Dr Paul Allen

If God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, then Christians have every reason to be the happiest people in the world. But does that leave us with one-dimensional emotions? How should believers act and feel when surrounded by brokenness and sin? The Bible teaches us that we have many reasons to mourn. We mourn the sin in our lives (Romans  7:15 –20) and the brokenness of this present evil age (Galatians 1:4). We mourn while we wait for Christ to return and make all things right. Following Christ’s ascension, the church laments because her bridegroom has been taken away (Matthew  9:15 ). Even the glorified martyrs in the book of Revelation , who have already been given white robes of victory, mourn as they still are waiting and longing for justice (Revelation 6:9–11). “Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus taught, “for they shall be comforted” ( Matthew 5:4 ). The Bible calls us to be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” ( 2 Corinthians   6:1...

Previously, we dug through  1 Cor. 12:23 , which contains the first of two occurrences of the term “ modesty ” in the ESV .  We saw that in  1 Cor. 12:23 , the term translated “modesty” carried an idea that wasn’t  primarily  one of appearance, but rather  overall demeanour .  To be clear, the term included appearance but involved  more  than just appearance. Today, we’ll look at the second occurrence of “modesty” in the ESV, which is found in  1 Tim. 2:9 . 1 Tim. 2:9  – Again, I’m going to set the verse within its immediate context of  1 Tim. 2:8-15 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;   9  likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with  modesty  and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire ,   10  but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with...

Modesty. Fewer words in Biblical theology have greater potential of moving large groups of professing Christian women to hate you. Fewer words in Biblical theology have more diverse associations.  Fewer words in Biblical theology have more associated confusion.  Fewer words get serious exploration, since  everyone  already knows that it means, right? Not so fast.  So what does the word “ modesty ” actually mean, like  in the Bible ?   If you look up “modesty”in your ESV , you’ll strangely come across only two occurrences:  1 Cor. 12:23  and  1 Tim. 2:9  (there’s zero occurrences of “modest”). Now that doesn’t mean that the  concept  doesn’t occur more frequently, but rather that the English Bible translates a Greek term as “modesty” only twice. In case you’re wondering if I’ve stacked the deck because of my chosen Bible version , that’s hardly the case.  The  NIV  only has those two occurre...