The DE-Liberation of Women by Alan Martin
Now here is a cause worth promoting and celebrating – the DE – liberation of women. Paul promoted women’s Deliberation, and Peter jumped on the bandwagon too. Sadly, the Deliberation of women movement has lost much of its early momentum as the DE has been lost to a great extant. The only place the De liberation of women ever had a strong beginning was in the church, but the DE liberation of women in the church is now a very controversial matter.
Terms often need a definition in order to glean their meaning. DE liberation comes from the French language, the root word being deliberate – a compound of the preposition “de”(of or from) and “libra” (scale). Deliberate therefore applied to things that had been weighed in the scales to access their worth.
Some assume that modern, “liberated” women have increased in worth, but how are we to know the worth of women who no longer “weigh on the scale”? Many women have an aversion to scales! This is an area where nearly all women insist upon privacy – unless of course they believe they are doing very well. But enough rabbit trailing – back to our DE liberate topic.
Nowhere is it more evident that women have abandoned Paul and Peter’s DE liberation movement than in the mode of women’s dress. Here we are able to discern the difference between women who once were DE liberated in how they dress but are now simply liberated. There is no disputing that Paul and Peter would both be greatly disturbed at this trend, for both of these two spirit-filled apostles were staunch DE liberationists.
Their instructions on women’s dress called for careful DE liberation in the choices that women were to make while adorning themselves. A simple word study on the appropriate biblical passages will substantiate this unequivocably (without a doubt). Both of these distinguished church founders wanted women to dress DE liberately – weighing carefully their choice of attire. I will not delve into the specific cautions included in their instructions, but would strongly encourage those who are still with me to examine them on your own.
What I will say is that SIN happens when women fail to dress DE liberately; yes, many miss the mark simply because they have not carefully weighed what they put on. Improper dress can be due to “intentional” or “unintentional” factors, but the affects of either were the apostles concern. That is why they both exhorted Christ honoring women to dress DE liberately.
In order to restore the DE liberation of women movement in our churches and our homes, we will have to give careful consideration and pay close attention to this subject, awkwardness or difficulty notwithstanding. Pastors, Dads, and Moms, those under our care may not be “intentionally” dressing inappropriately, but without instruction DE liberate dressing will likely never occur. If our wives and or our daughters are NOT dressing DE liberately, be a Parent, and exercise our God given calling to oversee those under us. If we see attire that has not been carefully “weighed” – DE Liberated – our place is to help.
This is one area where the “liberation” of women will never produce true freedom. Virtuous women of faith do not seek liberation from God’s council; the liberty they seek is “from” conformity to the world never “to” it. Godly women will always be very DE liberate in how they dress.
DE liberated women do not fear the oppression or opinion of men. DE liberated women are empowered by God Himself to throw off any unjust oppression of man-made tradition or rules, but a DE liberated woman will never throw out the godly concerns of the apostles of Jesus Christ. Virtuous women always weigh everything they do very carefully – in word, in deed and in dress.
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