Friday, April 4, 2025
True Beauty – 1 Peter 3:1-5 Submitted by Kay Crumley
Women are bombarded with ads about how to enhance our beauty. There are many that want to sell the magic pill that will cause us to lose weight, or the procedure that will hide aging by taking away wrinkles, make our skin softer and younger looking. If we just have the right hair style or color, we will be more glamorous. And of course, we must have the most stylish shoes and clothing. But what is beauty that will last? If we rely on the external appearance which is dictated by the current fashion trend that will never last for long. Styles change, cultural norms will alter, social expectations are fickle. The world’s standard for beauty will fade away just as the beautiful spring flowers fade, lose their color, and the petals fall.
Peter is writing to the believers in what is now modern Turkey who have been dispersed due to persecution from Jerusalem. He is writing to the wives in Chapter 3. Women of the time were little more than slaves. They had no rights and could be put out of their husband’s home, divorced, for any reason he chose to give. Peter is addressing these women to encourage them and help them understand what truly lasting beauty is. I have selected the passage below from the Contemporary English Version.
1 If you are a wife, you must put your husband first. Even if he opposes our message, you will win him over by what you do. No one else will have to say anything to him, 2 because he will see how you honor God and live a pure life. 3 Don't depend on things like fancy hairdos or gold jewelry or expensive clothes to make you look beautiful. 4 Be beautiful in your heart by being gentle and quiet. This kind of beauty will last, and God considers it very special. 5 Long ago those women who worshiped God and put their hope in him made themselves beautiful by putting their husbands first.
Many of the women believers Peter was writing to may have been married to unbelieving husbands. However, these women were to submit to their husbands. Notice that does not extend to all men. The term was a military term meaning to submit to the authority of the husband. Submission to authority can be totally consistent with equality in importance, dignity and honor. The problem they faced was how to be Christian wives with a non-Christian husband. Even if the husband doesn’t believe in the same way, he still has authority in the household over the wife.
Peter then explains to the Christian wives that they might be able to persuade them to believe in Christ by how they behave. Living a Christian lifestyle will speak louder than words. Living to honor God and keep to His precepts will influence those in the household to see that there is something different about the believer. Characteristics that are attractive and will cause them to question that difference and perhaps turn to Him.
Don’t waste time and money on temporary, external adornments to attract the husband. Rather, be beautiful from the inside out with gentleness, and quiet spirit. These godly characteristics will last forever. They are incorruptible, they will not fade away in time or social preferences. Godly character is desirable and lasting.
Peter then uses Sarah, the wife of Abraham, as an example of a Godly woman who put her husband first. Even when His promises seemed impossible, she submitted to her husband. God was faithful to fulfill His promises.
Lasting beauty comes from the inner being, godly character, the lasting love we have in Him. Ladies, we are beautiful regardless of our outward appearance. The fruit of the Spirit in believers is where true beauty comes from.
