Beautifying our Profession
It cannot be denied that as Christians the things we believe and teach are rough and undesirable to the world. It has always been so. Every imagination of man’s heart is only evil continually, yet at the same time, every way of man is good in their own eyes. We constantly reason that our sin is justifiable, right, and good even.
Make Doctrine Beautiful through Compromise?
Even Hitler didn’t believe he was a bad man. So, when someone has a belief that explicitly or implicitly accuses us of wrong, we don’t react well. We are instantly defensive. We feel judged. We feel that the other person must necessarily believe they are better than us. And we feel guilty. None of this is very attractive.
Christians have historically taken one of two routes when faced with people who did not feel our beliefs were attractive. On the one hand, you have people who begin to try to make their beliefs more attractive, by compromising the beliefs themselves. You see this with those who see the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality to be unattractive. They begin to say things like all sin is equal in God’s eyes. Or to explain how in the Greek this was referring to pedophilia, not homosexuality.
Or they just stop referring to those instructions from the Bible and focus on things that aren’t controversial. They focus exclusively on doctrine like we all need to “love” one another and help each other out in difficult times. This is certainly more attractive to believers and unbelievers alike. But at this point, they aren’t really attracted to God’s Word which expresses God’s holy nature.
Make Doctrine Ugly on Purpose?
The other track taken by Christian’s historically is to overly embrace the unattractiveness of the Gospel. These Christians take the stance that if the teaching of the Bible is naturally unattractive, then making it uglier must be better! This sort of thinking leads to picketing at funerals with signs that say “God hates — -“. (I’m not printing that word. I’ve got reasons if you want to ask about them.) It leads to treating homosexuals as if they are greater sinners than we are. It leads to effectively treating homosexuals as people we would not want to show up in our churches.
This is more attractive to the God and Country cultural Christian who longs for the days when June and Ward Cleaver and the Ingalls’ family were respected and normal members of the community. They are naturally repulsed by certain sins and add their revulsion to the Gospel. But while the Gospel message may be offensive, being intentionally offensive on presenting the Gospel also fails to display God’s holy nature.
So, if the message is inherently offensive and we can’t make it more attractive to some by compromising the message and we can’t make it more attractive to some by making it uglier, then how should we make the Gospel attractive. Or should we even be trying to make it attractive at all?
The Narrow Path Between the Ditches
So much of Christianity lies on a narrow path between two ditches. This is another one of those cases. On the one side, we go too far in making the doctrines of the Bible appealing to wordlings by changing the message. On the other side, we go too far in making the Bible offensive to the world. God actually does expect us to make the Gospel attractive to the world, but he wants us to do that in a particular way — by our manner of living.
Peter Counsels Women on Attractiveness
Consider the following passages of Scripture. In 1 Peter 3:1–5 Peter is giving instruction to Christian women married to husbands who are “disobedient to the Word”. Peter says these men may be won to the Lord by the behavior of their wives. Verse 5 says that in the former times women used to “adorn” themselves in this way.
This “adorn” is the same word used in Luke 21. Some were gushing about the beauty of the Temple which was “adorned” with beautiful stones and offerings. For Peter, a woman’s attractiveness to her unsaved husband should not just be in external things such as how she does her hair or jewelry she wears or clothing. Her true beauty should be in how she behaves towards him in a godly manner.
Making Doctrine Itself Beautiful
Paul also uses this word “adorn” to describe how servants should behave towards their master. They shouldn’t be embezzling from their masters, not argumentative, not stealing. They should act in good faith towards them, showing holy submission. And Paul has a curious phrase to describe what effect this will have. He says, that by doing this they “will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect”. (Titus 2:10 NASB) Paul expects that such behavior from their servants will make the teaching those servants follow more attractive to them.
It’s interesting that Paul says this makes the doctrine itself more beautiful. Nothing changed about the doctrine. It is still as rough and unattractive as always. But something beautiful has been added to adorn the doctrine. In the same way, a woman’s appearance doesn’t actually change from day to day, but the way she dresses can add to her beauty. Or the Temple’s appearance doesn’t actually change but adding beautiful stones can add to its beauty. In this way, the doctrines themselves don’t actually change, but our behavior can add to its beauty.
A Prayer for Beauty
We can see from these passages that it is not only possible to beautify our profession, but it is desirable to do so. When we live in a manner that reflects the Gospel that we believe, we add beauty to the rugged lumber of our doctrine. This is what makes the Gospel attractive to unbelievers. They see how beautiful our lives have become and it attracts them.
This is far from a “seeker-sensitive” model that hides that lumber under pretty tapestries of upbeat music and feel-good sermons. This is the sort of adornment that enhances the natural beauty of the wood to bring out more of what was already beautiful about it.
Is my life adorning my profession of faith? Can people see in the way I live something that makes them want to know more about it? How can I add yet more beauty to my profession? I pray that God will continue to nurture in me the fruits of righteousness that will adorn this doctrine in a way that attracts those who are lost. Will you join me in that prayer?
