MH page 287

The Bible teaches modesty in dress. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.” 1 Timothy 2:9 . This forbids display in dress, gaudy colors, profuse ornamentation. Any device designed to attract attention to the wearer or to excite admiration, is excluded from the modest apparel which God's word enjoins.

Believers are instructed by Scripture to practice modesty in dress, avoiding gaudy displays, costly ornaments, or devices meant to attract personal admiration. This paragraph sets an ethical and scriptural standard for modesty and the avoidance of vanity in personal appearance, containing no empirical medical claims.

Our dress is to be inexpensive—not with “gold, or pearls, or costly array.” Verse 9 .

Clothing should be inexpensive and free from costly array or luxury items such as gold or pearls. The text presents a principle of financial simplicity regarding attire based on scriptural citation, with no empirical assertions.

Money is a trust from God. It is not ours to expend for the gratification of pride or ambition. In the hands of God's children it is food for the hungry, and clothing for the naked. It is a defense to the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, a means of preaching the gospel to the poor. You could bring happiness to many hearts by using wisely the means that is now spent for show. Consider the life of Christ. Study His character, and be partakers with Him in His self-denial.

Money and resources are sacred trusts from God to be used for helping the needy, supporting missions, and practicing self-denial rather than funding personal pride. This is a spiritual and stewardship-focused teaching regarding the proper use of financial resources, lacking empirical claims.

In the professed Christian world enough is expended for jewels and needlessly expensive dress to feed all the hungry and to clothe the naked. Fashion and display absorb the means that might comfort the poor and the suffering. They rob the world of the gospel of the Saviour's love. Missions languish. Multitudes perish for want of Christian teaching. Beside our own doors and in foreign lands the heathen are untaught and unsaved. While God has laden the earth with His bounties and filled its storehouses with the comforts of life, while He has so freely given to us a saving knowledge of His truth, what excuse can we offer for permitting the cries of the widow and the fatherless, the sick and the suffering, the untaught and the unsaved, to ascend to heaven? In the day of God, when brought face to face with Him who gave His life for these needy ones, what excuse will those offer who are spending their time and money upon indulgences that God has forbidden? To such will not Christ say, “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: ...naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not”? Matthew 25:42, 43 .

Expenditure on luxury and fashion diverts resources from relieving poverty and supporting global Christian missions. This paragraph delivers a moral and spiritual critique of societal spending habits in light of religious duty, containing no testable medical claims.