Makeup and jewelry?

[angell1]

are they sinful?

didn’t st. paul say for women not to decorate themselves in gold and jewels and braided hair?

and the ECf condemned makeup and even wigs

 

[SighGuy]

Here’s the NIV. The sentence order makes it more conducive to the point I want to immediately make.

9 I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

The words can seem to denounce beautification, but I think it is more likely that they are talking about putting God first.

We always have to think about the goal of the author. Is Paul, here, trying to denounce beauty? Or is he talking about worshiping properly? If he’s talking about worshiping, his focus is God, not beauty. Beauty is the tool that he compares God with, to show that God ought to be superior to beautification.

He could easily say, “Fill your mouth not with bread, but with the word of God!” and you’d have radical literalists starving to death because Paul said not to eat bread.

 

[SighGuy]

Hopefully you get what I’m saying, but if not, it’s this: in my sentence above, do you really think (if Paul had said that), that we should not eat bread? If not, then is there any reason to think that a woman cannot wear make-up?

I dunno what ECF is, but don’t worry about them.

If your vanity becomes an inhibitor to your spirituality, then, like the left hand that causes you to sin, cut it off (not literally). It is better for you to enter into Heaven maimed than your whole body thrown into the fires of Gehenna. So it would be better to be humbled with no beautification and go to Heaven than have the praise of all and go to another place.

That doesn’t mean that all of us have to cut off our left hands, though. Not everyone’s left hand causes them to sin, nor does makeup cause all women to become excessively concerned with their appearance.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with beautifying yourself in moderation. Is not beautiful jewelry often a gift in the Bible? Is it ever condemned, even once?

 

[Iron_Donkey]

Hopefully you get what I’m saying, but if not, it’s this: in my sentence above, do you really think (if Paul had said that), that we should not eat bread? If not, then is there any reason to think that a woman cannot wear make-up?

I dunno what ECF is, but don’t worry about them.

If your vanity becomes an inhibitor to your spirituality, then, like the left hand that causes you to sin, cut it off (not literally). It is better for you to enter into Heaven maimed than your whole body thrown into the fires of Gehenna. So it would be better to be humbled with no beautification and go to Heaven than have the praise of all and go to another place.

That doesn’t mean that all of us have to cut off our left hands, though. Not everyone’s left hand causes them to sin, nor does makeup cause all women to become excessively concerned with their appearance.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with beautifying yourself in moderation. Is not beautiful jewelry often a gift in the Bible? Is it ever condemned, even once?

I concur.

 

[1ke]

are they sinful?

didn’t st. paul say for women not to decorate themselves in gold and jewels and braided hair?

and the ECf condemned makeup and even wigs

You’ve been asking a LOT of “is this sinful” questions. Perhaps it is time to get some spiritual direction from your pastor.

NO these things are not sinful. It is not enough to read the words of the ECF, you must also understand the politics and history of the time. The makeup, jewels, and braided hair they refer to is that of the women of the day who were prostitutes.

 

[Nelka]

Vanity is the problem.

I think when you get to the point that you fall down the stairs and are bleeding heavily, you call for an ambulance but refuse to open the door to the paramedics because you haven’t got your makeup on. Believe me, I knew someone who refused to go to work because she left her makeup bag at work and phoned everyone she knew until someone said they would go out of their way to get it for her. it wasn’t as if she was covered in burns and scars but it took over her life.

 

[Christy_Beth]

Hopefully you get what I’m saying, but if not, it’s this: in my sentence above, do you really think (if Paul had said that), that we should not eat bread? If not, then is there any reason to think that a woman cannot wear make-up?

I dunno what ECF is, but don’t worry about them.

If your vanity becomes an inhibitor to your spirituality, then, like the left hand that causes you to sin, cut it off (not literally). It is better for you to enter into Heaven maimed than your whole body thrown into the fires of Gehenna. So it would be better to be humbled with no beautification and go to Heaven than have the praise of all and go to another place.

That doesn’t mean that all of us have to cut off our left hands, though. Not everyone’s left hand causes them to sin, nor does makeup cause all women to become excessively concerned with their appearance.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with beautifying yourself in moderation. Is not beautiful jewelry often a gift in the Bible? Is it ever condemned, even once?

ECF is Early Church Fathers. These are the men who came after the apostles. St. Augustine is one. Their writings reflect what the early church taught and believed during the first 4 or 5 centuries.

As for make up and jewelry, I rarely wear make up because it’s such a hassle. Jewelry, I wear two rings regularly, althought I also have some earrings that I also wear on occasion. Nothing wrong with that. It’s when the stuff starts becoming more important than anything else that’s the problem.