My question is: "how could any godly Christian man display his wife in this way in front of millions of people? I question the integrity and level of spirituality in a man who would not care whether or not his wife was seen in dignity.
The reaction of those commenting was, how lovely this couple was and what a good example of a marriage they had.
I was the only one commenting on the clothing......or lack of it, on the wife. I felt like I was the little girl in the story of "The Emperors New Clothes."
In case someone doesn't know the story, the towns people were told by officials of the King that the King would be coming down the street in his new clothes. What the people were not told was that the king would be coming down naked. As the king approached each group of people, there could be heard voices proclaiming how lovely the new clothes were, except for one little girl who shouted out boldly, "but he doesn't have on any clothes." The people were appalled that the little girl would say this and she was summarily chastised for saying such a thing, as though they really did see clothes.
We are living in such a culture as described in "The Emperors New Clothes." The king is not chastised for not wearing any clothes, however, anyone telling the truth about it are called trouble makers and scolded harshly for telling what they really saw.
Are we that blind, or are we so deeply frightened over the loss of crowd approval that we pretend to ignore what we see blatantly? Or, perhaps our culture is so immoral now we will see many Christians on the beach clad in clothing the prostitutes didn't even wear 150 years ago.
When the bikini first came out regular models wouldn't model in it, the designers had to get prostitutes to do that.
It seems that our culture is willing to overlook any and all sins as long as the person we are looking at is famous, or highly favored as a speaker or teacher. It is my humble opinion that no matter who the celebrity is, we ought to always tell the truth, perhaps particularly if they are influential, public and Christian.
Proverbs 12:19 "Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment."
To ignore or deny what we really see is lying! Do we get this, it is lying!
2 Timothy 2:15 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
That is the first admonition in this post, to seek the truth. The second admonition is to tell the truth no matter how many people don't like to hear it.
Ephesians 4:25 "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."
Our job as believers is to help one another grow in holiness, that is not possible when we ignore blatant sin. Do we understand that nakedness.....even partial nakedness on the beach is a sin before God?
There are two reasons for wearing scanty clothing in public, the first is to exhibit ourselves for men to see and the other is to keep up with the fashion. Neither of these things is good. If the culture is violating God's principles then we must not follow it.
Believers are fish swimming up stream against the current. Our greatest desire is to be acceptable to God not our culture. The culture has a father, that father is the devil, nearly everything it does is contrary to Christ.
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
How do we swim up stream......its simply......ask God to change our hearts so that we do not desire the things of the world. When the desire is removed by God, then there is no struggle to be different, being different will come naturally without effort.
An elderly lady once was asked by a non-believer what she gave up to be a Christian. Her answer was "I never gave up anything.....that I wanted." When we have been born again we are not controlled by the culture, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. When we fail temporarily, we are hounded by Christ Who lives in us and we return to obedience again, the sadness we feel in the sin drives us back to the Savior. We are not comfortable with sin or worldliness, we are only at peace when we are in sweet obedience to Christ.
The moral of the story, don't follow the culture it will only destroy you, follow Christ and you will see much peace and joy!!!!
