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*sigh* Maybe you're right. I don't know...
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Let God be true and every man a liar. It doesn't matter if I'm right or not. To your own Master you will rise or fall.
But I want you to consider something.
This goes WELL beyond just you and your husband.
Let us say you take a stand, make up your mind, and change your appearance and adornment to match your new-found, personally held convictions.
Your husband is going to have to deal with it, either way. Hopefully you and he don't fight and damage your marriage in the process.
Then what? Then comes a call from the pastor. Now your husband and the pastor are going to have a meeting regarding you and the change that you have brought about.
Your husband is going to have to choose between defending you and your right to do as you please, or siding with the pastor. Consequences and fallout will ensue no matter what.
You will either stay in that assembly, and suffer any number of possible situations that will now come your way, or maybe leave.
If you stay, eventually you or your husband will feel the need to defend why you're doing what you're doing. It will become public. You will hope for a sympathetic ear. If one is found, it will likely be a female, possibly married.
Your statements on the matter will have an effect on any ears willing to listen. They will either blast you or receive you.
It's going to get sticky, no matter what.
If received, now another woman in the church is going to start questioning why she dresses the way she does. If married, she's going to question her husband's stance on standards. Now another couple will find themselves exactly where you and your husband are now.
And who knows? Maybe you will start a revolution, and the entire local assembly will come to believe what you believe.
Any maybe schism and heartache will be all that will ensue.
And maybe nothing so drastic will occur. And maybe something much worse and unexpected will occur.
Are you prepared for the fall-out you and no one else, but YOU, will have caused your entire church?
And now ask yourself:
Still think this is from God?
Now consider this:
You do nothing. You change nothing. You hold a privately held, Scripturally accurate view that outward adornment and clothing are not the litmus test of your salvation, and have no bearing on heaven or hell (Yes, I said it!).
What ensues?
Nothing at all. You have embraced truth as you see it, and still haven't been the source of one single problem in the entire church. You marriage is sound and goes on being the happy, blessed union God intends for it to be, and none are the wiser.
Romans 14:22,
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22. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
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While talking about dietary choices, the principle still applies. Have what you believe regarding standards to yourself before God. You don't have to make anything you believe on this matter public. You need not change a thing.
If everyone else in your local assembly is weak in this area, and you're the only one strong enough to stand firm that a woman may dress in something else besides skirts and dresses, or cut her hair, and etc. Fine. Keep it to yourself, but for the sake of your marriage and your church, do not act.
Romans 8:33,
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33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
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Holding a different view and keeping it to yourself will keep you blameless. But possibly causing division and distress in the church, so that the pastor, and any number of wives and husbands become affected, is a charge that CAN be put to your account.
Since you know that none of this is sinful and has no bearing on your salvation, there is no reason to push the matter forward. In this, you must put everyone else first.
As much as the meat eater must put the vegan first. As much as the Gentile, in his liberty, must put the Jew still captive in his mind to the law, first. As much as the person who doesn't care if food was offered to idols the person who worries over such things.
All things may be lawful to you. But not all things are expedient.
FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY:
1 Corinthians 8, amended,
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7. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the [standards] unto this hour [dress themselves] as a thing [demanded by the church]; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
8. But [clothing] commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we [dress a certain way], are we the better; neither, if we [dress not a certain way], are we the worse.
9. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.
10. For if any man see thee which hast knowledge [dressing differently than the standard], shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to [dress themselves likewise];
11. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
12. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
13. Wherefore, if [clothing and outward adornment] make my brother to offend, I will [not dress differently than the standards of the church] while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
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Now, if in time, your husband's views change, and he and you come into agreement, then party on. But do not let your new-found liberty negatively affect the church.
I was addressing the entire discussion of the thread.
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