Bras and the Legalistic Mindset

What is it about the world today where women have to constrain themselves to fit the worlds idea of propriety and modesty? And the one place where a woman could most definitely not go braless? Church! And which ‘kind’ of woman could most certainly never go braless in public? A Christian woman. God forbid! It’s just not modest.

Ahh, well at least that’s what the western world tells us today. Bind and constrict yourself to conform to the world’s standards. But it’s just not healthy! There has been some link to bras and breast cancer – women who never wear bras apparently have the same incidence of breast cancer as men!

And should we conform to the world’s standards?

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2 NKJV)

(I find it hilarious that as I’m writing this, my font is Times New Roman, size 12!)

So, what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God? In large part, it is the Laws of Liberty and Love. The liberty to – before God – follow our convictions, and the responsibility to love those who’s convictions on such things are different than ours.

So what’s a girl to do? Conform to the world’s standards of beauty and ‘normalcy’, or do what they are convinced in their own mind is right?

(Now, I’m not advocating toplessness or immodesty – but God is who tells us what is modest and what is not – and having the ‘bustal profile’ of a ‘goddess’ is more of a stumbling block to men than it is modesty!!!! But so is revealing too much. There are ways to do both, I believe.)

But even we, in the church, can crucify a gal for going against today’s custom. Simply put, we get all legalistic about something that was never a law to begin with! And all to often we crucify the person who is simply operating with the liberty that Christ has given us to follow our convictions (having sought God on it and having found it to be within biblical parameters).

And so the woman with fibrocystic breast disease who goes braless to ease the pain is subject to glares and stares and unspoken charges of immodesty and feminism. It should not be.

(Or the buxom mama who just wants to get out of the metal and wire torture garment.)

(Or the girl who is sick of always pulling up bra straps and adjusting yet another poor fitting bra that causes neck, shoulder, and back pain.)

All too often, we accept the customs of the world blindly, as being ‘right’, without examining them for ourselves. But what is ‘right’? It is the liberty and freedom to exercise one’s own convictions before God. And if they failed to bring it before God, they alone answer to Him. Do not judge another man’s servant – their Master being the Lord Jesus.

“Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.” (Romans 4:4, NKJV)

amen!