Thinking About Real Beauty

What makes something (or someone) beautiful? 

If you ask this question to a variety of people, you'll get a wide variety of answers. Beauty is something that almost all of us think about, and there are many different answers. 

There's physical beauty, of course. But beauty ideals have shifted over the years, and focusing on how beautiful you are never helps anything. And everyone has different taste in what's pretty, so it's hard to pin down a definition. 

But there's a difference between what the world calls beautiful and what God calls beautiful, and beauty has one purpose: to glorify God. 

 

False beauty

(Note: The Bible doesn't specifically say "false beauty" or "true beauty" in the verses I'm citing, but there's definitely a distinction in the ways the word "beauty" is used.)

False beauty is what the world calls beauty. And—not much of a surprise—it's a lie.

When the world says that a person is beautiful, they usually mean that the person is physically attractive. Pretty. Pleasant to look at. 

The Bible addresses this many times over. Proverbs 6:25 says, "Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes"—in context, Solomon is warning us against being drawn in by an adulteress. 

And Proverbs 31:30 gives us both a negative picture and a positive one: "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." 

These verses don't paint a very—dare I say—pretty picture of worldly beauty. Beauty isn't to be desired, and it's actually straight-up deceitful. 

That's why this kind of beauty is false. 

False beauty only deals with what the world sees. It's entirely external instead of internal—outward instead of inward, superficial instead of deep. 

And it's a temptation. It often leads to sin. 

False beauty is also temporary. In Proverbs 31, Solomon calls beauty "vain," a word that also figures heavily in the book of Ecclesiastes. Vanity doesn't just mean pride for Solomon; it suggests the idea of futility, unimportance, pointlessness. "Striving after wind." (Ecclesiastes 1:14)

Chasing for outward beauty is useless. It's like trying to catch the wind in your fingers. 

So what's the kind of beauty that lasts? 

 

True beauty

True beauty is inner beauty—a godly character, fortitude in the face of hardship, love for those around you. 

1 Peter 3:3–4 says, "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."

Peter's drawing a clear distinction between outer beauty and inner beauty, and he gives an example of what inner beauty is: "a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." 

That's certainly comforting, at least to me. God finds a gentle and quiet spirit very precious. And it's imperishable.

 

True beauty points us to God.

But physical beauty isn't bad, right? Is it a sin to put your hair up nice or to wear earrings? 

I don't think so. After all, there's an entire book of the Bible (Song of Solomon) dedicated to praising one woman's physical beauty. That doesn't seem to line up. 

The distinction between true and false beauty isn't just inward or outward—it's about whether it's glorifying to God. 

That's the real purpose of true beauty. That's the real purpose of everything. 

Philippians 4:8 gives us a good way to test whether something's beautiful or not: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

This gives us a kind of beauty standard. If something is true, honorable, lovely, or the rest of the items on the list, it's truly beautiful—and if it's not, it's not.

But this doesn't seem to account for everything. Can't non-Christians make something beautiful, even if they don't know the truth? And can't something be beautiful without being perfect in every way? 

That discussion could merit a whole other article, but the short answer is unbelievers can unwittingly point to God due to general revelation. If an unbelieving artist paints a landscape, he's painting God's creation whether he knows it or not. 

And that's what all beauty, ultimately, does. 

Whether it's physical beauty or the Grand Canyon, a well-crafted painting or Beethoven's 5th symphony, true beauty always points us to God. 

God made the world, and he called it good. That was the first act of beautiful creation, and it didn't stop there—Psalm 50:2 says, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth."  

Zion, God's city, is the perfection of beauty. And God shines from it. 

What does this tell us? 

That beauty, true beauty, can only come from God. 

If you want a gentle, quiet, and beautiful spirit, it has to come from God. If you want to be true and honorable and just and pure, those things have to come from God. 

And it's only by imitating him that we'll ever know true beauty. Because God is the most beautiful person in the universe.