A Beautiful Child Of God

SOME PEOPLE get offended when the terms “children of God” and “children of the devil” are used to refer to fellow human beings. There is no need to feel insulted about a biblically documented fact. The Christian Bible clearly calls people who believe in and live by the teachings of Jesus Christ as children of God, and describes those who disbelieve as children of the devil.

“He (Jesus the Christ) came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become CHILDREN OF GOD, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of man, but of God,” (John 1:11-13, emphasis is added).

And then, it is written in 1 John 3:9 that, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the CHILDREN OF GOD, and who are the CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

The focus of this article is to expose God’s children to God’s will for them to be completely beautiful. This may not sound well for those believers who have been led astray by erroneous teachings against the pursuit of holistic beauty. To them being pious or godly is to wear shabby clothes and live as hermits. God is a God of good things. He saw to it that everything He created was good. Thus, He desires that His children do what is good and become good stewards.

It is important for us to appreciate the fact that God wants His children to be beautiful spiritually and physically to honour His name. He actually admires the beauty of His children — those who trust in Him. Scripture recognizes the good looks of David. “And he sent him and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, ‘Arise, anoint him, for it is he,’ (1 Samuel 16:12).

Similarly, Genesis 24:16 testifies of Rebekah as: “…very beautiful and old enough to be married, but she was still a virgin…” It is also said of her: “…he was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought, ‘They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.’

The passages of Scripture above show that God is not against His children having beautiful personality. He is for it. Followers of Christ should not hide under ignorance and advocate shabby appearance as godliness. Men and women born of God must endeavor to be beautiful on the inside and outside to radiate His nature.

In all of this teaching, the greatest area where a child of God must work hard to maintain beauty is their spirit being. Genesis 1:26-27 reveals the creation of the spiritual part of man, that is, the spirit man while Genesis 2:7 talks about the formation of the physical man, that is, the body. This tells us that a human being is a spirit being and lives in a body.

The life of the body depends upon the life of the spirit. And we know that the spirit was created but the body was formed. Interestingly the terms “created and formed” regarding the making of man is also repeated in Isaiah 43: 1 which says, “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

And it is written that God created man in His image, after His likeness. This tells us about God’s communicable nature which He shared with man and woman. It is His righteousness, holiness, purity, love, faithfulness, gentleness, justice, kindness, glory, dominion, goodness etc. It is this image and likeness of God in man and woman that makes us beautiful in the sight of God.

The temptation of Adam and Eve to sin was an attack to make them filthy and ugly spiritually. Indeed, sin is a reproach and disgrace. Sin makes no one beautiful; it makes people ugly and horrible. Thus, currently, everyone who is in bondage of sin and practices sin is not beautiful on the inside. Their spirit man is filthy and ugly because of sin.

Over the years, many men and women including God’s children have been deceived into paying greater attention to the beauty of their bodies to the neglect of their spirits. They spend huge sums of money to enhance only the beauty of their bodies. Of course, we should bath at least twice a day, use relevant cosmetics, dress and smell well. After all, the Bible compliments physical beauty as stated above.

However, God’s children should not adopt strange methods to beautify their bodies. They should not surgically add and subtract many things to and from their bodies, using all manner of products just for them to appear beautiful. Little do many know that a person can look beautiful on the outside, but look filthy and ugly on the inside. You can have a beautiful body, but an ugly spirit. A beautiful body may be pleasing to humans, but to God it is filthy.

It is for this reason, the apostle Peter wrote an exhortation, saying: “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. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves…” (1 Peter 3: 4- 5).

Women like Sarah and Rebekah were beautiful not only on the outside but also on the inside. They possessed beauty holistically. But they paid greater attention to maintaining their inner beauty which greatly pleases God. Certainly, an unbeliever can have a beautiful body, but can never have a beautiful spirit. However, a child of God has a beautiful spirit and can have a beautiful body also.

Moreover, God’s children have this consolation that “…though our outer self (body) is wasting away, yet our inner self (spirit) is being renewed day by day,” (2 Corinthians 4:16). No matter how our appearance may change as we grow old with muscle deterioration, gray hair and wrinkles, our inner spiritual nature can be renewed every day.

By James Quansah, Pastor