Walking with the Wise #99: Inner & Outer Beauty

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout

is a beautiful woman without discretion.”
—Proverbs 11:22

We value beauty. Millions, if not billions, of dollars are spent each year on beauty products. And face it, it’s because we value beauty. We want to be beautiful. We like beautiful people. Blasted into our living rooms through TV shows and movies, plastered on the covers of magazines, and paraded in front of us through innumerable other avenues, beauty is marketed and magnified.

But beauty without discretion is comparable to a gold ring in a pig’s snout—it doesn’t fit. Something so valuable wasted on something so dirty is repulsive. We are not to look at the outward appearance, but at the heart, as the Lord said:

“For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart"—1 Samuel 16:7.

As men and women, we must remember that,

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised”

—Proverbs 31:30. 

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be beautiful, but we must remember that outer beauty is secondary to inner beauty. And inner beauty only comes by reading, meditating on, and applying God’s Word to our lives. That’s where we learn discretion, modesty and self-control. As Paul wrote,

“…likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works”—1 Timothy 2:9-10.

God cares more about our hearts, as Peter wrote:

“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.

Is your beauty outward or inward? One endures for only a short time, but another endures for eternity. Let your beauty be internal, and let others see Christ in you so that they might see you value Him more than your own beauty. Let the beauty you have point to the risen Savior so that Christ might be seen to be supremely more beautiful than our earthly appearances. May Christ be the root of our inner beauty, and may our inner beauty transform our outer behavior for the glory of His righteous and wonderful name. Amen.