Post by Lee on Apr 2, 2015 1:44:40 GMT
Pro 11:22 As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
It is not necessary to point out the desirability of beauty, but it is necessary to learn what, in God's sight, constitutes beauty, and what mars it. Solomon says (Eccl. 3:11-14)— "He hath made everything beautiful in its time: also He hath set eternity in their heart . . Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it that men should fear before Him"
He hath made everything beautiful in its time. All God's work, and everything associated with Him, is beautiful. Apart from God, nothing is. Of natural attractiveness, unassociated with God, Solomon says again— "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain" (Prov. 31:30—RSV).
And further (Prov. 11:22)— "Beauty without spiritual understanding is like a jewel in a swine's snout."
Wisdom will always perceive and be repelled by the snout behind the jewel. So beauty is purely a matter of spiritual education and discernment. It is inward, and not outward— "Whose adorning let it NOT be that OUTWARD adorning (like the scarlet woman), but the HIDDEN man of the heart, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit" (1 Pet. 3:3-4).
There is one item of outward glory and beauty that God has expressed delight in; one that He Himself has expressly created for glory. While of great beauty and dignity in itself, its chief beauty in God's eyes lies in its evidence of wisdom and discernment and humble acceptance of, and obedience to, God's will. Its importance rests in its symbolism of harmonious, God-appointed relationship. In God's love and wisdom He has made this a token of blessing and honor, and the marring of it a matter of sorrow and shame. God's mind is expressed in 1 Cor. 11:6, 15.
The world's fashions in beauty vary with every age and every nation. What is beauty to one nation appears quite hideous to another. But God never changes. Are we wearing His holy garments— appointed "for glory and for beauty"—or the world's? When we are called to the judgment seat, we shall have to go as we are. The importance of some of the desires God has expressed may strike us a little more forcibly then than now.
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"Put on thy beautiful garments, Ο Jerusalem, the holy city. From henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean."
As custodians of the holy city, believers have the solemn responsibility of maintaining its standards and laws. Bro. Roberts says on this point:
"If the knowledge of the Truth fail to beget the new man in the heart of the sinner, the baptism following his knowledge is not a birth. It is a mere performance of no benefit to him, but rather to his condemnation . . . "It ought, therefore, to be seriously considered by all who contemplate that step, and by all who are called upon to assist them, whether there is EVIDENCE of death to sin before arrangements are made for burial. The burial of a living man is
cruelty. It were better for the sinner to leave God's covenant alone than to make a mockery of it."—Further Seasons, pg. 13.
It is no kindness to either the city or the individual to bring in the uncircumcised in heart. The issues are too serious. The Holy City—God's city—has been in degradation and misery for 25 centuries. Why? Because the custodians of its holiness neglected to keep it holy. What an unforgettable lesson!
1954 Berean p 111