Outward Holiness - Standards

Standards

  • Modest clothing (1 Tim. 2:9), which is defined as loose covering from the neck to below the knee in all normal body postures (Exod. 20:26; 28:42-43). This would also include the strict prohibition of mixed bathing or public swimming.
  • No use of jewelry or ornaments of gold, silver, and jewels for personal adornment (1 Tim. 2:9-10; 1 Pet. 3:1-6); some denominations will only allow the use of a wedding band or ring.
  • A distinction of the sexes in clothing, forbidding such style as slacks and pant suits for women (Deut. 22:5).
  • Christian men are to wear their hair short and Christian women must never cut their hair, wearing it long (1 Cor. 11:14-15).

Outward Holiness can also include the following which reveal an inward character:

  • Impeccable honesty (Prov. 11:1; Rom. 12:7)
  • Civil obedience (Rom. 13:1-7)
  • Subjection to parental authority (Eph. 6:1)
  • Submission to the spiritual authority (Heb. 13:17)
  • No profanity or vulgar joking (Eph. 4:29; 5:4; Col. 3:8)

Outward Holiness is almost extinct in theology and practice. Assemblies of God says, " a Christian has strong convictions against wearing jewelry, that conviction should be honored." Denominations that still practice Outward Holiness are Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, Church of God, Church of God of Prophecy, Church of God (Restoration), International Pentecostal Holiness Church (few), The Apostolic Faith Church, United Pentecostal Church (oneness), Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ, Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Wesleyan Holiness, True Jesus Church, Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, Independent Fundamental Baptist, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (Sabbatarian), Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus (Spanish oneness), Netherlands Reformed Congregations, Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, New Testament Christian Churches of America, House of Prayer Christian Church, Independent Holiness Church (Canada), Calvary Holiness Church, Charity Christian Fellowship, and the Pentecostal Fire-Baptized Holiness Church.

Read more about this topic:  Outward Holiness

Famous quotes containing the word standards:

    “Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.”
    —José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)

    “With his brows knit, his mind made up, his will resolved and resistless, he advances, crashing his way through the host of weak, half-formed, dilettante opinions, honest and dishonest ways of thinking, with their standards raised, sentimentalities and conjectures, and tramples them all into dust. See how he prevails; you don’t even hear the groans of the wounded and dying.”
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    “The home is a woman’s natural background.... From the beginning I tried to have the policy of the store reflect as nearly as it was possible in the commercial world, those standards of comfort and grace which are apparent in a lovely home.”
    —Hortense Odlum (1892–?)