Answers: On Beauty and Godliness
I must admit, I started this study about five days ago, got really involved, and then got distracted. My mom wanted me to go on a walk with her, so I did, and lost all my momentum. The loss of focus has also happened to other awesome studies I've started, unfortunately.
I really do have a lot of ADHD tendencies, and I also get way more excitement out of starting something than finishing it. But I'm not here to make excuses. I'm here to show you all what I've found in regards to what God says about beauty and godliness.
All that being said, I'll just show you the verses I found, give you my short and extremely stimulating commentary, and you can make your own conclusions about the topic! How about that?
And I've always been pretty shy of sharing my opinions, lest anyone should feel pressured, so...don't go with what I say, but read the verses and ask God what He means.
Alrighty! Let's go!
*********************
Study on Beauty
First verse that came up when I searched the word "beauty" in my Bible on my phone. This is KJV, btw.
Exodus 28:40
And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty.
Interesting. So, in the early days of God's people, their priests wore special clothes that were for glory and beauty. How do you express glory through clothes?? Here's an idea:
"The glory of the attributes of God is expressed in His character." (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 115.1)
So could it be that the priests were to express their characters through their clothing? Hmmm.
But how does this relate to me, today? I'm not an Israelite (though I do have Jewish heritage on both sides of my family), and I am a college student - not a priest.
Who is a priest now, anyway?
Revelation 1:5
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 5:10
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Ok, so what I got from those verses is that those who are washed in Jesus' blood He makes to be priests of God. If I go to Jesus for cleansing from my sins, then He washes me and makes me a priest. This doesn't quite make total sense, because I know I'm not currently a king, or reigning on the earth for a thousand years, but I'll go with the priest idea. Maybe the rest of it just comes later.
So it would stand to reason that our clothing should be for glory and beauty, also. God's principles don't change, because they are based on His unchanging truth. (Malachi 3:6, John 14:6)
I have learned two things so far: I am a priest (given that I've been washed in Jesus' blood), and what I wear on the outside should show what I am on the inside. If Jesus lives in me and is washing my heart, then technically my clothes and appearance should show His character - His glory.
Interesting. It seems to me that if my appearance is not showing Who God is, than it indicates that He's not living inside my heart. (I hope I'm not going too far with this and making great leaps of logic)
What is beauty, then? (This is where things get really interesting)
1 Chronicles 16:29
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
In the ESV, an alternate way of saying "beauty of holiness" is "holy attire".
In the Hebrew the word translated as beauty means "beauty or honour ". The word holiness means - a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:--consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (X most) holy (X day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary.
I'm sorry if that looks weird to you. I copied and pasted it from Strong's Concordance and to be honest, I don't really understand the "X"s and the way things are worded. I'm kind of hoping you all will get it better than I do.
Anyway, David is calling us to reverence and worship God with the honor and beauty of holiness for Him.
What is holiness, anyway? (I wanted to keep this all mainly from the Bible, but the definition from the Spirit of Prophecy fit too perfectly to leave it out)
"Holiness is wholeness for God; it is the entire surrender of heart and life to the indwelling of the principles of heaven." The Desire of Ages, pg. 555.6
Beauty comes from holiness, and holiness comes from entire surrender or heart and life to God. So how I look on the outside can be changed by a completely internal decision?
Interesting. Here's another mention of the word "beauty" in the Bible.
2 Samuel 14:25
But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
I only copied this verse because it mentions after Absalom's beauty that he had no blemish. His beauty came from perfection? His perfection was physical, but it seems like the perfection of character, or holiness can achieve similar results...?
Psalms 45:10
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty:
for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him
God, the King, will desire the beauty in me that comes from listening to Him above anyone else.
Psalms 45:13
The king's daughter is all glorious within:
her clothing is of wrought gold.
When I am glorious on the inside, my outward clothing will also be beautiful.
Psalms 50:2
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God hath shined.
God shines the light of His character through the completeness of beauty (holiness and surrender) in His people.
Psalms 96:6
Honour and majesty are before him:
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Jesus has visible honor, majesty, strength, and beauty, and so will anyone who lets Him make them His sanctuary.
Proverbs 20:29
The glory of young men is their strength:
and the beauty of old men is the gray head.
Beauty - hadar (haw-dawr') magnificence, i.e. ornament or splendor:--beauty, comeliness, excellency, glorious, glory, goodly, honour, majesty. (again, from the Strong's Concordance)
So, unlike today's degraded connotations, beauty didn't used to be a sensual concept. It was higher and more awe-inspiring. It lifted the thoughts up towards God instead of down towards human desires.
Wow. Beauty is more than I thought it was.
That's why the devil is trying so hard to get people distracted with sensual beauty, so we are satisfied with that and do not try to look up for something better.
K, girls, check this out:
Proverbs 31:30
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
The word "beauty" in this verse is a different Hebrew word. It is yaphah (yaw-faw') which means to be bright, i.e. (by implication) beautiful; -- be beautiful, be (make self) fair, deck.
So this verse is saying that making myself beautiful is not going to end positively, because people's favor is deceitful anyway. What's more important is that I revere and honor God.
...and in doing that, I give myself wholly to Him, and He makes me beautiful because of His character showing through me in my appearance and clothing.
Alright! I could go on and on here, but this is a blog post, not a book. I've shared some pretty abstract principles here, and I'm really happy with that, because just like the Bible doesn't give a specific dress code for God's people, I don't think any human should either. Dress and modesty depends a lot on the culture that you live in, and who you are as a person. I'm not writing to tell you what to wear or what not to wear. That's between you and God.
However, I think the Bible gives some pretty awesome principles for how to be truly beautiful in the eyes of God Who created all the loveliest things in the universe.
To recap on what I've learned:
1. My appearance shows what (or who) is in my heart.
2. The only real beauty I can have (that is not based on changing human opinions) is in complete surrender to God's living and working inside my heart.
Real beauty doesn't come from mascara, accessories, cute outfits or perfect hair.
Case in point:
One summer day in 2014, I was canvassing a little neighborhood in a suburb of Lousiville, Ky. I remember ringing a doorbell and noticing my reflection in the glass storm door and laughing at how ridiculous I looked. I was dressed very plainly that day, and had gotten drenched by a sudden rain shower. My shirt had stretched out and was hanging on me quite hideously, still damp from the humidity. My wet hair, which I had tried to pull back, was frizzing out around my face, and I was literally shining with humidity and sweat.
I was not exactly what I would want to see knocking on my own front door. However, I was having a really fun time canvassing. I had just survived a rain storm, a bunch of rude people, and then done a whole neighborhood where every house bought books. I knew that God was with me, and I was enjoying being with Him, no matter how disgusting I felt.
When the lady came to her door and saw me, she broke into a smile, and also decided to buy the book I offered her. We had a short conversation, and as I left, she told me I was beautiful.
I thanked her, went out of earshot, and laughed. Obviously, there's more to beauty than meets the eye.
I'm sure it was Jesus she saw, not me.
HOWEVER. I'm not saying this to give license to people who want to be "efficient" and look like a train wreck, hoping their internal beauty will shine forth.
God is an orderly, clean, dignified Being. I should show those parts of His character in my appearance as well.
Anyway, that's what I found. Take it or leave it. Tell me what you've come up with if you've found something different. We are all together in the search for truth.
May you worship and give glory to God in the beauty of holiness.
I really do have a lot of ADHD tendencies, and I also get way more excitement out of starting something than finishing it. But I'm not here to make excuses. I'm here to show you all what I've found in regards to what God says about beauty and godliness.
All that being said, I'll just show you the verses I found, give you my short and extremely stimulating commentary, and you can make your own conclusions about the topic! How about that?
And I've always been pretty shy of sharing my opinions, lest anyone should feel pressured, so...don't go with what I say, but read the verses and ask God what He means.
Alrighty! Let's go!
*********************
Study on Beauty
First verse that came up when I searched the word "beauty" in my Bible on my phone. This is KJV, btw.
Exodus 28:40
And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty.
Interesting. So, in the early days of God's people, their priests wore special clothes that were for glory and beauty. How do you express glory through clothes?? Here's an idea:
"The glory of the attributes of God is expressed in His character." (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 115.1)
So could it be that the priests were to express their characters through their clothing? Hmmm.
But how does this relate to me, today? I'm not an Israelite (though I do have Jewish heritage on both sides of my family), and I am a college student - not a priest.
Who is a priest now, anyway?
Revelation 1:5
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 5:10
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Ok, so what I got from those verses is that those who are washed in Jesus' blood He makes to be priests of God. If I go to Jesus for cleansing from my sins, then He washes me and makes me a priest. This doesn't quite make total sense, because I know I'm not currently a king, or reigning on the earth for a thousand years, but I'll go with the priest idea. Maybe the rest of it just comes later.
So it would stand to reason that our clothing should be for glory and beauty, also. God's principles don't change, because they are based on His unchanging truth. (Malachi 3:6, John 14:6)
I have learned two things so far: I am a priest (given that I've been washed in Jesus' blood), and what I wear on the outside should show what I am on the inside. If Jesus lives in me and is washing my heart, then technically my clothes and appearance should show His character - His glory.
Interesting. It seems to me that if my appearance is not showing Who God is, than it indicates that He's not living inside my heart. (I hope I'm not going too far with this and making great leaps of logic)
What is beauty, then? (This is where things get really interesting)
1 Chronicles 16:29
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
In the ESV, an alternate way of saying "beauty of holiness" is "holy attire".
In the Hebrew the word translated as beauty means "beauty or honour ". The word holiness means - a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity:--consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (X most) holy (X day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary.
I'm sorry if that looks weird to you. I copied and pasted it from Strong's Concordance and to be honest, I don't really understand the "X"s and the way things are worded. I'm kind of hoping you all will get it better than I do.
Anyway, David is calling us to reverence and worship God with the honor and beauty of holiness for Him.
What is holiness, anyway? (I wanted to keep this all mainly from the Bible, but the definition from the Spirit of Prophecy fit too perfectly to leave it out)
"Holiness is wholeness for God; it is the entire surrender of heart and life to the indwelling of the principles of heaven." The Desire of Ages, pg. 555.6
Beauty comes from holiness, and holiness comes from entire surrender or heart and life to God. So how I look on the outside can be changed by a completely internal decision?
Interesting. Here's another mention of the word "beauty" in the Bible.
2 Samuel 14:25
But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
I only copied this verse because it mentions after Absalom's beauty that he had no blemish. His beauty came from perfection? His perfection was physical, but it seems like the perfection of character, or holiness can achieve similar results...?
Psalms 45:10
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty:
for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him
God, the King, will desire the beauty in me that comes from listening to Him above anyone else.
Psalms 45:13
The king's daughter is all glorious within:
her clothing is of wrought gold.
When I am glorious on the inside, my outward clothing will also be beautiful.
Psalms 50:2
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God hath shined.
God shines the light of His character through the completeness of beauty (holiness and surrender) in His people.
Psalms 96:6
Honour and majesty are before him:
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Jesus has visible honor, majesty, strength, and beauty, and so will anyone who lets Him make them His sanctuary.
Proverbs 20:29
The glory of young men is their strength:
and the beauty of old men is the gray head.
Beauty - hadar (haw-dawr') magnificence, i.e. ornament or splendor:--beauty, comeliness, excellency, glorious, glory, goodly, honour, majesty. (again, from the Strong's Concordance)
So, unlike today's degraded connotations, beauty didn't used to be a sensual concept. It was higher and more awe-inspiring. It lifted the thoughts up towards God instead of down towards human desires.
Wow. Beauty is more than I thought it was.
That's why the devil is trying so hard to get people distracted with sensual beauty, so we are satisfied with that and do not try to look up for something better.
K, girls, check this out:
Proverbs 31:30
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
The word "beauty" in this verse is a different Hebrew word. It is yaphah (yaw-faw') which means to be bright, i.e. (by implication) beautiful; -- be beautiful, be (make self) fair, deck.
So this verse is saying that making myself beautiful is not going to end positively, because people's favor is deceitful anyway. What's more important is that I revere and honor God.
...and in doing that, I give myself wholly to Him, and He makes me beautiful because of His character showing through me in my appearance and clothing.
Alright! I could go on and on here, but this is a blog post, not a book. I've shared some pretty abstract principles here, and I'm really happy with that, because just like the Bible doesn't give a specific dress code for God's people, I don't think any human should either. Dress and modesty depends a lot on the culture that you live in, and who you are as a person. I'm not writing to tell you what to wear or what not to wear. That's between you and God.
However, I think the Bible gives some pretty awesome principles for how to be truly beautiful in the eyes of God Who created all the loveliest things in the universe.
To recap on what I've learned:
1. My appearance shows what (or who) is in my heart.
2. The only real beauty I can have (that is not based on changing human opinions) is in complete surrender to God's living and working inside my heart.
Real beauty doesn't come from mascara, accessories, cute outfits or perfect hair.
Case in point:
One summer day in 2014, I was canvassing a little neighborhood in a suburb of Lousiville, Ky. I remember ringing a doorbell and noticing my reflection in the glass storm door and laughing at how ridiculous I looked. I was dressed very plainly that day, and had gotten drenched by a sudden rain shower. My shirt had stretched out and was hanging on me quite hideously, still damp from the humidity. My wet hair, which I had tried to pull back, was frizzing out around my face, and I was literally shining with humidity and sweat.
I was not exactly what I would want to see knocking on my own front door. However, I was having a really fun time canvassing. I had just survived a rain storm, a bunch of rude people, and then done a whole neighborhood where every house bought books. I knew that God was with me, and I was enjoying being with Him, no matter how disgusting I felt.
When the lady came to her door and saw me, she broke into a smile, and also decided to buy the book I offered her. We had a short conversation, and as I left, she told me I was beautiful.
I thanked her, went out of earshot, and laughed. Obviously, there's more to beauty than meets the eye.
I'm sure it was Jesus she saw, not me.
HOWEVER. I'm not saying this to give license to people who want to be "efficient" and look like a train wreck, hoping their internal beauty will shine forth.
God is an orderly, clean, dignified Being. I should show those parts of His character in my appearance as well.
Anyway, that's what I found. Take it or leave it. Tell me what you've come up with if you've found something different. We are all together in the search for truth.
May you worship and give glory to God in the beauty of holiness.
Love it! I might add on a little bit to your definition of God at the end though. ;) We see in Revelation (and Isaiah, and wherever else people attempt to describe Him) that God is not only orderly, clean, and dignified, but radiant and, quite honestly, even extravagant. I'm not saying we should take things to extremes, and the inside is always what comes first, but even "visual" beauty is definitely something God loves and IS! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Briana! I like your addition. I definitely agree that God is beautiful Himself, and that He likes for us to look beautiful too! That's a really important part of showing God to others. The Spirit of Prophecy has a lot to say on the topic in more depth, also.
ReplyDelete