Wordless Beauty
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A person’s true adornment comes from within, not from outside.
In 2019, the market size of the cosmetic industry was valued at $380.2 billion. By 2027, the projected value of the cosmetic industry is predicted to reach $463.5 billion globally (alliedmarketresearch.com, Feb. 2021).
What do these numbers reveal? That the world values external beauty. That men and women care about their external appearance. That businesses have done a fine job of developing a market for their goods, and convincing people that God’s beauty can be improved.
The truth is no amount of cosmetics, ornamentation or decoration can improve upon the heart of a person, that God has created. Cosmetics only run skin deep.
The word “cosmetics” is derived from the word “kosmos”, which has to do with harmony and order, expressed in the orderly universe in which we live. Are we saying that cosmetics bring harmony and order to our universe? That is indeed what the cosmetic industry will tempt, and attempt, to make us believe.
According to the Apostle Peter, Jesus would have us know that outward adornment is no substitute for a heart devoted to Christ.
In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live when they observe your pure, reverent lives.
Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes. Instead, it should consist of what is inside the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes.
For in the past, the holy women who put their hope in God also beautified themselves in this way, submitting to their own husbands, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children when you do what is good and are not frightened by anything alarming.
Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with an understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
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What is of the greatest value to God in a person, male or female? The beauty of one’s heart; the devotion of one’s heart to Jesus Christ.
Peter has been talking about living as the elect people of God and what posture we are to assume living in the world and times that we find ourselves in. The call to devotion to God is to incorportate every facet of our lives because of the love of Christ and what He accomplished by dying on the cross for you and me. By dying on the cross and paying for the darkness of our hearts, Jesus made a repair that far surpasses, and lasts, than any cosmetic treatment can hope to cover. The “Living Hope” and love of Jesus Christ should make us living stones that submit to the loving lead of our eternal lover that makes us far more beautiful than any make-up ever could. When we embrace and obey the way of Jesus, our hearts transform, making us more beautiful and attractive, than any hairstyle, clothing or ornamentation ever could accomplish.
Peter’s message is to both wives and husbands, male and female, much like the Apostle Paul’s to the Ephesians: upright character, fostered and submitted to in Jesus, will produce behaviors that please God and bring harmony into one’s relationships, especially between a married man and woman.
Peter is specifically addressing, Christian woman who marry unbelieving husbands. There were Christian woman who married unbelieving men during Jesus’ time, this is nothing new, and will be nothing new going forward, with Christian men and women. How should you live with your non-believing spouse? As the servant submits to the master in humility, one should live humbly with and before their non-believing spouse “so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live when they observe your pure, reverent lives” (v.1b-2). Peter effectively says, an unbelieving spouse may be won over by the devotion of your reverence for God. Peter does not say by do’s and don’ts, but by the imperishable, uncorruptable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of the most value to God (v.4).
To be gentle is not to suggest to be timid or live with weakness of person or disposition, but to live meekly, mildly and/or humbly. It is to live with an inner grace of the soul, of the heart, toward another, like Jesus has toward His creation. To live with, and give, forgiveness and favor as Jesus has given us forgiveness and favor. Jesus said, “Blessed are the gentle (the meek), for they will inherit the earth” (Mt. 5:5). When we express gentleness, we express Christ and model our heritage and our inheritance. We express and model our new birth and living hope in Jesus (1 Peter 1:4).
God looks equally upon one with favor who lives with a quiet spirit meaning one that is tranquil and still; disposed to peace or live peacably. This quiet spirit does not come naturally, but is received and taught through Jesus (Heb 12:11; James 3:17).
No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy.
Isaiah 66:2 (HCSB)
This is the Lord’s declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at My word.
Ask yourselves this question this morning brother and sisters: How is my make-up this morning? How is my heart? Cosmetics fade and run, but a heart devoted to God never runs dry (Prov. 4:23).
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
One’s beauty is found in the hidden person of the heart.
The Beauty of Sarah (Gen. 12:10-20; 18:12; 20:1-18)
Women devoted to Christ, expressed their hope and beauty by humbling themselves to their own husbands, “just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” (v.5-6). In the culture of that time, women were nothing more than property and their duty was to bear children. In many parts of the world, this is still the case, especially in Isalm. A Muslim man will quite often marry another woman, especially if the first is unable to bear him a son. This is not illegal, it is allowed and a cultural and sociatal norm. For a woman to call her husband lord or master is to give him respect and acknowledge his position in society and in the home.
Sarah was an extraordinary woman, as well exceptionally beautiful the Bible records (Gen 12:11; 20). She was courted and received by two Kings: Pharoah and King Abimelech of Gerar. Abraham used Sarah’s beauty to his advantage by presenting her as his sister in order to save his life (Gen 12:13; 20:11). What kind of man would ask his wife to pretend to be his sister to save his own skin? How beautiful was Sarah’s heart in that she willingly submitted to her husband Abraham’s request, not once, but twice. God brought plague and a curse of closed wombs down upon each King, and their households, because they took Sarah to be their wife (Gen 12:17; 20:17-18). The curious thing is that God was brought glory in both incidences because both Kings, and their households, listened to and acknowledge God, because of the curses brought down upon them.
What astounds us is how could Sarah submit to the Abraham’s request. Peter says, to both husbands and wives, “in the same way” (v.1: 7). Meaning, in the same way that slaves submit to their masters, as Jesus submitted to the Father, regardless of treatment, a wife and husband are to honor one another. This is the inner beauty of Sarah and the expectation God has for each one of us. Husbands are called to live with their wives understanding, knowing, of their weaker nature (physically, as a vessel) and showing honor (respect) to them as coheirs of the grace of Jesus, the favor of God (v.7). One mistake in the garden does not condemn an orientation for life, remember Adam had a choice as well men. Everything a woman and man do is to be done out of respect for one another as the favored, elect, of God; the created of God.
Just as unbelieving husbands looked upon the lives of their believing wives as a witness to Christ; anyone may be watching you to see what a life devoted to Christ looks like. What is your witness to Christ look like? Like Sarah’s? A person’s wordless beauty must rely on attractive behavior rather than on physical beauty because physical beauty fades, but Christ does not.
How is your beauty? Is it only skin deep or Christ deep?