Is It Sinful To Wear A Bikini To A Public Pool?

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Okay, Tim, the question for today is, is it sinful to wear a bikini to a public pool?

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Yeah, that's one of those really interesting questions because that was my grandpa's position, that it was sinful to go to public pools because of how immodest it actually was.

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And one of the interesting things that's happening now is that I see a lot of younger people who are basically taking that position again in a way that's somewhat surprising.

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So, you know, you had my grandfather's generation where you still had people who were saying that kind of thing, and then

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I think the generation after that, then they were liberated from that fundamental oppression, and now we're coming back to the cycle where there's plenty of people who are on the other side of that who are basically asking us to rethink some of these basic assumptions that we have had for many years, and this is one of those topics that I'm seeing more and more people actually comment on along these lines and asking along these lines.

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I mean, I think everyone knows the right answer to this question. I think everyone knows the answer, man.

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I don't think anyone wants to admit the obvious. I distinctly remember, even before I was a

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Christian, I would always comment on this trend where swimwear, especially for women, it seemed like it was getting skimpier and skimpier and skimpier every year.

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And I remember asking friends of mine that were girls, why do you feel comfortable wearing what you would wear to the beach or to a swimming pool, but you feel uncomfortable thinking about someone accidentally seeing you just in your underwear?

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Because your underwear actually covers up more than the swimwear does.

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Why does the underwear one freak you out, but the swimwear doesn't?

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Yeah, it's one of those questions that there really is no biblical answer to.

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What do you mean there's no biblical answer? The Bible talks about our unpresentable parts require a greater modesty.

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The Bible does have a standard of indecency as far as these things are concerned.

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The Bible's standard is pretty high. Part of what's happening is people have adopted some sort of cultural relativism as it relates to the nature of immodesty.

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They think it's just entirely a cultural thing. That we have no way of understanding objectively.

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So they'll point to the African tribes where the women are topless or whatever. The pagan women who have no access to the gospel, they're topless.

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That isn't immodest to them, so it's just all subjective. Who knows what we're even talking about. The Bible does teach us a standard of modesty that is fairly specific.

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In Ezekiel, and this is funny, my kids were reading through this, or listening through Ezekiel in their

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Bible, listening to, or whatever. And then my son looks over at me when you get to the part where Israel is portrayed as a naked young woman in the wilderness.

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Behold, she was at the time of love, her breasts were formed. And so God comes and he covers her up, right?

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So he covers her up. He covers up the shame of her nakedness. But then in the text itself, it says her nakedness was demonstrated by uncovered breasts.

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And then Paul talks about in the life of the body, our unpresentable parts require greater modesty.

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Well, what in the world would our unpresentable parts be, right? If not our sexual organs, and at the very least for women, breasts.

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And I think men probably are a lot more immodest than what they should be too, as far as that goes.

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But without wading into all that, all I'm trying to say is there is an objective standard of modesty in the

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Bible that's not just a cultural artifact here. There are unpresentable parts that require greater modesty, and we all know what they are.

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But then not only that, like in the church, a woman would be thought of as being immodest by having her hair braided with gold and jewelry as a lavish display of wealth on her head.

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And that was considered immodest because of strong attention, like inappropriate attention towards her. And so if that's like the standard of biblical modesty could even reach to that, then

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I think a bikini has crossed the line a long time ago, okay? And the point you're making is just an obvious point.

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I mean, like what rational grounds do you have for saying that a woman walking around in public in her underwear is indecent, but then a woman wearing a bikini that probably covers less is not?

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And I think we all know the answer to this question. We just don't want to say it. Well, you know, what people say in response is basically, hey, you're being legalistic, which is sort of the default answer whenever someone hears something that they don't like coming from the

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Bible. Whenever they see people who are just saying, hey, maybe God's given us all these commands.

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Maybe we should obey some of them. The response is typically, hey, you're being legalistic, right?

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So what would your response to that be when it comes to,

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I mean, basically what we're talking about here is modesty, right? If there is any command, I mean, if modesty has a meaning, then a bikini has crossed that line.

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Yeah. Right. I mean, it really has. I mean, it's just not that hard. I mean, there's a reason that on the sports magazines, that's what they put on the front cover.

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Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or whatever. I don't know if they still have this anymore, but is that what you're talking about?

07:48

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. So, I mean, the point, yeah, to that kind of person who thinks everything is legalism, they're an antinomian.

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They don't want to hear anything the Bible has to say. So does the Bible teach modesty or not? Yes or no?

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And if it does, then we should be able to at least figure it out in the most egregious examples possible.

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Okay? Yeah. We're not even talking about skinny jeans here. We're not even talking about the hard cases. This is as easy as it gets.

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Okay? This is as easy as it can possibly get to where that would violate that standard.

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And the Bible says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And one who says, I love him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

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For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. Just read those passages over and over again. Do a search in a

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Bible program, keep his commandments, and you'll see over and over again that we're called to obey

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God. And that's not legalism to obey God. And so the issue is, is there any category for modesty whatsoever?

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And what does it entail? And I think a biblical standard of modesty would be so far on the other side of these things that this is just a discussion that only takes place in a society that has basically chucked any concept of modesty anymore, basically.

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Yeah. And I think even going beyond that, you have to ask yourself the question, okay, so do you think, all right, all right, so let's just put aside the it's immodest for a second, right?

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Or let's put aside the fact that God has commanded us to be modest. Why are you—what's the motivation behind wanting to wear something like that in the first place?

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Is the motivation—are we really to believe that the motivation is, no, well,

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I think I'm glorifying God when I wear something like this. No one thinks that.

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The reason you dress up that way is because you want to be seen, right? Yeah. And I think that's really why especially women get so angry on this topic is because really they want to be seen.

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Women want—yeah, so God has made women to be beautiful and men to admire it, right?

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So God has made men to admire—so men want to enjoy looking at a woman, so the sin of a man is to want to get physical gratification out of people that you shouldn't be, right?

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The sin of a woman is to get interest that you shouldn't be— arouse interest that you shouldn't—

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That you shouldn't want. Shouldn't want, right? Right. So you're living in a—this is definitely a sin that the

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Bible speaks more to with women because the truth is if a guy were just to stand there without his clothes on or whatever, most women would be repelled by it, right?

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Right, yeah. I mean, there's sitcom episodes that are based on that kind of premise about how awkward that is for most women.

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So women are kind of repelled by that, but then men are—men, like, that's—we're made differently is the point.

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And now, I mean, the more that gender lines are blurred, the more that you have women hooting and hollering at a man without a shirt on kind of stuff, and that becomes more commonplace, but most women are kind of repelled by that.

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The more innocent they are, right? They're repelled by that kind of thing. And so, yeah,

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I mean, 1 Timothy 2 .9, Likewise, also the women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty, self -control, right?

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Not with the braided hair of gold or pearls or costly attire. Legalists.

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But what is appropriate for women who profess godliness with good works. I mean, it's just like these are—Paul was addressing levels of immodesty that are entirely foreign to our culture and our society at this point, to where if you were to put, not in a bikini, he wouldn't even think that that would be a debate.

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All right, Paul, listen, I get it. You don't like the gold in people's hair.

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But, gold bikini. Hear me out, hear me out, gold bikini. I mean,

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Gold bikini. Like, come on, that one's got to be fine, though.

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Right, right, yeah. You're basically making an argument from the greater to the lesser at that point, right?

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Okay, so for women out there who still want to be able to go to a public pool, what's some alternative to the skimpy yellow polka dot bikini?

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Yeah, I don't know. I mean, maybe it should cause us to think that we shouldn't feel at home in public pools, period.

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For some of these reasons. I mean, because it's not just about what you're doing, it's what you're looking at. What everyone else is doing, right.

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Yeah. So, I mean, I think we should take these things a lot more seriously than what we take them.

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And, you know, obviously the world would think we're strange if we're not brushing headlong in this same flood of iniquity that they're passing down.

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But, I don't know that we're doing a very good job as a society. I think we've normalized every kind of bit of indecency we glory in our shame.

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And, you know, I don't think that we'd ever get to a place where we would think that the drag queen story hours were great and wonderful, but here we are, right?

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Yeah, and it's weird because I can think of so many different episodes where it feels like we've said something along the lines of whatever the topic is, you know, even

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Christians think this way, right? And so that is a little bit of a concerning thing to have to consistently say.

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Yeah, maybe we'll do a poll on Twitter and we'll see, you know, how controversial some normal thinking on this topic actually is, you know?

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Well, we got to put it out before this episode comes out so that people don't game the system.

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Yeah, fair enough. But, yeah, I think that's definitely a lot worth thinking about and it is very concerning the things that people are comfortable wearing outside in general.

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Sure. So, fair enough. If you want to be

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Bible bashed personally, then please know that we also offer free Biblical counseling which you can take advantage of by emailing us.

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Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a Biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.