What is real beauty? In the grocery checkout line, we have those magazines like Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Vogue where we see an idealized and artificial version of beauty. Then, on the other hand, we have those publications that try to tear down that beauty with terrible pictures and ugly stories. When it comes to God’s reality of beauty, His word deals little with outer appearances, but I Timothy 2:8-10 does talk about modest dress. In this, though, Paul is telling us to clothe ourselves in good deeds and not be distracted by our outer appearances.
I Peter 3:1-5 instructs us to have inner beauty more than outward. Our inward self should be our focus, not the attention we can draw toward ourselves with our clothes. Yes, Christ is supposed to be reflected in the way we dress – let’s not diminish that – but that is not the attention we are supposed to be seeking. We get very preoccupied with our clothes, especially in the context of worship, but we cannot let dress distract us from the true focus of our lives. God wants humble submission and does not want us to have unreasonably high attitudes of ourselves. In Leviticus 16:23-24, when the high priest entered the Holy Place, he physically clothed himself humbly, and our hearts should be so clothed in God’s service.
Galatians 3:26-29 tells us we are clothed in Christ when we are baptized into Him. Romans 13:11-14 tells us to put aside the deeds of darkness and to clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ and the armor of light. Ephesians 4:20-24 tells us to shed our old selves and to clothe ourselves in newness, and Colossians 3 then points out specifics – ridding ourselves of anger, wrath, slander, and obscenity while putting on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. When we are clothed in Christ, we are one. We are all wearing the same thing no matter what we have on outside.
Again, Galatians 3:26-29 reinforces that we put on the garments of Christ when we are baptized into Him. That is when we change from our clothes of sin into the garments of righteousness. Once we have those clothes, we cannot let them go out of style. We cannot become embarrassed by them. It is not a garment we take out and put away as it’s convenient. The beauty of Jesus is who we are at all times. That inward beauty should always be evident.
Christ Seen in Us
When we are clothed in Christ, then the way we treat our outer appearance and our conduct will naturally fall into line. If we are honest with ourselves, we know when we are presenting ourselves appropriately or inappropriately. It comes down to what you really want. Do you want to conform to the standards of the world, or will you conform to His standard? When other people see us, do they see Jesus?
We need to evaluate ourselves. Can others see Christ in me in how I act, in what I do, in how I present myself? Am I clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, or have I hidden Jesus in the back of my moral closet? The beauty of the world can be enticing, but our focus needs to be on our internal purity and our internal beauty. Where the magazines covers continue to show us the idealized beauty of the world, we should instead let others see the beauty of Jesus in us each and every day.
lesson by Ben Lanius
