MinTheGap, I agree that bicycle pants or other clothing that calls attention to a guys genitalia is probably not a good example for Christ. I also agree that if a man knows that not wearing his shirt around a certain female causes her to stumble, by all means he should avoid doing so. This is scriptural as is evidenced by the passages cited above.

At the same time I think we also need to be extremely careful about coming to conclusions that “Since the bible says that females should do this, clearly males also should”. There are a lot of passages directed to females on what they should wear. There are not so many passages that talk about what a male should wear (The only thing that comes to mind is not dressing in the likeness of a female).

Why is this? Is it because God doesn’t care and therefore males should be allowed to walk around barely clothed? I don’t think so. At the same time we must remember that while male and female were created equal, we were created differently. Today’s society is forever trying to tell us we are all the same. This is a lie from the enemy.

As a result of these differences what stumbles us is different. From the beginning one of man’s weaknesses was the woman. This is not to say that a woman can’t lust after a man, clearly she can. At the same time when you look through the bible you see many warnings about males lusting after females. I do not know of any passage that warns of females lusting after males.

Is there significance in the fact there is a lot of directions to females on what they should wear AND there is a lot of direction to males about being careful of lusting, but there are not instructions the opposite way? I think so. This is not to say that either sex should dress in a fashion as to attempt to illicit a sexual thought from the other gender. At the same time I think that the level at which males and females are called to be careful is different.

E.G. I think its perfectly appropriate for a bunch of guys to play shirts and skins in a place where they might be seen by a female. I would not say it was appropriate for a female to play in a sports bra in a place where they might be seen by a male.

I’m tempted to take this a step further and state its probably not appropriate for a female to play in a sports bra in a public place even if there was no chance of a male audience. Why this last bit? Because while it can be inferred that a woman’s modest dress if for the male, nowhere is there a command of simply “while you are around men”. I think there is a demeanor of a godly woman that is to be carried regardless of the gender of the audience. This last bit is definitely a grey area.

I guess, in general, we stereotypically think guys looking to lust rather than girls, but you’d know better than I if that’s true. To some extent, I think it’s ingrained, and yet it’s probably also learned.

Thanks for pointing this out. I may have to do a follow up!