Recently, I had the unhappy experience of sitting in church and having an immodestly1 dressed woman come sit somewhat nearby on the same pew that I was sitting. Although she was not dressed appropriately, she was friendly, as was her husband who sat on the other side of her.
Her sitting near me dressed as she was created internal struggle for me as I had to fight to keep my thoughts right. Her presence was a considerable distraction to me as I tried to attend to the message being preached.
After the service, I greeted both of them and tried to be friendly. I especially did so because I thought that they might be unbelievers who had come to visit the church that I was in that Sunday.
Her attire made it difficult to carry on a conversation with her, but God gave me grace to extend myself to her and her husband. I learned from talking to them that she had grown up in a solid Christian church.
I have no doubt in my mind that this professing Christian woman was not clueless about how her wearing immodest clothing would affect men who see her. In spite of her being a really nice person, it was wrong for her to dress that way in public—especially in the context of a church service (Rom. 13:10, 14; 14:21; 1 Cor. 10:32)!
It is bad enough that we are continually assaulted by indecently dressed women in public places like Walmart (especially many of their cashiers). To have a similar experience in church, however, is so much worse!
Perhaps, godly women in churches should discreetly start passing out shawls in such situations so that divine worship is not hindered and the testimony of the gospel is properly maintained (1 Tim. 2:9).
1 In fact, she was the one of the most immodestly dressed women that I have ever encountered in a church service.
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Charles and I have discussed this many times. The church we had previously attended had several choir members who wore low neck blouses which were very distracting to several of the men. No one in leadership was willing to address the issue for fear of offending others. The same was true of short skirts on those doing special music on the platform. Fortunately this has not been an issue so far at the church we are now attending.
I thank God that this kind of situation is hardly ever a problem at my church as well!