Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. [1 Peter 3:3-4 KJV]


Don't be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on jewelry, or beautiful clothes or hair arrangement. Be beautiful inside, in your hearts, with the lasting charm of a gentle and quiet spirit which is so precious to God. [1 Peter 3:3-4 TLB]


These two verses actually talk about adornment, or simply put, 'dressing'. Many people in the Christian circle misapply these verses by attributing it to the body and emphasizing on physical attire or clothes, but I checked these verses very closely, and I discovered that it is not talking about the adornment of the body, rather, it focuses on the adornment of the man himself (or the woman herself):

"Whose adorning..." (verse 3)
"...holy women... adorned themselves..." (verse 5)

The above verses never referred to the body, rather, they referred to the man himself, of which the body is only a subset, they adorned themselves, NOT 'they adorned their bodies'

Verse 3 talks about what adornment is NOT, while verse 4 talks about what adornment IS. We discover that Christians of today have not made a clean break from the way the world operates. When we were born into the world, our lifestyles grew with the worldly practice, the food the world eats, the clothes they wear, the language they speak, all these we picked up along the way, but when we came to Jesus, into the Kingdom of God, which is another world entirely, many people still imported the old world lifestyles, practices and mannerisms into the new world, they never learn the lifestyles of the new world in the same way they learnt that of the old. Even though things of this new world are totally different, many new comers never take time to understand and learn the lifestyles here - the new way of eating, drinking, talking, dressing, living... The major difference between the Kingdom of the world and that of God is that everything done in the kingdom of the world is physical, whereas in the kingdom of God, things done there are spiritual.

Verse 3 says that the adornment of Christians should not be in the physical way of washing in the bath, going before the mirror, selecting the clothes, wearing clothes, rubbing some pomade..., and we quietly say to ourselves, "thank God today, I'm looking great and beautiful", NO, the Bible says that such kind of dressing up is the world's definition of dressing, the Bible's definition or description of dressing is different, in fact, in the Bible, DRESSING UP IS NOT PHYSICAL, IT IS SPIRITUAL. Wearing of physical clothes and the plaiting of the hair, no matter how moderate and modest it appears, is the understanding the world has about dressing up, that kind of dressing is what we met when we came into the world, the Bible says here, that the dressing of Christians SHOULD NOT BE in all those physical items. If I wash myself, wear my clothes, brush my teeth, plait or barb my hair well and wear a good shoe to match, and I say, "yes, I'm dressed up now", Bible is saying, No, I have not dressed up, that is NOT dressing, I have only covered my nakedness, I have only cleaned up myself from contacting germs and diseases, I am NOT YET DRESSED. As far as Bible is concerned, no man is dressed up yet, who only wore clothes and plaited hair or put some jewelleries. As a child of God who wants to go out in the morning, what clothes do you wear?, how do you dress up, how do you do your hair, how do you wear your own gold?, is it this physical gold everyone wears? since the world BEAUTIFIES itself with what they wear outside, how also will a child of God beautify himself because the Bible enjoins us too to beautify ourselves?

The Bible is not condemning the plaiting of hair, the wearing of gold or the putting on of apparel outrightly, but it is condemning the physicality of it. The Bible says that the way it is done in the world is NOT the way the children of God ought to do theirs, the Bible says I will plait my hair, but not with physical thread, I will wear gold, but not the physical gold, I will wear clothes, but not physical clothes. What the world calls dressing is different from what we call dressing, because to us, that dressing practiced in the world is simply "covering of nakedness", therefore, we STILL NEED TO DRESS UP PROPERLY, AND BE BEAUTIFUL THE BIBLE WAY. What then is this?


" But let it be the hidden man of the heart..."

I love the way The Living Bible begins this verse 4, it says "Be beautiful inside, in your hearts...". What the Bible then says here is that if I want to dress up as a child of God, my dressing is NOT the clothes I wear, rather, my dressing is INSIDE. So, when I wake up in the morning, I do the normal washing of the body, which is NOT part of my dressing, but is simply hygiene for me, to keep germs and diseases at bay, I wear my clothes normally, but it is NOT part of my dressing, it is simply to cover my nakedness, and whatever I put on in the physical is NOT what beautifies me, because my own beauty now is not in the physical attachments, my beauty is INSIDE.


"But let it be... the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit..."

Verse 4 here gives a vivid description of the clothes that I, as a Christian, ought to wear now before I can say that I have dressed up. It says I will wear ornaments or jewelleries, but the jewellery or the ornaments that I wear now, is NOT the dangling ones on the body, rather, it is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. So, I'm discovering now that when a worldly girl wants to wear ornament and she reaches for her bangles, necklaces, gold, rings for the different parts of the body, she is only confused. For me now, in wearing my own ornaments, I simply reach out for the meekness and the quiet spirit from the cupboard of Christ. My gold is the humility, my necklace is the quietness and gentleness, my lipstick is the meekness on the lips.

It is a pity that even many of us who call ourselves Christians today often admire the physical clothes that people wear far above the beauty of the inner man. We make worldly comments like "Oh! sister, this attire is great and gorgeous, ha, you look like an angel, I love this, this is sweet, I can see the glory of God...", what a shame to arrogate worldly beauty to Christ's glory, we call men beautiful because of the physical clothes, but THAT is NOT beauty, true beauty is INSIDE. Therefore, no matter what a man wears on the body when he comes out, I am now trying to check, "is this man beautiful", "is this sister beautiful", and my indices has nothing to do with the external, I want to check if the glory of God is radiating forth, and oozing out of from inside.


For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: [1Peter 3:5-6a]


Looking at verse 5 above, one discovers that the kind of clothes that made holy women glorious and beautiful, that even God respected was not the physical attire that many are gunning after, rather, it was a glorious inside life, a submissive and pure spirit full of gentleness, meekness and quietness. Holy women adorned themselves with subjection, meekness, righteousness and Christlike tenderness. This is spiritual adornment, this is the kind of clothes the Christian should wear.

When you wake up in the morning, and on checking the time, you see how late you are for work already, therefore, you quickly dash into the bathroom, wash yourself, put on your clothes, your shoes, beautify yourself and confirm your perfection from the mirror, and tell yourself, "I'm set for today's work" and off you go, without any meeting with the Lord, without putting on the ornaments of beauty on the inside, my question is, "Have you really dressed up?", Friend, as far as heaven sees you, you are still naked, you are undressed, you lack any form of beauty worth beholding, nothing beautiful to show forth, you are starkly nude and shameful, heaven is querying, "why are you naked?", heaven says, "I can't see any beauty to behold, I can't see any clothing of godliness, I can't find any ornament of meekness, I can't see any jewellery of righteousness".

Another important issue here is that many Christians buy clothes today, not just to cover nakedness, but to enhance their beauty. But suffice me to say that physical clothes, or anything added to the cloth or to the body, have no beauty to give any Christian. If there is a cloth to cover nakedness, whatever a man adds to that cloth for the purpose of enhancing beauty, IS A WASTE. If my reason for adding anything to cloth, or buying any item to put on my body is so that I can be more beautiful, then I have missed it, because the beauty of a child of God is not determined or measured by anything outward or physical, it is NOT the CLOTHES that enhance the beauty. I must wear clothes to cover my nakedness, my clothes must be neat, they must be presentable, BUT, my beauty is NOT in those clothes, neither am I dressed up because I have physical clothes on. DRESSING and BEAUTY are only products of my inner life, NOT my outward clothes.

For me as a Christian, my hair beauty salon is not a kiosk by the roadside, my hair beauty salon is my knees, in the place of prayer, where my inner hair is well set, so that I can be truly beautiful. The place of dressing is the place of meeting with the Lord in the closet, where He gives you His meekness, His holiness, His righteousness, His quietness, His presence, He decks you from head to toes with His spiritual adornment, and you are glistering and shining with the glory of the Lord..., that is the beauty. For me now to paint my lips, I must apply meekness to it, and obliterate corruption, evil speaking and abuse from my lips. True beauty that the New Testament emphasises is purely that of the inner man, it is within, a divine work done on the heart, which reflects on the outside for all to see.

That woman is an ugly, stinking woman, who outwardly appears glamorous because of the attire and ornaments she puts on, but suddenly bursts out in anger and offensive foul languages because she was offended, all the physical things she used to cover up her dirty nature will immediately become odious before all, because her true nature has been revealed. What she needs is an inner beauty, rather than an outward covering that is only a deception.

In contrast too, you can be wearing a gorgeous flowing garment, that leaves no part of you exposed as a woman, but covers your body nakedness completely, you may appear with shamefacedness, the head tied up, the body neatly kept, without external additions of jewelleries and ornaments, without flamboyance, but modestly and moderately dressed... YET, heaven says, "YOU ARE NAKED" - Modest, but naked, because your inner man is starved of grace and God, you are empty of godliness, even though you are full of the 'form' of it. The true adornment is not in the body, it is in the heart.

The physical things never beautify, neither do they dress a man up, only the spiritual is the true epitome of beauty and proper dressing, and the place for that dressing is not before any physical mirror, instead, it is before the mirror of the Word of God.

Whose adorning LET IT NOT BE that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel But LET IT BE the hidden man of the heart, in that which IS NOT CORRUPTIBLE, even THE ORNAMENT OF A MEEK AND QUIET SPIRIT, which is in the sight of God of great price.