Are Christian Woman Permitted to Wear Shorts, Slacks or Trousers?
1) Direct answer
No. A Christian woman should not wear shorts, slacks, or trousers. She should dress in modest, feminine apparel that does not expose the thigh and does not borrow the man’s garment.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Deuteronomy 22:5: “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man… for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD.” Pants/trousers are the man’s garment. When a woman takes that pattern to herself, God calls it an abomination, not a style choice.
- 1 Timothy 2:9: “Women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety.” Modest apparel means a decent, humble, and covered manner of dress—loose, not form-fitting; feminine, not masculine.
- Exodus 28:42: “Make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach.” God defined the thigh as part of nakedness that must be covered. Shorts expose the thigh—so they expose nakedness.
- Isaiah 47:2–3: “Make bare the leg, uncover the thigh… Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.” Uncovered thigh equals uncovered nakedness.
- 1 Corinthians 11:3–15: God set a visible order and distinction between male and female. Our outward appearance should honor that headship order, not blur it.
- Matthew 5:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7: We are to walk in holiness and not stir lust. Immodest, tight, or revealing clothing defrauds others.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- God made male and female distinct. Clothing is part of that testimony. When a woman puts on a man’s garment (trousers), the line God drew is crossed. Calling them “women’s slacks” doesn’t change what they pertain to or the way they shape and display the body.
- Shorts reveal the thigh. The Bible calls that nakedness. No believer needs a new rule—just obey the plain Word.
- “Culture changed.” Did God’s Word change? If the Scripture still says it, then the disciple still does it.
- Holiness is not bondage; it is freedom to please the Lord. The Holy Spirit will never lead a woman to dress in a way that denies modesty or blurs the sexes.
Practical counsel
- Choose modest, feminine dresses or skirts that fall well below the knee, not tight, not sheer, not split to reveal the leg when walking or sitting.
- For work or weather, add layers underneath, but keep a modest, feminine covering outwardly. There is always a way to honor God without violating His Word.
Short reinforcement
Now notice, this is not about legalism; it’s about love and obedience. The Bible says what it says. A Christian woman, led by the Spirit, will gladly keep the distinction of the sexes and walk in modesty. That’s the testimony of a heart sanctified unto the Lord.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Expectancy
52-0817A §34
And listen, this is no sin. Till that time, I hadn't--didn't have a suit of clothes. I wouldn't even let them take an offering for me. That's right. Just... I just lived by what people sent me by the mail. And my brother, one of my single brothers, had been in a wreck with an old brown suit. You remember, you people from Arkansas, I had it on: a coat of one kind, trousers of another. The trousers... First, when we started out, he'd had a wreck, he tore the pocket off like this in the car, and he cut it down the sid...
And knoweth it not
65-0815 §28
Now, this Methodist woman would not do a thing like that. No, indeedy. She's a decent woman. And another thing, she would not touch a bit of whisky, because the Methodist church ... 90% of their program is prohibition against whisky, against whisky. So, they got a prohibition program, and them people of that Methodist church don't live no higher than that church teaches. But this same woman, this Methodist woman goes out in the evening with her husband, wearing shorts on Sunday after Sunday school, she cuts her hai...
Influence
63-0803E §52
And you women with short-bobbed hair, do you know what? It's becoming to you that you let your hair grow out and act like a lady. You that wear shorts, take them off, put on dresses. It's becoming to you that you act like Christians. That's right, 'cause the Bible said that's wrong. A woman shouldn't do that. And you men that's smoking cigarettes---that's unbecoming. And you men that's letting your wives do that, and then say you're sons of God? A man... The great vow that's took at the marriage ceremony---love, ho...
How the Angel came to me, and His commission
55-0117 §27
So that next morning when I got in there... I slept in the field all night that night, and pressed my trousers between the two Ford seats, you know, and I ... old seersucker trousers, little T-shirt, you know. So, the next morning I went to the meeting, my little T-shirt on. I'd went... I didn't have but three dollars, and I had to get enough gasoline to get home on. And I got me some rolls, kind of old, you know, but it was all right. I got to a hydrant, got me a glass of water, you know, and they were pretty good...
The uncertain sound
60-1218 §172
And we American women, you church members... (I'm not talking so much of you here. This is tapes. you know.) You church members out there, wearing shorts, and carrying on the way you are, every year you take a little bit off. And then you have shorts, and then shorty shorts, and then shorty shorts, and shorty shorts and all like that. Well, you poor deluded church member, you're worse than they are in Africa. When them women stood right there that day, when thirty thousand received Christ as their personal Saviour...