One of the things that I get the most pleasure from is reading and studying and delving into corners of trivia and searching out knowledge, on all kinds of subjects.  There are lots of explanations why I find it so enticing, I suppose.  I’m wired that way, certainly.  Like the elephant’s child, I’m full of “‘satiable curtiosity.”  More than that, though, I like certainty. I find great satisfaction in feeling that I’ve got a firm handle on a subject.  There is great security in having things all figured out.

The older I’m getting, though, the more God’s been turning a lot of what I thought I knew on its head, and showing me that things I’ve been told are so, and things I may have even taught others are so…..  well, aren’t.  Trying to look at Scripture through new eyes, rather than looking through the glasses of the traditions in which I was raised and have spent my adult life, I am coming to a point of seeing both greater simplicity and greater complexity than I saw before.

There are certain basics of salvation that are clear and absolute.  No question there.  However, I am finding in many other areas of doctrine that I am now perfectly content to let Scripture simply stand just as it’s written, accepting the Mystery rather than trying to explain the inexplicable.  The more I study Scripture, especially looking into the original language used and reading various commentaries, often each with a different take on what the passage “means”, the more I realize that much of what is taught as “truth” is, in fact, putting words into God’s mouth that simply aren’t there.

Why do we do that?  Because it’s easier to force precision onto what is actually obscure than it is to grapple with the frightening freedom of the undefined.  Like the Pharisees, we figure we’ll help God along by explaining the things He forgot to be explicit enough about.  We do it on a church level, defining our ‘ologies and ‘isms to the nth degree so we can be sure to distinguish among the Sneeches on the church beaches.  We do it to ourselves, reading into the sacred text all kinds of new Laws for Christian Living.  We don’t call them that, of course; we call them “Biblical principles” or something else.  No matter what we call them, though, the fact is that all too often we are taking a few verses on a subject and extrapolating and expanding them and elevating them to a new absolute by which we can either assure ourselves that we are doing “right”, or criticize others for being “wrong.”  We like that feeling of certainty!

For example, take the subject of modesty, as defined by the specific style of clothes one wears.  By how much emphasis the subject gets in some Christian circles, you’d think there must be very clear definitions in the Bible of just what constitutes “modest dress”.  There are, in fact, exceedingly few verses relating to the subject of modesty at all, and one of them give particular definition to the term.  That sure hasn’t stopped many and many a preacher or church from “filling in the blanks”, though!  I’ve heard sermons preached even today that claim Scriptural authority for defining modest clothing for women as dresses only, below the knee, round necked, no sleeveless, plain cut, and plain colored.  That’s extrapolating in major fashion.

I’ve never accepted those definitions of modest dress, feeling they went too far and didn’t have enough Scriptural basis.  But that’s not to say I didn’t have my own set of rules about the subject!  Oh, my, no.  Now, understand, my intention (and that of those claiming specific Scriptural source) was good, and perfectly Scriptural:  I didn’t want to cause my brother to stumble.  The first problem comes in that, no matter how good my intent, like others, I elevated my definition to the level of a moral issue.  Wearing the Proper Clothes became an expression of Christian character – one more thing to check off on my list of Good Girl Things I Did Today.  The second problem follows quite naturally on the heels of the first.  Having elevated the definition to an absolute Right and Wrong, it became a Pharisaical law by which I not only ruled myself, but by which I  judged other women’s “modesty” on whether or not they dressed to MY standards of what a “decent Christian woman/girl” should be wearing.  God, being the gracious God that He is, finally called me on it one it one day.  “Really, kiddo, which is worse:  HER offending your personal definition of “modest” by wearing a ———–  or YOUR condemnation of her which breaks MY specific Scriptural injunction against judging your brother?  Hmm?”   ouch.

It’s one of the Enemy’s favorite traps: get us to define what God does not, puff ourselves up with self-righteousness over it, then bash others over the head with it.  Paul reminded the Galatians, who were falling for that trap again, that “it is for freedom you have been set free.”  We are not to put ourselves under a yoke of slavery to manmade rules again, no matter how virtuous and righteous they might sound, because law will never get us where we need to go.  We have been saved by Grace; we need to walk in Grace.  We give up rigid regulations for Grace-guided governance.  We accept His offer of freedom, learning what it is to walk in Love, with all its unknowns and individualities, even though it may not be as “comfortable” at first as having all those jots and tittles to go by.

I’m still learning just what that freedom means in this area.  I haven’t changed much of my wardrobe; I’m still comfortable with my own standards for myself.  I haven’t changed many of my opinions, either, insofar as there are still fashions I’d prefer others not wear.   What HAS changed is that now I can let that difference in taste be just that: a difference in taste, not a character value.  I’ve been able to start letting go of the burden of feeling the need to play Fashion Judge for the world, extending the freedom He’s given me to others.  He’s turning my focus from those externals of “What Not to Wear”, to how loving God and experiencing His love can engender true modesty in me.

In all modesty, I think a right heart will suit me better than the right clothes!