Do you only see an outward beauty or do you also see the beauty of Christ?

Do you want to be beautiful? Everyone can be beautiful. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

There are two kinds of beauty, outward and inward, worldly and spiritual.

Think about someone who is very beautiful. In what direction did you think? Did you think about some movie star? Or did you think about Christ? He is, after all, the most beautiful person who has ever lived.

Was Jesus beautiful outwardly? In the art world Jesus is often portrayed as a very handsome man, but according to Isaiah: “He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). Yet, he also wrote: “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty” (Isaiah 33:17). And in Psalm 45:3 we read about the Messiah: “You are fairer than the sons of men.”

Because of His inner beauty, Jesus was the most beautiful person who ever lived: “For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

From this we learn something important. It does not matter if we come short in some way with regard to our outward appearance. Everyone can be beautiful inwardly, and that is what counts.

We may not allow ourselves to be deceived by outward beauty. “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). “As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion” (Proverbs 11:22).

People who live a bad life become ugly: “When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth” (Psalm 39:11).

Outward beauty passes away: “The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades’” (Isaiah 40:6, 7).

You find certain things beautiful. But what is beautiful to God? Do you want to be beautiful in your own eyes and in the eyes of the world? Or do you want to be beautiful in God’s sight? “Do not let your adornment be outward -- arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel -- rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves” (1 Peter 3:3-5). “In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works” (1 Timothy 2:9, 10). Good works are “beautiful and profitable to men” (Titus 3:8).

What beauty do you see in your mirror? Do you see someone who is wearing sexy clothing? Or someone wearing modest clothing? Do you see someone who is dressed provocatively? Or someone who is dressed with propriety and moderation? Do you see someone who is wearing worldly clothing? Or do you see someone who reflects the beauty of Christ?

A mirror cannot make you beautiful. Why do we look in a mirror? To see if everything is in order. To see what needs to be improved.

Would you like to have a mirror that could make you beautiful? It does exist. The Holy Scriptures.
This mirror has the same function spiritually as a regular mirror, namely to let us see what needs to be improved. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).

But this mirror also has special power. If you look into it intently and often you continually become more beautiful by the power of God’s Spirit.

To understand the next text, one must know the background. After Moses had heard the word of God, his face shown so brightly that the people were afraid. So Moses hung a vail in front of his face. But each time he spoke with God, he removed the vail (Exodus 34:29-35).

Paul says that all Christians now, like only Moses then, may view the glory of God: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Is that not wonderful? When we look in this mirror, we do not see our own face, but the face of Christ! And the more we look at Him in this mirror, the more we look like Christ by the power of God’s Spirit! Then we shine with the beauty of Christ.

What beauty do you see in your mirror? Only an outward beauty? Or also the beauty of Christ? Look often and long in this powerful mirror that can make you more and more beautiful! Amen.

Roy Davison