For the week of August 29, 2006

 

What to Wear, What to Wear

This week there has been a lot of focus on the Emmy Awards and how Hollywood stars dressed for the occasion. There was Versace this, Armani that. Brilliant, million-dollar diamonds as far as the eye could see. Then there were the self-appointed “Fashion Police” who told us afterwards who was hot and who was not. We Americans eat it up because we absolutely love fashion. What was in yesterday is out today and the fashion designers are so desperate for new ideas that they are even going back into the 70’s (!) for inspiration.

There is certainly nothing wrong with looking our best. As Christians, however, God wants us to focus on another kind of beauty—the inner beauty of the heart. How easy it is to forget about this! In the Apostle Peter’s time, people tended to see beauty as purely external (sound familiar?). The well-to-do would braid expensive jewels into their hair and find other ways to laud their extravagant lifestyle. This prompted him to write:

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.
(1 Peter 3:3-5)

The same instruction could just as easily apply to men, as well. Peter’s point is not that we aren’t to fix ourselves up and look good. He is simply reminding us that it is the “inner self” that needs the most attention. The Bible directs us to “clothe” ourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27), which means that we are to consciously put on the virtues of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

Before you get ready for work, shopping, dinner, or church, take time to prepare your heart. That’s what God is most interested in.

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

--William Sherman--