Our Creator and Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, ensured that we are without excuse regarding this matter when His Spirit preserved for us three separate accounts of His condemnation of anyone and everyone who puts spiritual and moral stumbling blocks in the path of other souls: Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, and Luke 17:2. God's Christ even went a step farther to emphasize His point when He spoke of what would condemn us in our sin (John 12:48), if we choose to not repent. If one attempts to avoid the issue, that, too, is a deliberate choice to not repent. God wants us to be saved, but He also wants us to make the right choice for ourselves, rather than forcing us to choose right.
As the Bible's Book of Romans, so aptly, points out, both, the Old and New Testaments of God's Word agree that most of what we call personal preferences and entertainment, today, is sin, and is condemned by God. Furthermore, His Word assures us that, if we refuse to repent of our sin to God and fail to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for His only plan of salvation, we shall have chosen to die in our sins and to burn in eternal damnation. We must seek and accept God's salvation in order to be saved from our sin nature!
Our various modern social communication systems, news, and marketing media are LOADED with stories about sexual predators and victims, but where are the parents, the pastors, the churches, the government officials, and the friends and family who are supposed to be providing GODLY guidance to each other and our upcoming generations, warning each other about sinful behaviors of others and of our own sin? We love our sin and lust so much that we allow all manner of sin in others until it hits home and hurts us! THEN, finally, we howl like car-struck dogs, snapping, growling, and biting any guilty looking party, as we bemoan the awful things that were done to us or our friends or family members... even though we and our friends and family have played with that same fire that has burned us.
Our various media publically condemn sexual exploitation, even as they exploit sex and sexual exposition for monetary gain. We, collectively, send our immodestly dressed or mostly naked children or family members into the world into sports arenas, beaches, schools, and a host of other venues where they vie for sexual supremacy in the eyes of their peers, just like the peers/parents vie for sexual placement and favors in the workplace, social organizations, or even in churches. Sexual exposure has become a high value coin to expedite one getting noticed, complimented, fawned over, and corporally loved for our natural attributes. THIS IS NOT GOD's way nor is it His calling for our lives. God calls that spiritual whoredom, for we make ourselves and sex into idols. By contrast, God says that sex and sexual intimacy are for a husband(=man) and his wife(=woman) to share in private. Human sex (including it's intimate parts/members) is NOT for public exposure, consumption, nor public entertainment. We confuse and curse ourselves with our indulgences in this matter. We are in dire need of repentance and salvation.
People who wear styles that flaunt their sexual attributes, either deliberately or ignorantly, provoke the sexual interest of predators, as well as that of people who try to live, think, and act modestly. Those who engage in activities that expose, reveal, or flaunt their sexual attributes cannot say that they didn't mean to flaunt their intimate parts in front of others, when in fact they have exposed, or teased others with, virtually every nook, cranny, or bulge of their physical body, without regard for the effect that their self-exposure has on other people. As the Bible says of our wayward condition, "...sin lieth at the door.", a historical cry that goes all the way back to Cain's murder of his brother Abel. And, yes, we are killing one another mentally, emotionally, morally, physically, and spiritually, with our sinfully dull-witted sexual exploits and exploitation of each other.
Many, also, are easily led or swayed because they lack conviction or moral character: a case in point being men/boys or women/girls who wear things that fit immodestly, but that soul knows better. The observer of such an immodestly clad soul who has a conscience about the matter can quickly notice the immodestly clad person constantly fiddling with her/his clothing in an attempt to keep some body part from being exposed immodestly. If the person meant to flaunt the body part, then why adjust the clothing? If the person intended to dress modestly, then why wear clothing that exposes one's private parts? If The person had no conscience or conviction about how immodest the clothing was there would be no attempt to adjust it to cover private body parts that were being immodestly exposed.
One cannot assume the motive for wearing the particularly immodest attire, whether due to poverty, peer pressure, ignorant experimentation, willful lust for attention, or whatever. The fact remains that the soul who is constantly attempting to make immodestly designed/fitting clothing try to cover her/his private parts, that soul demonstrates conscience toward God's plan for modesty, and condemns the sexually motivated or sexually provocative exposure of ourselves in public.
Another case in point is so-called "bathing suits" for women, wherein they would probably not want to be 'caught dead' in their "underwear" in public, but slap a different name on the items of minimalistic clothing and the women/girls, for the sake of style and daring one another will all but strip naked in front of anyone, and with impunity, as long as someone will call their scanty attire anything other than sin and nakedness. THAT is sin and self-deception at work, if ever I have seen it.
Both, women and men are sexually exploited and exploiters. Both may work hard to attract the attention of those in power to advance their prowess in any given field of endeavor, with some either exploiting or making believe that the revealing of their intimate parts doesn't matter. Many also expose their bodies for general visual or physical consumption and worship by their audiences, customers, or fans, whether in the office, the Olympics, school sports, in business, entertainment, or for personal enticement or pleasure.
What need is there for the thinly veiled genitalia of men and women in any sporting venue, other than the worship of sex and sexuality? That worship of the human body was the way of the Greeks and other pagan cultures. But, God is not laughing. Only fools delude themselves to think that no one is noticing the sexual provocations that bombard us continually, when those in front of us minimize or remove their clothes, or flaunt some sexually loaded behavior.
We drown ourselves, today, in unbuttoned blouses, scant or no attire in public or family events, tight or slit skirts, crevice hugging leggings/pants or bulging trousers, thong or 'speedo' attire. Besides such "tip of the iceberg" perversions of what is called 'acceptable clothing', we invite into our homes (with internet, television, and movies) all manner of lust and human degradation. God is not laughing, and we desperately need to repent.
Hypocritical media demand men to be stone statues toward women, even as the media promote male and female homosexuality, that God condemns. To line their own coffers, the media heavily promote, and rely on, even demand, that women dress and act as whores, to entice and prey upon spiritually weak, lustful people. The "bread and circuses" of the old Roman Empire were no match for the perversity of today's society. Our excesses, today, would even make Sodom and Gomorrah blush, as we revel in our sinful failure.
Our worldly lustful engorgement with sin is in utter and willful denial of God's truth that He places into every human being, even as God says in Romans Chapter One. Modern media thrive on monetary gain and power that are reaped from the sexual exploitation and sexual weaknesses of young and old alike.
My dear friends, our collective lusts condemn us as a society, as we voraciously promote and victimize one another in our sexual hypocrisies.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
We must repent and be saved, or die in our sin, even as you see that God has already sounded His call and commands humanity, everywhere, to repent.
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
I don't think you missed a beat on this one Craig, well stated!
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