13 Bible Verses About Modesty

1 Timothy 2:9-10

“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”

Reflection: Paul is writing to Timothy about conduct when the church gathers to pray; verse 8 asks the men to pray “without anger or disputing”, and verse 9 turns to the women. “Modestly” translates kosmios, well-arranged or seemly; “decency” is aidos, a sense of shame or modesty; and “propriety” is sophrosyne, soundness of mind, which returns in verse 15. The items Paul names are elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls and expensive clothes, and the adornment he asks for instead is good deeds.

1 Peter 3:3-4

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Reflection: Peter addresses wives, some of them married to husbands who “do not believe the word” and who may be won over “without words” by “the purity and reverence of your lives” (3:1-2). His list of outward adornment matches Paul’s: hairstyles, gold jewelry, fine clothes. Verses 5 and 6 name the example he has in mind, “the holy women of the past who put their hope in God”, Sarah among them.

Deuteronomy 22:5

“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”

Reflection: The law sits among others on everyday matters: returning a neighbor’s lost ox or cloak (22:1-3), sparing a mother bird (22:6-7), building a parapet on a roof (22:8). It concerns the difference between men’s and women’s clothing rather than how much of the body clothing covers, and it states its reason: “the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”

Proverbs 31:30

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Reflection: The verse belongs to the poem that closes Proverbs, in praise of a wife of noble character. Earlier the poem says “She is clothed with strength and dignity” (31:25). Verse 30 sets charm and beauty, which pass, against the fear of the Lord, and verse 31 adds her work: “let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”

1 Samuel 16:7

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”

Reflection: God sent Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as king. When Samuel saw the eldest, Eliab, he assumed this was the Lord’s anointed, and the Lord’s reply rejects Eliab and gives the reason. The son chosen, David, was the youngest, called in from tending the sheep, and verse 12 describes him as having “a fine appearance and handsome features”.

Genesis 3:21

“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

Reflection: Before the fall, “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (2:25). Once they had eaten, “they realized they were naked” and sewed fig leaves together (3:7), and Adam told God he hid because “I was afraid because I was naked” (3:10). In verse 21 God himself makes garments of skin and clothes them before sending them out of the garden.

1 Corinthians 12:23

“And the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty.”

Reflection: Paul is describing the church as one body with many parts, and he draws on how people treat the parts of the human body they consider unpresentable. The Greek word the NIV renders “modesty” is euschemosyne, comeliness. Verse 25 gives the purpose of the comparison: God gave greater honor to the parts that lacked it “so that there should be no division in the body”.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

Reflection: Paul quotes the Corinthian slogan “I have the right to do anything” (6:12) and answers that “the body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord” (6:13). He then warns against uniting with a prostitute (6:15-16), and in these verses adds that the Holy Spirit lives in the body. The command “honor God with your bodies” closes that argument about sexual conduct.

Romans 13:13-14

“Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”

Reflection: Paul pictures the night as nearly over and tells the church in Rome to live as people already in daylight (13:12). “Behave decently” is set against carousing, drunkenness, sexual immorality and debauchery, and the clothing he prescribes is “the Lord Jesus Christ” himself.

Titus 2:11-14

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Reflection: The “self-controlled” of verse 12 comes from the same Greek family as sophrosyne in 1 Timothy 2:9, and Paul has already asked Titus to teach older women to urge younger women “to be self-controlled and pure” (2:5) and to encourage young men to be self-controlled (2:6). Here the teacher is the grace of God itself, and the sentence ends with a people “eager to do what is good”.

Romans 12:3

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

Reflection: Two verses earlier Paul asks the Romans to offer their bodies “as a living sacrifice” (12:1). Here he turns to how they think of themselves. “Sober judgment” translates sophroneo, which Thayer’s lexicon defines in this verse as putting “a moderate estimate upon oneself”, the opposite of thinking of oneself “more highly than you ought”.

Philippians 2:3-4

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Reflection: Paul asks the Philippians to be “like-minded” (2:2), and the verses that follow set out Christ Jesus, who “made himself nothing” (2:7), as the pattern. Selfish ambition and vain conceit are the opposite of what he asks: valuing others above oneself and looking to their interests.

Colossians 3:12

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Reflection: Paul uses the language of clothing for character. The Colossians have “taken off” the old self and “put on the new self” (3:9-10), and what they are to wear is compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, with love put on over all of them (3:14).