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How Attractive Women Abuse Their Beauty · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Last time. Last week we talked about women in ministry
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  Speaker 1: silent women versus speaking women in first two of the
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  Speaker 1: two twelve That was Abja twenty one seventy four. Today
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  Speaker 1: we look at women and beauty in a selfie culture,
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  Speaker 1: particularly how feminine beauty gets abused in such a culture.
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  Speaker 1: And we get there from a question from Elisa asking
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  Speaker 1: about the verse in our Bible reading this week, one
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  Speaker 1: that intel now has never appeared on the podcast Proverbs
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  Speaker 1: eleven twenty two. Pastor John, Hello, and thank you for
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  Speaker 1: taking my question. Lisa writes, as a woman living in
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  Speaker 1: a culture that heavily emphasizes physical beauty, I find Proverbs
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  Speaker 1: eleven twenty two striking and convicting, like a gold ring
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  Speaker 1: in a pig's snout? Is a beautiful woman without discretion?
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  Speaker 1: Could you explain the meaning behind this metaphor? Why does
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  Speaker 1: scripture compare a beautiful woman and without discretion to a
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  Speaker 1: pig with a gold ring? What exactly does it mean
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  Speaker 1: to lack discretion in this context? And more personally, how
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  Speaker 1: can I discern whether I am prioritizing external beauty over
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  Speaker 1: godly character? What practical steps can I take to guard
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  Speaker 1: my heart against the temptation to focus on appearance at
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  Speaker 1: the expense of wisdom and discretion.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is a striking verse, like a gold ring
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  Speaker 2: in a pig snout is a beautiful woman without discretion
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  Speaker 2: Proverbs eleven twenty two. It's not only striking, it's disgusting. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and I think it's intended to be. Pigs were not
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  Speaker 2: only ritually unclean in Israel. For example, Israel was not
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  Speaker 2: allowed to eat ham or bacon. They were also and
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  Speaker 2: they are today, notoriously filthy animal. They love mud, They
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  Speaker 2: stick their faces in the slop as they eat. It's
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  Speaker 2: not an accident that the word swine is an extremely
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  Speaker 2: derogatory word. On the other hand, a gold ring is beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: It's gold. Gold is precious, it's expensive. Rings were used
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  Speaker 2: in honorable ways for beautification. For example, Abraham's servant, remember
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  Speaker 2: put a gold ring on Rebecca's nose to honor her
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  Speaker 2: and celebrate that God had prospered his way to find
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  Speaker 2: a wifer for Isaac. And the comparison then that the
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  Speaker 2: writer makes is that the gold ring of beauty and
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  Speaker 2: honor and value is like physical beauty of a woman.
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  Speaker 2: That's the comparison. The gold ring is like a woman's
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  Speaker 2: physical beauty. In other words, it's a good thing. That's
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  Speaker 2: the first thing to say. It's a good thing. Beauty
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  Speaker 2: is not bad. For example, and Abigail are both described
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  Speaker 2: as deserning and beautiful Esther two seven for Samuel twenty
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  Speaker 2: five to three. If God has made a man handsome
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  Speaker 2: and a woman beautiful, they don't need to apologize for it.
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  Speaker 2: It's a free, undeserved gift. Everybody should think about that.
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  Speaker 2: We came into the world and it owes nothing to us.
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  Speaker 2: How we were born, who our parents were, and is
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  Speaker 2: not only a gift, it is dangerous, just like being
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  Speaker 2: homely or just ordinary and plain is a gift and
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  Speaker 2: a danger. Everything hangs on what we do with our gifts.
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  Speaker 2: We can please God and bless people with beauty, and yes,
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  Speaker 2: with homeliness, Yes we can, I've seen it done. Or
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  Speaker 2: we can be conceded and sensual with our beauty, and
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  Speaker 2: we can be self pitying and slovenly with our homeliness.
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  Speaker 2: Good looks and bad looks are simply not the most
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  Speaker 2: important thing. They are not essential to god pleasing personhood.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that last point, they're not essential to
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  Speaker 2: god pleasing personhood. Is what Proverbs eleven twenty two is
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  Speaker 2: getting at. Like a gold ring in a pig snout,
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  Speaker 2: is a beautiful woman without discretion. In other words, if
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  Speaker 2: God has given you the gift of physical beauty, and
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  Speaker 2: that beauty is not in the service of Godliness, then
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  Speaker 2: it may as well have been given to a pig.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, the beauty is being wasted on you,
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  Speaker 2: like a gold ring is wasted on a pig. The
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  Speaker 2: way not to waste physical beauty is to realize that
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  Speaker 2: it is meant as a pointer to moral and spiritual beauty.
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  Speaker 2: The word translated discretion, like a gold ring in a
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  Speaker 2: pig snout, is a beautiful woman without discretion. The word
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  Speaker 2: translated discretion is often translated taste, So to have discretion
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  Speaker 2: is to have discerning taste, not just in food, but
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  Speaker 2: in comportment, dress, adornment, behavior. The word is translated good
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  Speaker 2: judgment in Psalm one, nineteen sixty six. It's used in
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  Speaker 2: Proverbs twenty six sixteen for the ability to answer with
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  Speaker 2: sensible wisdom. And we know that the fear of the
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  Speaker 2: Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the
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  Speaker 2: Lord is the root and heart of discretion and discernment
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  Speaker 2: and good judgment. So when Proverbs thirty one thirty says
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  Speaker 2: charm is deceitful, beauty is vain empty, But a woman
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  Speaker 2: who fears the Lord is to be praised, we understand
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  Speaker 2: that what keeps physical beauty from being vain or empty,
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  Speaker 2: or useless or wasted is the discretion that is rooted
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  Speaker 2: in the fear of the Lord. All the beauty in
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  Speaker 2: the world is meant to call attention to the beauty
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  Speaker 2: of our creator, and in a lesser way, to the
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  Speaker 2: beauty of his children's godly character. Pigs, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 2: do not know what to do with a gold ring
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  Speaker 2: in their noses. They don't know what to do with it,
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  Speaker 2: just like ungodly women who lack discretion don't know what
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  Speaker 2: to do with their physical beauty. So a pig sticks
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  Speaker 2: his nose with its beautiful ring in the mud and
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  Speaker 2: in the slop that he's being given for food. And
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  Speaker 2: so women without discretion and godliness and wisdom misuse their
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  Speaker 2: physical beauty. They make it dirty. They use it to
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  Speaker 2: prop up their sagging egos with sensuality. They use it
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  Speaker 2: to exert power over unworthy men. They use it to
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  Speaker 2: stroke their need for superiority over other women, or worse,
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  Speaker 2: they prostitute themselves and throw away God's good gift of beauty.
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  Speaker 2: So the main point, I think is clear. Physical beauty
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  Speaker 2: in and of itself is not essential to god pleasing personhood.
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  Speaker 2: Physical beauty is a gift of God, and everything hangs
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  Speaker 2: on what to do with it. If your pig lie
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  Speaker 2: in lacking discretion and wisdom and godliness and fear the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: then you will push your ring of beauty into the
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  Speaker 2: slop that the world calls glamour. God has a very
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  Speaker 2: different view of such misuse. Listen to these terrible words
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  Speaker 2: from Isaiah three verses sixteen to I think eighteen. The
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  Speaker 2: Lord said, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and
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  Speaker 2: walk with outstretched necks and glancing wantonly with their eyes,
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  Speaker 2: mincing along as they go, tingling with their feet. Therefore
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  Speaker 2: the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of
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  Speaker 2: the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare
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  Speaker 2: their secret parts. In that day, the Lord will take
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  Speaker 2: away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, the pendants,
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  Speaker 2: the bracelets, the scars, the perfume boxes, the signet rings,
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  Speaker 2: and knows rings. Instead of perfume there will be rottenness.
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  Speaker 2: God has told us how to avoid this kind of judgment.
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  Speaker 2: For example, in one Peter three four, he says, let
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  Speaker 2: your adorning, speaking to the wives, especially the women, let
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  Speaker 2: your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with
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  Speaker 2: the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which
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  Speaker 2: in God's sight is very precious. And in verse Timothy
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  Speaker 2: twenty nine. Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with
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  Speaker 2: modesty and self control, and with what is proper for
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  Speaker 2: women who profess godliness, namely with good works. So physical
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  Speaker 2: beauty is a gift from God. Everything hangs on how
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  Speaker 2: it's used. It's not essential to god pleasing personhood. It
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  Speaker 2: is meant to adorn that personhood and point to a
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  Speaker 2: far for greater beauty, the beauty of Godliness and the
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  Speaker 2: fear of the Lord, and faith in Jesus Christ and
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  Speaker 2: obedient devotion to Him.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. Yeah, everything hangs on how it's used. Physical beauty
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  Speaker 1: is a good but secondary gift from God, and unless
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  Speaker 1: it's governed by godliness and discretion and the fear of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, it is wasted like a gold ring in
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  Speaker 1: a pig's snout. Because it was meant to point to
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  Speaker 1: the deeper, imperishable beauty of a heart devoted to Christ, beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: very rich theology for life in the age of body
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  Speaker 1: image and selfy culture, and for more on fearless women,
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  Speaker 1: feminine beauty and modesty. We've covered a lot of other
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  Speaker 1: ground here too, which you can see in the APGA
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  Speaker 1: book on pages two thirty nine to two forty six.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: If you have a question to ask Pastor John, find
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  Speaker 1: a link to email us, and also find our complete
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  Speaker 1: episode archive at the same place at asbestor John dot com.
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  Speaker 1: We just recently looked at the second most asked about
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  Speaker 1: text in our podcast history in for Timothy two twelve,
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  Speaker 1: and if you were to make a longer list of
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: versus most commonly asked about on the podcast, a top
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: fifteen list would also include two Timothy two twenty five
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  Speaker 1: on correcting opponents gently, another big topic in the age
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  Speaker 1: of social media, and a text in our Bible reading
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday and the topic up next time. I'm your host,
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky. We'll see you Thursday