Have you a Friend whose wondrous grace
Lights up with joy the darkest place,
Who to the end will still prove true?

“Tell What the Lord Has Done for You!”*

Oh, tell what He’s done for you,
Of His love, so strong and true,
Oh, tell, what He’s done, what He’s done for you,
Others may need Him, too.

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Dear Abigail,

Hello! I finally made time to write you. Everyone is always saying how busy they are, and I am no exception.

The make-up/jewelry discussion was very helpful. Some time ago I gave up wearing jewelry because the Bible was so clear about it, and the whole idea of jewelry goes against an attitude of humility. Anyway, the discussion helped to affirm my convictions. I feel I should say something, though, about something you wrote, Abigail. You wrote: “If we take such a course [dressing in a worldly way], I am afraid, my sisters, we shall indeed meet the King, only to be turned away….”* This sentence gave me the impression that if we do not obey the Lord in this area, we will be subject to eternal condemnation! I do not believe that God would condemn us for the sin of unwillingness in a particular area. For “we all stumble in many things.”* (James 3:2)NKJV A Christian who dishonors the Lord will suffer loss, but not condemnation (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Now if a person turns away from God altogether, God will, of course, destroy him (1 Corinthians 3:17). I’m not coming down on you, Abigail. I love you, and I just thought I should say something about this. Two other people I know who read the article were disturbed by that sentence as well. I’m glad to write to you, knowing you are a truly dedicated Christian. I love true Christian fellowship!

About a discussion on headcoverings… I at first wanted to say, “No, I don’t want to hear one; it is confusing to me and I could never wear a head covering.” But the Lord reminded me that no matter how “crazy” a thing He asks me to do, if I am doing it, who cares what people will think!? Oh, there is such a joy in God’s perfect will! So if God is leading you to have a discussion, go ahead! Since we’re on the subject of a woman’s proper appearance, I wanted to mention something. 1 Peter 3:3 says, “Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair.” I know, of course, that we should not have fancy hair styles and spend a lot of time on it, but what in the world should we do with it? I can’t leave it messy or hanging all over the place? You do not have to answer these questions if you don’t want, but this subject might make a good discussion for the magazine. I will continue to seek the Lord in this.

I will be praying for you and for all the rest behind Foundation Truth. I would appreciate prayer, too!

With much love,
Alanta Stace
Terrebone, Oregon

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Dear Alanta,

Thank you for writing and voicing your concerns and questions. You mentioned in your letter that others had concerns about the statement made also and we thought there may very well be many people who had questions, but are remaining silent. Therefore we are answering this letter to the general audience for those who are interested.

I said, “If we take such a course, I am afraid, my dear sisters, we shall indeed meet the King, only to be turned away….” In this, we were speaking of those who knowingly disobey God—and in this instance, in the sin of wearing adornment. In summary of your question, “Is this a big enough sin to keep us out of heaven?” What will bar us from having the “right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city”* (Revelation 22:14)? To answer this, let’s ask ourselves this: what is heaven, and who is it for? Revelation 22 tells us that, “there shall be no more curse.”* (Revelation 22:3) What is the curse? The curse of sin—heaven is without sin, pure and holy, without a blemish. Heaven is for those “that do his commandments.”* (Revelation 22:14) If heaven is a holy, pure place, like we are told, as it says, only those who obey can enter in. Not even one little tiny disobedience or sin can be excused because it would mar heaven’s purity. It doesn’t matter how big or little the sin is—it is still sin and makes a spot. God has good eyesight, and He isn’t going to let heaven get all spotted up. So we know that if we read in God’s Word that we are not to wear gold, or costly array, etc., and we say, “Well, I just don’t want to do that,” we are sinning—because we’re disobeying God’s commands. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”* (James 4:17)

You mentioned the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 in regard to this subject: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so by fire.” These scriptures are not speaking of the judgment day, in which context you seem to be using them. If we try to fit them in that way, they contradict the teaching that heaven is pure and holy. Heaven would then have to be interpreted as a place of degrees of holiness—some places less pure than others for those who didn’t quite follow all of God’s plan. But God does not accept lukewarmness—He says, “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”* (Revelation 3:16) No, the scriptures in 1 Corinthians simply mean that everyone has a house (life) to build. Perhaps they start upon the foundation of salvation; as their life continues, they will build either gold and silver or hay and stubble. In the days to come, fiery trials (as we all know!) come to test and try us—if we have built rubbish into our structure, it will perish, though we ourselves will be salvaged, if we take our trials the way God has intended. If we have built true, strong things in our lives, through our trials (fire) we shall indeed receive a reward, according as our work has been. God means for us to live our lives building precious stones, gold, and silver, and we are blessed if we do so. He has victory for us so we do not have to have hay and stubble (false, weak things) inside of us. God intends for us to live pure and holy so we can go and spend eternity in a pure and holy heaven.

About the headcovering discussion, as mentioned before, we’ll not be having one for now. We do feel the subject is important—we used to be confused for many years about it, but God has taught us some things we’d like to share sometime, but as of yet, we haven’t felt God’s go-ahead command. So we’ll just wait on God.

Your question on arrangement was interesting. I hadn’t really thought about 1 Peter 3:3 particularly before in that context. I was praying about it and looked it up in my KJV and was surprised that the meaning is some different than the version you quoted; it says, “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair.” It doesn’t say, “arranging the hair,” it says “plaiting.” Plaiting and simply arranging are two different things. Plaiting, to the best of my knowledge, is a fancy braid in which ribbons are entwined as you braid. I’ve seen it done before—it takes some time, but has a very “pretty” effect. Gold, beads, and who knows what all are braided in and termed plaiting. It’s also pretty plain from the scripture that this plaiting is an outward adornment that can, obviously, be taken on or off—and since women’s long, uncut hair is Biblical, and not an adornment, it cannot be speaking of simply taking care of our hair. Taking care of our hair comes back to your question, what do we do with it?! I can understand the frustration…! No, we don’t have to leave it all messy and hanging around in our way. God isn’t glorified by that. There isn’t a Bible command on how to fix it—I think God has left us with room for taste and preferences. I feel that God would have us to arrange our hair in a way that is the least assuming possible, takes the least time, and is not a temptation to men. For me, that means putting my hair up—which takes about 10-15 minutes of my time each day. It’s out of my way and doesn’t attract attention, for the most part. In these personal issues, we need to seek God for His will for us. Someone else may be able to arrange their hair in a way that if I did so would open me to a temptation of pride. We need to be sensitive to the voice of the Lord telling us those secret things that makes our relationship with God a very personal one. Let’s just get down very low and humble and seek the face of the Lord, and we can be assured that once we do our part, He will not forget His.

May God bless you, Alanta. I hope this has answered your questions. Feel free—anyone is welcome—to write in and share your thoughts. We love to hear from you!

In Jesus,
Abigail

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Dear Sisters,

Grace and peace be to you in the Lord Jesus Christ! I feel called to this discussion on the wearing or not wearing—of jewelry and make-up by Christians, as it is a subject I feel I have not seen addressed very much in the various Christian books and periodicals of our time. I pray the Lord will guide my words and help me to avoid anything that does not glorify Him in my writing.

…If you were to peek into my daily life you should see a woman in plain, button-up cotton shirts paired with a long denim skirt… doing everyday manual labor, much as my mother did during her lifetime. Mother was the one who governed our dress, and she and Father decided to stop wearing jewelry when I was quite young, so I did hear my parents tell relatives that jewelry would not make an acceptable birthday present for me. The church we joined stresses the importance of modest, plain dress, but I did not ever see a standard being set or followed at the church meetings; people tended to do as they please. My position comes not from habit nor from my church, but from God’s Holy Word, and the understanding of it with which He has so graciously blessed me.

The Bible teaches many principles that apply to the Christian’s manner of dress and adornment, just as it contains guiding principles for every aspect of life. These include that the dress should be plain and humble, that it should not be a cause of temptation to lust, envy or pride to the wearer or beholder; cross dressing is forbidden (Deuteronomy 22:5); interpretations of this prohibition vary quite a bit. Our attire should not be expensive, elaborate so as to display an impression of superiority and expend our Lord’s money excessively upon ourselves while others are suffering want. The Holy Word also presents more specific examples: “Not with… gold, or pearls, or costly array.”* (1 Timothy 2:9) This passage is often quoted by advocates of modest dress and to condemn tight-fitting clothing, short skirts, loud colors, and worldly hairstyles, which I also avoid and disapprove; but I marvel at how rarely mention is made of its application to jewelry and make-up. I feel in my own conscience I must translate “gold or pearls” to mean jewelry of any kind, whether pinned or sewn onto clothing or worn on the person, whether made of real gold, or silver, or plastic or whatever. (Note: some practical items, watches and hair accessories, are made to function as jewelry, and others are not; I do not have a problem with the latter.) And I firmly believe that who reads and knows these commands of the Lord has obligation to seek His strength to obey them. We cannot insist that He approve of our way because we think our heart is right. It cannot be right living in disobedience after light on the subject has been given by the Lord.

We may argue that Bible women—and men—wore jewelry, particularly in earlier times (Rebekah, Israelites leaving Egypt, etc.), but we also find even in the Old Testament places where the people were commanded to strip off their ornaments. As for make-up, such women as Jezebel painted their faces. It was a common practice among idolaters and those influenced by idolatry, who believed, based upon their false notion that the deity “was altogether one like themselves,” that they could impress, change and persuade Him to be more pleased with them by outward acting and dressing. The Pharisees in Christ’s time also had the same misconception. In addition to making their own rigorous rules and ceremonies beyond what God had commanded, they also wore fine clothing to denote superiority, and armlets, and phylacteries, and long, showy fringes on their robes (Matthew 23:5-7). Jesus commended those who were not attired in fine clothing, and… the Lord taught Christians in New Testament times not to adorn their bodies.

I am a very strong believer in face-to-face communication, in one-on-one witnessing and heart-to-heart sharing. The only way this can be godly and uplifting is when our hearts and minds are off of all that is merely external, and our outward appearance does not contradict this. We want to see each other the way the Lord sees. We desire that the graces of Christ shall shine in our countenances, and sincere concern be expressed in our eyes. We do not want the gospel message to have to travel to others through a passage obstructed with distracting ornamentation and make-up. If the image of my face remains in someone’s memory after I have delivered to that person an earnest and solemn message I felt the Lord would have me share, I do not want him/her to walk away remembering boldly painted lips, dancing earrings, glittering gold or shadowy eyes with charming eyelashes. These things will get in the way of God’s Spirit of grace shining forth, rather than accentuate it.

Let us also beware of looking upon outward appearances and letting tasteful adornments attract us when we are associating with others who wear these things. Outward beauty, whether natural or artificial, whether inborn or put on, should not attract us above those qualities which God regards as beautiful and precious. While the most charismatic and photogenic, the most talented and tastefully dressed, may and often do conceal an impatient, exclusive, egotistical and inconsiderate character, many a common old Jane or Joe in plain work dress with plain, simple looks, will be found a wonderful, fun, godly, compassionate friend.

This should be kept in mind when meeting a prospective friend or a prospective marriage partner. I should not want it to be “love at first sight” because of his beautiful eyes and tidy dress…. And I definitely don’t want someone to be attracted to my side, first by my looks, or, worse yet, by looks that are put on to make me appear more than I am without them. Sisters, never worry that you were born ugly or unattractive! It is the ugly temperament and habits that turn good people away; a sweet spirit hidden within the plainest, roughest exterior, with artificial or natural adornments, cannot help but shine forth and make you more lovely for the godly seeker to behold than the most gorgeous girl or woman who has not “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”* (1 Peter 3:4) Never forget this and start seeking to do for yourself what only God can do properly. Take the best possible care of your physical and spiritual health, cultivate thankfulness and a helpful, patient disposition, and you will be a good friend and make good friends.

For those of you who dress very modestly in other respects, jewelry may not seem like such a big deal. But the biblical injunctions still hold true. Are we putting something before God? Are we preferring to wear Jesus’ cross as an ornament instead of taking up our cross and following—obeying—Him? Let us take up our cross and follow Him until the end!

Blessed in Him,
Jamie Lee Whitaker