothers.

And the fact that they are visually more oriented to the visual than, than you may be. And even if you don't get it, and you don't understand it, it is a reality and show love to your brothers, in the restraint that you show in dressing yourself. I read this to you guys a couple of years ago. Let me read it to you again.

This is from Joshua Harris's book, Not even a hint. Just the counsel that he gives to to women. He says you can help guys in their fight against lust by being aware of just how aware guys are of your body. Rarely a moment goes by when a guy isn't aware of your body, and you don't have to have a cover model's body for this to be true.

This should affect how you clothe yourself as well as how you interact physically with guys. When I say that guys are always aware of your body, I'm not implying that they're always lusting after any woman they're with, although this is possible. that in any interaction with a woman, a healthy man is aware that you are a woman, and that you have a body that his sinful desires would love to lust after. A Christian man seeking to resist lust never reaches a state where he is unaware of a female's body.

He just learns to actively choose not to stare. So a godly Christian guy really does or really should want to view you as a sister and maintain eye contact, not eye to something else contact. But when you wear clothing that accentuates, draws attention to, or highlights the feminine parts of your body, it's like wearing a flashing neon sign pointing to the very thing he's trying not to be consumed with. Sure guys can resist the temptation to lust, and it's our responsibility to do so, but your dressing immodestly makes this very difficult.

I know that talking about flashing neon signs might make this sound like a joke, but immodesty really isn't funny. Ask God to help you to see how selfish and uncaring it is to want to use your body to encourage your brothers to lust. It might make you feel good about yourself, but it can encourage them to sin. The way you dress can either help or hinder the men around you who are trying.

To resist L I don't want you to have a view of men that we're all a bunch of monsters. But we have a sinful flesh inside of us. that your shame consciousness should be aware of, and in an act of love and consideration. For your brothers, you bring that to bear upon the choices you make in the clothes to buy and the clothes to wear.

Just going back to the idea of restraint though, Paul goes beyond just restraint in terms of not contributing to sexual stumbling. And he says that women are to dress with restraint so as not to flaunt social status. That's a whole other issue. Maybe you've got more money than most other people and you can afford nicer clothes than most other people, and there's certain brand names that basically when you wear them, it announces to everybody, Hey, this costs more money than your clothes did.

I'm, I'm just a little above you and our economy. this, this mentality is frequently appealed to not just with clothing but automobiles. There are cars that are perfectly functional, but then there are cars that are functional and they make a statement about where you are in relation to other people. You get this car.

Not only are you going to feel good about yourself, but other people are going to be jealous of you. And as a woman, you need to think about this with regard to To dress, to dress with restraint so as not to flaunt social status. Look at what he says at the end of verse 9. They're to dress modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls, or costly garments.

you need to understand that when Paul speaks about braided hair here, he's not saying there's something inherently evil about the braid pattern. Like, don't ever. You can do other patterns, ladies, but if you do that braid pattern, suddenly you've entered into the realm of the forbidden, and you have brought great shame upon yourself. He's not talking about a girl who might do a braided ponytail.

you need to understand that during this day the braid pattern was like the hottest thing for the wealthy women of society where their entire hair was braided and towering hairdos that Some of them would take 6 hours or more to do. You may not know this, but women back in this day, they weren't all walking around in head coverings. They had the same styles that we see today. there are statuettes, there's images, there's paintings that give very clear evidence that their hairstyles were very sophisticated.

They had curling irons back then. They had beauty salons back in Paul's, day. They bleached their hair blonde. They colored it red.

They did all sorts of things with their hair, even to the point where the hair was even more of a fixation than it is in our society. Listen to what one writer says. He says Paul refers to the elaborate hairstyles which were then fashionable among the wealthy and also to the styles worn by prostitutes. The sculpture and literature of the period make it clear that women often wore their hair in enormously elaborate arrangements with braids and curls interwoven or piled high like towers and decorated with gems and or gold and or pearls.

Prostitutes wore their hair in numerous braids with gold droplets or pearls or gems every inch or so, making a shimmering screen of their locks. By the way, I've got a ton more images of this, but I, I wasn't able to find them, this week. But here's some statues of some 1st century women. Look at that style.

that's how this was like during Paul's day, and it was really fashionable to have, a really a towering dew right, right coming off the forehead. And these women would, would pay big money. They would sit for six or more hours to have someone do their hair like this. And invest any amount of money, and Paul saw that as just an extravagant waste of time and money.

These women would also have golden combs and and jewels, as I already read that they would put in their hair to hold their hair in place. And so he's talking here about an extravagant style. of hair along with an extravagant expenditure of money for gold and pearls that go in the hair and also that are worn on the body and he says costly garments and you might want to underline the word costly because that's really what he's after here the extravagant expenditure of time. of energy.

The extravagant expenditure of money upon the external looks of a woman. Paula saying, listen, Christian women, they don't have this extravagance. We don't have time for this, but I could actually, I could read to you guys if we had time. There's actually quotes from totally pagan Roman writers who are criticizing women, and they use almost Paul's exact wording.

Women who have these extravagant braided styles and all the jewelry and costly garments, even the pagans in Paul's day frowned. Upon such extravagance and a woman's appearance. And this was also frequently the style, not just of the wealthy, but of prostitutes. And Paul is saying this is not where your energy is to go, but instead, this is the 5th thing that God wants from women.

Regarding the adorning of themselves, God wants Christian women to beautify or to adorn themselves with good works and godliness. This is where your energy primarily goes. Yes, you look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, you want to, to dress appropriately.

Yes, you think about the external, but most of your energy is consumed with the spiritual. He says, but rather verse 10 adorn themselves by means of good works as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. The word works is the Greek word we get our English word energy from, so it's talking about an expenditure of energy. That's what happens when you work.

You're expending energy and that your energies are not wasted and spent extravagantly upon the physical adornment. Of your physical body, but more of your energy. If you're extravagant at all, you're extravagant in expending energy. In looking at the needs of other people and then setting about to meeting those needs, and you are a woman who abounds in doing good to other people.

You abound in doing good to your husband, doing good to your children, not just by the deeds you do, but by the words you speak and the, the attitudes and the spirit that you impart to them. as you relate to them, and then even beyond your own family. Listen, a woman who is rich in good works catches the eye of God. God looks at a woman like that, and says, that woman is a knockout.

She is beautiful. We have women in our culture, some I've heard who will run and exercise 6 to 8 hours a day. And their desire to be thin. There's nothing wrong with being thin, but think about that extravagant expenditure of not just time, but, but also that the energy that is expended.

Paul would say, listen, just, just stop thinking about you. And having everything revolve around you, start looking around you and look at other people that have needs and that are discouraged that need to be lifted up and need to have something done for them, and then just spend your energy in doing those things for the good of other people and for the glory of God that will beautify you. Those good works will serve as your adornment that will beautify you. And then also godliness.

Paul says you are adorn yourself with good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. In other words, adorn yourself with good works because that matches women you like to match, right? Adorn yourself with good works because that matches godliness. It matches.

The worship of God, a woman whose life is fully devoted to God and to His glory. She doesn't get up in the morning and is consumed with herself. She is consumed with God, to whom she belongs, and for whom she desires to live every moment of each day. So you worship God, you love God, you serve God, you seek God's glory.

You also the word godliness also has the idea of seeking to be Godlike. You look at Him as the ultimate standard of beauty, and you, and you want to be like Him. So you behold Him, and as you behold, as in a mirror, the beauty of the Lord, by the way, glory and beauty are synonyms. As you behold, as in a mirror, the beauty of the Lord, you're transformed into the same image and you become more like Christ, the beautiful one, more like God in His splendor in his beauty, and you become glorified.

Stage by stage. God says adorn yourself. With good works and godliness. We're going to have to pick up here, maybe tie up some loose ends, Next week, ladies, realize that dress is important.

Seek to love others more than you love your own body. Seek the good of others more than you would wish to seek to impress others with your body. Seek also to accentuate the good qualities of other people. Rather than wanting to vaunt Or accentuate your own good qualities that may surpass other people.

Let's just bow our heads together. Lord, women that are beautiful in the way we've just learned, these are the women that are going to attract the right guys. The right guys. Those who make choices contrary to what you've taught here, they're going to attract men.

But they're going to attract lustful men and weak men who will be easily lured away as soon as someone else comes along who's willing to dress provocatively. But what women have heard today, this is the instruction that godly men rejoice in. This is as we listen in as men on what God says to women, we're like, Oh, Lord, you love us so much. You love men so much.

And you're looking out for us, Lord, thank you for speaking. To women in this way. And then as you speak to women in this way, Lord, This, this just merely Illustrates how important women are, how important their beauty is. But it directs them to the fact that beauty could be used for good or for evil.

And that there is a way to beautify themselves. In a way that Brings great glory to you, great blessing to others, and ultimately great blessing to the woman herself. We live in a culture where there are beautiful women coming out of Hollywood that are absolutely Physically beautiful and yet they get married. And after sometimes even a few months, the men that they marry dump them.

Because they lack the beauty that You're seeking to give women here. Thank you, Lord, for speaking to us in this way. Lord, as we give our offerings to you at this time, we thank you for what you've given to us in the way of instruction, what you've given to us in the way of your glory and beauty. We thank you for the opportunity that you've given to us to give back to you, to support the work of this gospel.

This gospel of beauty. That we can give to each other, we can give to the community around us and give to a lost and dying world. Multiply the usefulness of the money that's given for the glory. Of Jesus Christ We just commit ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus.

And all God's people said,