Appearance

Let us now consider the scriptural teaching on the appearance of godly people.

“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.”* (1 Timothy 2:8-10)

Even as it is unusual to see a man who meets life’s problems without wrath and doubting, but with prayer, so it is equally unusual to meet a woman who attires herself in such a manner as to bring holy thought and respect for purity in the hearts of others. An awareness of the possiblity of misusing the power of her appearance, consciously or unconsciously, is one of the principles that guides a godly woman in the choice of her dress and how she fixes her hair. How she looks sends a message, and that message can either be wholesome and uplifting or otherwise. To be guided by the world’s ideas in this will send a worldly message. To lay aside gold, jewelry, fancy and sophisticated hairdos, and costly array; when replaced with modesty of heart, manner, and wardrobe advertises a life given to God, a clean and holy outlook on husband, family, and friendships.

Peter, a married man, goes a little further, stating, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands.”* (1 Peter 3:1-5)

Here, beyond any question, great emphasis is laid on inward adornment, the hidden man of the heart, in the sight of God. Trust in the power of outward adornment to attract and interest the unsaved husband is abandoned; that trust is put in God and in living to please Him. The saved wife humbles herself to obey her unsaved husband in all things except what will disobey God. This gives room for the Lord to work on his heart, to deal with his soul.

Submission to the husband is shown by the inward adorning of the heart, not the outward adorning. It is not shown by a gold wedding band (“not the wearing of gold”). It is not shown by the outward “putting on of apparel.” This would include shoes, dresses, robes, coats, aprons, hats, veils, bonnets, and caps. All of these are outward apparel. It is shown by the work of God in the heart that produces a meek and quiet spirit.

Surely man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart! (1 Samuel 16:7). In Isaiah 3:16-23, God sent word through the prophet that, “In that day the Lord will take away… the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.”

Rebecca, in the Old Testament, manifested her modesty by taking a veil and covering herself before meeting Isaac for the first time (Genesis 24:65). But Brother Paul, in instructing the Corinthian congregation, taught that a woman’s long hair was sufficient as a covering. In 1 Corinthians 11:15, he states that “If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” Or, as the margin states, “for a vail.” This is what “even nature itself teach[es].”* (1 Corinthians 11:14) Also, if a man have the same (a hair covering, or veil), it is a shame. A woman who does not cut her hair because she understands its significance as distinguishing her from men and from unsubmissive wives and mothers, realizes the glory, the power on her head. Just as the angels glorify God by staying in their proper place and obeying God, so the godly woman glories in her power and freedom “to be an angel of God,” an individual who glorifies God by embracing His plan for her and for her husband. By avoiding effeminacy, her husband does the same. Raising little girls to value their glory on their head is part of preparation for godly womanhood.

But it was the custom in Corinth for a woman to be veiled or covered in addition to the hair to show her submission to her husband. The Bible certainly does not teach that it is wrong to wear a cloth veil. But Paul stated, “we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.”* (1 Corinthians 11:16) In the same verse, he plainly warned against being contentious for the custom.