On Display

“As we come to understand what real internal beauty is and how it is attained biblically, we begin to understand more and more the heart behind the Apostle Paul’s caution to Christian women to focus on internal growth. So often, as women, we find it easy to focus on appearance, whether physical or spiritual, and in doing so, neglect the necessity to dwell in Christ. The more we as women find our identity in attaching ourselves to the Vine (Jesus), the more our internal beauty can shine forth through us, the branches.

Therefore, internal beauty is simply found in resting, resting in the work that Christ has already accomplished on our behalf and allowing His beauty and perfection to shine through us.

I think we can all agree on this so far. This concept is nothing radical, in that we can understand the deception of our own hearts, the ugliness of the internal sin into which we are born, and the necessity of Christ to remove our hearts of stone and replace them with beautiful hearts of flesh.

However, this is where I begin to step on toes and challenge classical thinking. As a general statement, Christians have allowed the challenge of Peter and Timothy in calling us to focus on internal beauty and the indwelling of Christ to be an excuse to forget that the external is important or at least to misrepresent the heart of Christ in this matter.

While you might say that is an overly broad statement, the 2006 Purdue study that found the fundamental (specifically Baptist) Christian churches lead the world in obesity, claiming 30 percent of those diagnosed with obesity while those in other religions like Buddhism and Judaism claim only 1 percent. In fact, Christian churches have actually been called a “feeding ground” for the problem of obesity.

This is not a personal opinion. This is not my opinion based on the number of churches I have attended or the number of people I know who could shed a few pounds. A national study found that Christians as a whole have seemingly thrown out the focus on the external in an attempt to focus solely on the internal.

Unfortunately, we have misrepresented the heart of Christ in this matter. While I’m not here to address obesity as a main topic, I find that in order to proceed with the understanding of our responsibility as women (both married and single) to take care of external bodies and see that responsibility as something we have before both God and man, we must understand the heart of God towards this issue of external appearance.

If we look at the full counsel of Scripture in regard to outward appearance, we need to address a well-known passage in regard to a godly woman. Proverbs 31, the go-to passage for a woman who seeks to be a godly woman, addresses external appearance in verses 17, 21, and 22:

“She dresses herself with strength

and makes her arms strong.

She is not afraid of snow for her household,

for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

She makes bed coverings for herself;

her clothing is fine linen and purple.”

Even just a quick overview of these three verses allows us to see a few key things about the woman of God. In verse 17, she makes a choice (“She dresses” - this is an action of choice) to walk in strength and make herself strong. This speaks directly to her focus on her own physical abilities. She makes it a point to develop a physical strength in her body.

In verse 21, she clothes her household in fine garments. Exodus 39 tells us that the colors of the priestly garment included scarlet, indigo, and purple4; it is significant then that the woman of God discussed in Proverbs 31 is dressed in both red (vs. 21) and purple (v. 22). She wears fine linen--something we know was handmade and spent hours of hard labor to weave--so already we can understand that the woman of God puts time and hard work into how she and her household look on the outside. This is not a passing thought of hers. In fact, the external appearance of herself and those in her care is something to which she has devoted hours of time and serious physical labor in order to attain.

Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Esther are all women found in the Bible whose physical beauty was also mentioned. Each of their beauties was utilized by God in the greater plan of salvation.

For example, Rachel was the chosen bride for Jacob, yet her father forced Jacob to also marry his older daughter, Leah. Rachel was known as being “beautiful in form and appearance” while Leah was referred to as having “weak eyes”.5 She went on to be mother of Joseph, and the sons of both women eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel.

Esther’s physical beauty is what God used to place her in the position as wife to the King Ahasuerus during a volatile time for the people of Israel. Esther 2:7-17 tells us that of all the young virgins of Israel, Esther had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look upon, and because of that, caught the eye of the king. She was added to his harem and later became queen. As a result of her position, she played an influential role in God’s preservation of the chosen people of Israel.

As demonstrated even through these Old Testament narratives, the external beauty of a woman is not pointless and futile. God uses even that which is temporary—the fleeting beauty of a woman---to accomplish His eternal plan.

Instead of recognizing this, we as evangelical Christians have even deemed a lack of interest in the external as more holy than a concern with exterior appearances.”