Do not let your adornment be merely outward–arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel–“
wearing gold,
The second category of female beauty is jewelry. Women generally love jewelry.
“Wearing” means putting around. This woman wears ornaments. She wraps gold ornaments around her wrists, around her neck, ankles and ears. This is no condemnation of wearing jewelry. The point is a matter of emphasis. Do not place the emphasis on outer beauty but on inner beauty. Jewelry is nothing compared to inner beauty.
Obviously this is not an absolute condemnation of jewelry for look at the next category…
or putting on fine apparel—
The third category Peter addresses is clothing. Even since Adam and Eve went into the clothing business the wardrobe has always been a major piece of female beauty. I wonder if Eve’s fig leaves were nicer than Adam’s!
Obviously there is no absolute prohibition against wearing jewelry. If we say that is wrong to braid hair or wear jewelry then we have to say that it is wrong to wear clothes!! This is not the point.
Some Christian women put too much emphasis on clothes and jewelry. This is just a manifestation of distortion elsewhere. They don’t concentrate on developing inner beauty which is the main issue of this passage.
The point of this verse is a woman can have lovely hair, beautiful jewelry and stunning clothes but if her heart is full of bitterness, criticism and selfishness she is ugly on the inside.
Principle:
Women who do not have inner beauty will not win their husbands.
Application:
Peter’s point is to show women not to expect outward beauty to win their husbands. The opposite of cosmos is chaos! Outer beauty will not win the husband. It will help, but this is not the central focus of how to appeal to the husband.
Although beauty helps, it is not at the core of attraction to a husband with any sense. A woman may be beautifully dressed, neatly groomed and yet destroy everything by a bad attitude.
Mutual exclusive attention to outer beauty does not make truly beautiful woman. It is possible to be the most beautiful woman in the world and never attract your husband. Women totally occupied with outer beauty miss the point.
Some women want everyone occupied with their outer beauty. They want people to be enamoured with them. She wonders, “Why isn’t everyone looking at me?” Many men are sharp enough to know that physical beauty is not everything.
Beauty is not everything. A man wants beauty on the inside. Physical beauty will only last for a certain period of time. Eventually it will wear off. Her skin will start to wrinkle. Her body gradually will grow old. Even though we grow old physically, we can become more beautiful throughout our life-time. Inner beauty will never age.
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