THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS

Psalm 96:9; 1 Chronicles 16:29; Rom. 12:1-2

“Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” Psalm 29:2 (NKJV)

It is said that “beauty” is in the eye of the beholder.  I believe this to be true.  This saying first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek but didn’t appear in English and in its current form in print until the 19th century.  Shakespeare put it as ‘Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye’ in “Love’s Labours Lost” (1588).  The point is what is beheld as beauty or being beautiful is found in the beholder’s view and discernment of what they see.

1 Peter 3:3-4 tells us real beauty is about what’s inside. It’s not the fancy hair, shiny jewelry, or trendy clothes that truly matter. This puts the focus on the heart and a quiet, gentle spirit, ‘which in God’s sight is very precious’. That kind of beauty lasts forever. It doesn’t fade like the physical does.

We are to let the inner beauty in us as sanctified Christians be what is seen by others.  The beholders, those who watch us who are believers so closely, and they do, look to see a beauty that is not physical and of this world, but of what is in us as transformed children of light.  Ephesians 5:8-9 says, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light”.  Light allows us and others to see clearly.  And those who watch need to clearly see the “beauty” of Christ in us.

If our beholders see us as those who are of the world, nothing different or of greater value will be seen.  But – “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another [as brothers and sisters in the Lord] and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).  This is what the world expects and needs to see in God’s holy children.  They want and need to see “the beauty of holiness”.  Psalms 29:2 and 96:9 say to, “Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness . . .”  It is this the world will behold as “beautiful.”  It is this the world will be drawn to because the world doesn’t have it.  John 13:35 says, “By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  To the eyes of those who behold us, this will be beheld through God’s holiness in us.

“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Cor. 7:1).  Are you living the kind of life that shows the “beauty of holiness” or is what others behold of you less than God’s standard?

Rev. Douglas K. Johnson