John Calvin Commentary 1 Timothy 2:9

"In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment;" — 1 Timothy 2:9 (ASV)

In like manner also women. Just as he instructed men to lift up pure hands, so he now prescribes the manner in which women ought to prepare for praying properly. And there appears to be an implied contrast between those virtues which he recommends and the outward sanctification of the Jews; for he suggests that no place is unholy in itself, and that from any place both men and women may draw near to God, provided they are not excluded by their vices.

He intended to take the opportunity of correcting a vice to which women are almost always prone, and which perhaps at Ephesus, a city of vast wealth and extensive commerce, was especially prevalent. That vice is—excessive eagerness and desire to be richly dressed. He therefore wishes that their dress should be regulated by modesty and sobriety, for luxury and immoderate expense arise from a desire to make a display, either for the sake of pride or of departure from chastity.

And from this, we should derive the rule of moderation. Since dress is an indifferent matter (as all outward matters are), it is difficult to assign a fixed limit as to how far we should go. Magistrates may indeed make laws by which a passion for excessive spending is somewhat restrained; but godly teachers, whose business it is to guide consciences, should always keep in view the purpose of lawful use. This, at least, will be settled beyond all controversy: that everything in dress not in accordance with modesty and sobriety must be disapproved.

Yet we must always begin with the dispositions; for where debauchery reigns within, there will be no chastity, and where ambition reigns within, there will be no modesty in the outward dress. But because hypocrites commonly use every pretext they can find for concealing their wicked dispositions, we are compelled to point out what meets the eye.

It would be deeply wrong to deny the appropriateness of modesty as the distinctive and constant ornament of virtuous and chaste women, or the duty of all to observe moderation. Any attempt to excuse what is opposed to these virtues will be futile. He expressly censures certain kinds of excess, such as curled hair, jewels, and golden rings; not that the use of gold or jewels is explicitly forbidden, but that, wherever they are prominently displayed, these things are commonly accompanied by the other evils I have mentioned, and arise from ambition or from a lack of chastity as their source.