Modesty is an important virtue emphasized throughout the Bible. Here are some key Bible verses about modesty:
1. 1 Timothy 2:9-10
“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, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.”
This passage encourages women to dress modestly and not draw attention to themselves with ostentatious attire and accessories. The focus should be on inner godliness and good works, not outward appearance.
2. 1 Peter 3:3-4
“Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”
Similar to 1 Timothy, Peter instructs Christian women to be more concerned with developing a godly character rather than chasing external beauty through lavish clothing and accessories.
3. Proverbs 11:22
“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.”
This verse poetically conveys the importance of modesty and discretion. A beautiful woman who lacks modesty is like a gold ring in a pig’s nose.
4. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Christians’ bodies belong to God and are temples of the Holy Spirit. This calls for modesty and avoiding anything that dishonors the body.
5. Philippians 4:5
“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.”
Conducting ourselves with reasonableness and modesty shows that we recognize the Lord’s presence and closeness.
6. 1 Corinthians 12:23
“And those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty.”
Paul instructs the Corinthian church to be modest and honorable regarding the sensitive parts of the human body.
7. Genesis 3:7, 10-11
“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths…And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
After Adam and Eve sinned, they felt ashamed of their nakedness and tried to cover themselves. This passage implies God’s expectation of modesty.
8. Isaiah 47:1-3
“Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind flour, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.”
The prophet Isaiah portrays the removal of modest clothing as a symbol of humiliation and judgment for sin.
9. Revelation 3:18
“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”
Christ counsels the church in Laodicea to clothe themselves to cover their nakedness and shame.
10. Revelation 16:15
“Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
Jesus reiterates that we must stay spiritually alert and modestly clothed.
In summary, the Bible promotes modesty as a way of glorifying God, avoiding sexual immorality, and focusing on the inner person rather than outward appearance. Both men and women are called to be modest in dress, speech, and conduct.
11. Exodus 20:26
“And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.”
This verse prohibited indecent exposure at the altar in the tabernacle, requiring the priests to practice modesty in worship.
12. Exodus 28:42-43
“You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.”
God commanded the priests to wear proper undergarments so they would be covered and not expose their nakedness in the tabernacle.
13. 2 Samuel 10:4-5
“So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.”
Forcing these men to publicly expose themselves was a great humiliation and violation of modesty.
14. Isaiah 20:1-4
“In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it— at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.”
Isaiah’s nakedness was a symbolic act, but it still demonstrated a departure from normal modesty.
15. Habakkuk 2:15
“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!”
Getting drunk could lead to immodest exposure, so Habakkuk warns against exploiting people through alcohol.
16. Revelation 17:4-5
“The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’”
The immoral woman symbolizes a culture of sexual immodesty and seduction for selfish gain.
17. Isaiah 3:16-17
“The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.”
God warns of judgment against the proud, flirtatious women who walk seductively and indecently expose themselves.
18. Jeremiah 13:22, 26
“And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence… I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen.”
Exposing someone’s nakedness was considered a grave act of judgment and humiliation.
19. Ezekiel 16:35-37
“Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.”
God compares Jerusalem’s spiritual unfaithfulness to a prostitute’s immodesty and promises judgment.
20. Leviticus 18
This chapter lays out many laws regarding sexual relations and inappropriate exposure. Verse 6 summarizes the call to modesty: “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.” Other verses prohibit exposing the nakedness of various family members.
21. Deuteronomy 22:5
“A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.”
This law prohibited cross-dressing, which blurs the God-ordained distinctions between men and women.
22. Deuteronomy 23:13-14
“And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.”
Even private bodily functions were to be handled modestly in the Israelite camp, so that God would not see any indecency.
23. Genesis 9:20-23
“Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.”
Even in a private setting, Noah’s sons showed honor by covering his nakedness rather than looking upon it.
24. 2 Samuel 6:14, 20
“And David danced before the Lord with all his might…Then David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, ‘How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!'”
Though David danced in worship, Michal accused him of immodesty before the servants.
25. Romans 13:13
“Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.”
Along with other sins, Paul instructs believers not to engage in public indecency and sensuality.
26. 1 Corinthians 12:22-24
“On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.”
Paul urges honor and modesty regarding the sensitive parts of the body not readily visible.
27. Titus 2:3-5
“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
Older women are to teach biblical modesty and purity to younger women by example.
28. 1 Timothy 2:8-10
“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 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, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.”
Paul instructs both men and women to conduct themselves with modesty and self-control during times of prayer.
29. Micah 1:8
“Therefore I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.”
Micah uses nakedness as a metaphor for grief and mourning over sin.
30. Ezekiel 16:36-37
Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.
This passage speaks of the shame of exposure as punishment for idolatry and unfaithfulness.
In closing, modesty is a virtue valued throughout Scripture. Both Old and New Testaments encourage modesty in dress, conduct, and even private life, aiming to honor God, respect others, and promote sexual purity. The Bible calls all believers to exemplify the hidden, gentle beauty of a modest spirit.