A Beauty That Is Better Than Looks
She entered the train with the winter snow billowing around her skirt. Most did not pay attention to her beauty but the color of her coat. Burnt sienna has never looked so wonderful on a woman. Any copy of GQ would gladly feature this elegant lady. She sat down and immediately began sizing up the people around her in the cabin.
“An ugly man,” was her brutal conclusion about the guy hunched down across from her. “Here’s a guy who fell out of the ugly tree and sadly hit every branch on his way down.” No one else in the cabin was particularly stunning to her either. “Pretty ho-hum people she’d be surrounded by for a little over an hour.”
As they were travelling for a while, people started talking about various subjects. Then it happened. The “ugly man” opened his mouth, or as she originally thought “his pie hole.” Amazingly, his words were full of wisdom and great knowledge. They made others seem valued and listened to.
This guy created a wonderful atmosphere that captivated everybody around him. “There’s beauty in being a good listener, someone who seeks to make connections and joy and sees things from new perspectives,” the elegant lady thought.
So free this ugly man also was to be in love with Jesus, seamlessly giving him credit for blessings in life and assurance to others of encouragement in Christ’s name. The lady watched in amazement how the man's ugliness was simply disappearing. Moreover, his facial features were becoming pleasant. Before her very eyes inner beauty made outer beauty immaterial.
By the time the trip was over, she and the other travelers knew they were going to miss that man. Everybody wanted to be around him more. They all were so impressed by the goodness that radiated from within him and rendered Jesus, yes, Jesus someone they would all like to get to know better along with this man.
How do we cultivate an inner beauty that reveals Christ-like qualities from within - guy or gal? Peter’s Spirit inspired words were meant originally for women but let’s apply them across the board. “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, 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” (1 Peter 3:3, 4).
This can’t mean we are to give zero attention to our hair. It cannot mean that it’s wrong to wear an earring, a subtle bracelet, or even get inked on an ankle. It can’t mean this because, in Peter’s sequence of hair, jewelry, and clothing, with that meaning it would also mean a woman couldn’t wear clothing or at least not any clothes that are fine. Not Peter’s intent. Nor is Peter promoting an Amish pietism.
Believe Inner Beauty Is More Attractive Than Outer Beauty
What Peter is saying is the Lord loves it when yes, godly wives, but also all Christians captivate others with a Spirit given life of holy beauty from the inside out. Never move this beauty from the front burner of your life to a back burner.
There is a winsomeness to Christ’s holiness. There really is. Cultivating an inner beauty, the gentle gracious kind that God delights in, starts there. You have to believe that this is really true or it is doubtful you will make it a priority, especially in a day and age where almost all the noise says the exact opposite. Do you believe this? Reflecting Christ from the inside out is the real beauty and exceedingly more attractive than physical outer beauty?
Consider these two courageous statements.
Number 1 - “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God"(Genesis 39:9).
Number 2 - “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (Genesis 4:16).
Believe by the Spirit that an inner beauty of Christ far exceeds an outer physical beauty. Then as one takes on this inner beauty through the gospel Jesus will surely help you to join Joseph and Esther at times in displaying a steely-eyed courage that gladdens God and inspires others.
Invest In Your Lasting Inner Beauty
Notice also that Peter says this kind of beauty is lasting “.., the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet Spirit…” (1 Peter 3:4). I am at an age now where seemingly no matter how I bust my abs the weight is shifting from the poles to the equator. Hair has long stopped growing where I want it to and seeks “to boldly go where no man nor hair has gone before.” One morning I heard a scream from the master bathroom from my wife Gretchen. “Honey, what’s wrong?” Looking at her hands and trembling she shrieked, “What are my mother’s hands doing at the end of my arms?”
I made that up. Don’t we all, however, come to that day where we think like that? My dad’s name was Paul. It is not meant as a compliment when I am in shorts and loved ones say, “You got your Paulie legs in your old age. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Sooner rather than later the outer beauty wastes away.
So make your biggest investment in the “you” that lasts - your inner beauty in Christ. Take time to be alone in God’s Word. Just get in the car and go to church. On the way home discuss the sermon out-loud with family or friend. “Here’s my take away, how about you?” Sing Christian hymns out-loud. Speak God’s Word out-loud. Dawson Trotman used to say, “Thoughts disentangle themselves as the pass across your lips.” Put your arm around the loved one next to you while receiving the Lord’s Supper. Return to your places and pray together a prayer of gratitude for faith, forgiveness, and salvation in the sacrament. Physical beauty fades but your inner beauty blooms in the faithful use of the gospel.
Mickey mantle always expected to die very young. When he turned sixty, he commented, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” You - your grace renewed inner you - will live for eternity. Now is the time to start taking better care of the inner you and you watch, with this means of grace care will come a beauty that causes others to see the beauty of our Lord. And who, my friend, is more beautiful to behold than our Jesus?! For in him is a beauty better than looks.
