Beauty That Outlasts Looks
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By John Piper About Women
Audio Transcript
Do not let your adorning be external — the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear — but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3–4)
That cannot mean that it’s wrong to give no attention to your hair. It cannot mean that it’s wrong to wear an earring, a bracelet, a necklace. And the reason it can’t mean that is because, in that sequence of hair, jewelry, and clothing, it would mean she couldn’t wear clothing, which it manifestly does not mean.
If “Don’t let your adorning be your clothing” doesn’t mean you can’t wear any and “Don’t let your adorning be your braiding of your hair” doesn’t mean you can’t do it and “Don’t let your adorning be gold jewelry” doesn’t mean you can’t wear any, then what does it mean?
It means that when you think about focusing your mind on something, focusing your energy on something, focusing your time on something, that’s not where your mind goes. Your mind goes, “I will spend my life, I will spend my creativity, I’ll spend my prayer, I’ll spend my efforts becoming beautiful with the kind of beauty that is imperishable.”
This physical body of yours is going to perish. I promise you, it will. Before you’re dead, it will perish. So don’t put your big investment there. It will let you down. But your heart will not let you down. And not only will this not let you down, but God looks on it and really likes it when a woman devotes her hope in God, her fearlessness, to “I will become now a beautiful woman with the kind of beauty that can never perish.”
It’s a matter of proportion. It’s a matter of priority. I don’t want the women of our church to let themselves go. But in our culture, that’s not usually the problem. Usually, the problem is all the investment is going into the health club, the hair, the figure, the jewelry, the makeup. We say, “Please, I’ve got to look a certain way,” but the energy ought to be flowing the other direction.
