The beauty that is most becoming to us, and that is most precious to Jesus, is ours for the asking.
What is true beauty? Our society's obsession with beauty has made the cosmetic industry a multimillion dollar business, one of the largest in America. It appeals to our desire to be beautiful and demands that we conform to its criteria. But are society's dictates a safe guide for the Christian?
The dictionary defines beauty as a quality that gives pleasure to the senses or that pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. Thus according to this definition, beauty may appeal to the physical, the moral, and the spiritual senses.
God loves beauty; He created it. But evidently, according to Scripture, mere physical beauty can be hazardous. Lucifer, the most beautiful of God's created beings, allowed his physical beauty to become his downfall (see Ezek 28:12-15). Warns the wise man, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain" (Prov 31:30). God warns of the dangers and temptations that mere physical beauty can present, but He invites us to enjoy true beauty, the beauty of soul that is beyond corruption.
An Inner Quality
New Testament writers emphasize this inner beauty that is above physical beauty. God is the one source of true beauty, so He alone can tell us how to obtain it.
Paul in Colossians 3 suggests that, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, we "put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (v. 12). The word "put on" in the original is commonly used for putting on a garment. In the preceding verses Paul has suggested that we "put off" the old man, the old nature that is manifested in such things as fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. So by implication when Paul says we should "put on" tender mercies and the other virtues, he is suggesting that as Christians we should adorn ourselves not with worldly ways, customs, attire, attitudes, feelings and behavior, but by putting on the new man, the new nature created in Christ Jesus, whose hallmark is humility.
Jesus' Emphasis and Example
Why do Paul and Peter place so much emphasis on humility and submission? Because they had received such an emphasis fresh from the Lord. If there is any theme that the gospel writers develop more than another, it is Jesus' teaching on humility. Yet humility is sadly neglected by many modern Christians, apparently because it is not palatable. It goes against the grain of our proud selfish natures. Even Christ's disciples had a hard time with it.
While the followers of Jesus were impatient for Him to inaugurate His new kingdom, He was trying to prepare them for humiliation and suffering. While they vied for position and prestige, He spoke of denying oneself and taking up the cross. While they sought to rule others and exalt themselves, He taught servanthood as the essence of true greatness. And He practiced it. (See Luke 9:22-24; Matt 10:38; 23:11-12; Mark 9:35).
The people of Christ's time, even His followers, found humility difficult to accept, let alone practice. The rich young ruler turned his back on the greatest opportunity of his life because he could not accept humility. One of Christ's disciples betrayed Him because he believed His "humility approach" to be naive and unworkable. How could Christ ascend the throne and overcome the Romans if He refused to assert Himself? Yet Jesus insisted that only in sharing His yoke would they find rest for their souls. And only in Christ-like humility would they discover true beauty.
Reminders
Since humility has never appealed to the selfish heart, it should not surprise us that our hedonistic society finds it most objectionable. Nor has the church treated it much better. But knowing the weakness of our humanity, Jesus gave us a specific command to remind us of His humility, and another to remind us of our need of it.
The first reminder is Jesus' command to wash one another's feet. Commemorating His humility in this way strikes at the very root of our proud natures. This is apparently the reason most Christians have always ignored it as culturally outmoded and unacceptable. Christ's other, and even less popular, reminder of humility is the New Testament prohibition against everything that panders to pride and militates against the Christian virtue of humility. Most Christians throughout church history have ignored this reminder too.
Paul states expressly that women are to adorn themselves with modest apparel, with propriety and moderation; not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or costly clothing, "but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works" (1 Tim 2:9). Peter affirms that the true beauty which God values must find a home in the "inmost centre of your being, with its imperishable ornament, a gentle, quiet spirit" (1 Pet 3:3, 4 NEB).
Sign of Submission
In the Old Testament, removing one's adornment was a sign of submission. When Jacob led a revival, his family members gave him their earrings and jewelry along with the idols and foreign gods they had brought along with them. In this way they showed that they would serve God alone. Jacob buried all these things under a tree at Bethel before they journeyed on (Gen 35:1-4).
Hosea describes adulterous Israel as adorning herself with earrings and jewelry when she forgot God and went after other lovers. These adornments were outward evidences of pride, rebellion, and unfaithfulness to God (Hosea 2:13).
Is it possible that the trend in many churches today to ignore these examples and admonitions is a symptom of a much deeper problem, the problem Israel had long ago, a problem that really started when Lucifer corrupted his beauty by pride and rebellion?
Back to Primitive Godliness?
God's modern prophet suggests that before Jesus comes again there will be a revival of primitive godliness among us such as has not been seen since the days of the early church (The Great Controversy, p. 464). So we want to know, How did the best of the early Christians respond to God's instructions about humility?
Tertullian in the early third century reminded Christians that they might well pass the remainder of their days in iron rather than in gold. Since the "stole of martyrdom" was being prepared for them, he urged them to seek the cosmetics and adornment of the apostles and prophets: whiteness from simplicity, rosy hues from chastity, the paint of modesty for the eyes and of silence for the lips, for the ears the Word of God, and for the neck the yoke of Christ. Their clothing was to be the silk of honesty and the fine linen of righteousness.
Clement of Alexandria, writing a little later, pointed out that "in the soul alone are beauty and deformity shown." He encouraged women to adopt simplicity, wearing the collars and necklaces of modesty, and chastity as the chains which God forges.
Do these Principles Still Apply?
If the stand of the Seventh-day Adventist church on the issue of adornment is merely a cultural carry-over from the Victorian era, we may safely neglect it. But if the practices and teachings of the apostles and of the early church are based on clear Scriptural principles, dare we defy them, heedless of the danger to our souls and the disaster to our church?
In the light of Scriptural principles, the artificial adornings—human substitutes for real beauty—are tell-tale evidences of a hidden vice, the very pride that led to the fall of the human race. Pride invites rebellion, an atmosphere in which the humility of Jesus cannot abide.
Humility, the Real Issue
The real issue then is not cultural but theological and spiritual. Humility is the basis of any true relationship of the creature to his Creator. As pride is the root of sin and rebellion, so only as we come into a relationship of submission to the Creator, in an attitude of humility, can we be restored to God's original purpose for us. This is what Jesus meant when He said that whoever wants to be exalted must be humbled. Whoever wants to live must die. Whoever wants to be first must be last. Whoever wants to be beautiful must possess the inner virtue of Christ-like humility through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' Invitation
A tragic auto accident left a woman with a terribly disfigured face. For days neither the doctor nor her husband would allow her to look into a mirror. When they could deny her no longer, shock and despair overwhelmed her. She longed for a word of acceptance or assurance but dared not hope for it. Then she felt her husband's strong arm embracing her and heard his tender reassurance, "You are still beautiful to me".
God sees the ugly scars that sin has wrought in us. He sees the deformity, the depravity that no human cosmetic can remedy. But when we allow Him, He puts His loving arms around us and says tenderly, "If only you will let me, I will give you the inner beauty of a meek and quiet spirit, the grace of humility which I alone can give and which no bauble or potion can emulate. The beauty that is most precious to Me and most becoming to you is yours for the asking".