This article is the third in a three-part blog series on beauty. Click here to read the first article, Beauty and the Beholder. Click here to read the second article, Discovering the Standard of Beauty.
The first two articles in this series focused on the perception and value of aesthetic beauty. In the first article, Beauty and the Beholder, I explained why the phrase “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” is wrong. In the second, Discovering the Standard of Beauty, I showed how God’s creation helps us realize how limited our view of beauty is. But throughout this series I’ve ignored a serious issue: the relationship between beauty and body image
When I first started this series, I did a little research to find out what other people thought of the phrase “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” The overwhelming majority thought the phrase was true because of the relationship between beauty and body image. Their reasoning went something like this:
“If we have a definite standard of beauty, then we will view some people as beautiful and others as ugly. This can lead to young girls hating their own bodies because it doesn’t measure up to the standard. It’s much better to say ‘beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’ because subjectivity allows us to accept us as we are.”
Honestly, I understand this point. It’s very well-intentioned and has credibility. When the media praises the beauty of the thin models in the fashion industry and the huge bodybuilders in movies, we who are not as genetically blessed could very easily hate our own bodies. The rise of depression and eating disorders attest to the reality of the problem, and there are quite a few people who go to extreme lengths just to be a copy of their favorite celebrities.
But throughout this blog series I’ve been defending the objectivity of beauty. Maybe a subjective standard of beauty can help us accept ourselves as we are, but it simply isn’t true. And I cannot change that fact. So what of the relationship between beauty and body image? Beautiful People
Well, beauty is supposed to point us to God. I’ve elaborated on this point in my earlier posts, but let me extend this further. If beauty is supposed to point us to God, then shouldn’t our own beauty point others to God? Definitely.
Some would say that God doesn’t care about our beauty. He only cares that our heart is right with Him. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how we look. However, Scripture reveals that God does notice our aesthetic beauty. He wanted the Old Testament priests serving at the temple to look good in order to reflect His glory. Even today He desires Christians, a royal priesthood and the temple of God, to strive to be as beautiful as they can be. Also, we should beautify ourselves in a way that glorifies God. The primary difficulty with this is that we’re proud. We don’t want to praise God, but, instead, want us to be the focus. So we try to impress people we don’t even like instead of wanting to glorify the One who loves us. When we live for the praise of others, we do “beautify” ourselves but not how God wants us to. Recognizing the qualities that make something beautiful is essential for us to beautify ourselves in a way that glorifies God. However, even this will not solve the problem of bad body image. This approach gives us a better view of our bodies and can solve obesity or anorexia, but it still cannot fix the fact that some people are intrinsically more beautiful than us. Rather than changing the definition of beauty from objective to subjective in order to solve the problem of bad body image, we should include a more complete definition of beauty. The Beauty of the Lord
In my last article, I said that God was the ultimate standard of beauty. Even though He’s invisible, He reflects His beauty through the aesthetics of His creation. But the standard of beauty is not nature—it’s God himself. He may use nature to show His beauty, but that is not the actual thing. It’s just a reflection of it. So what is God’s beauty?
I said before that beauty is whatever awes us. When talking about God, the word for beauty is sometimes rendered majesty, splendor, or glory for God’s splendor really does awe us. So if God’s beauty is another word for His glory, then what is God’s glory? Time and time again, God’s glory is mentioned along with His power, works, holiness, and even His name. Through this we are shown that God’s glory is the sum of His attributes. It’s His character. God’s glory--His beauty is God himself. When you take this into consideration, you’re faced with the undeniable truth that there are two types of beauty: aesthetics and character. The problem is we’re emphasizing the beauty of aesthetics so much that we’re not paying attention to the beauty of character. We need to view beauty biblically. The Bible takes the perfect approach because it rarely mentions aesthetics and predominantly focuses on one’s character. Knowing this is the solution to bad body image. The Perfect Balance
Because there are two types of beauty, we need to find a balance between the two. Using the Bible as our foundation, we can see that character is greater than aesthetics. So developing your own character is far more important than trying to look aesthetically beautiful. But the balance goes a little farther than that.
As stated above, we should beautify ourselves in order to point to God and do so in a way that pleases Him. This fact is frequently overlooked by Christians. Sometimes, we overemphasize our character and forget that God cares about how we look. We call character “true beauty” when, in fact, aesthetics is true beauty as well. Our own aesthetic beauty should be seen as a direct reflection of our righteous character. Minimizing our duty to be beautiful minimizes the role God plays in our lives. This mindset also ties into our works. God used His creation to declare the beauty of His character. Likewise, we should use our own work and creations to point to beautiful character which is epitomized by God. Viewing our occupation, endeavors in academia, and artistic efforts as ways to reflect God’s beautiful attributes is another way to balance the two types of beauty. But this is not the only way we to fix a “beauty imbalance.” Beauty, by definition, awes us. That is both aesthetics and character. We are easily awed by aesthetics, but how often are we awed by character? This is by far the hardest to do. We can and should develop our sensitivity to beauty. Noticing and evaluating aesthetic beauty is developed by learning the qualities that make something beautiful and observing them to familiarize yourself with true beauty. We must do the same with beauty of character. Learn the qualities of beautiful character like holiness, faithfulness, mercy, love, justice, and grace. Observe beautiful character to familiarize yourself with true beauty. These two actions are really just one. And when we do this one action again and again throughout our lives, we won’t just learn to be awed by character. We will slowly become beautiful. II Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This article is the third in a three-part blog series on beauty. Click here to read the first article, Beauty and the Beholder. Click here to read the second article, Discovering the Standard of Beauty.
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About MarkI create stories and lift things up and put them down. All for the glory of God. Archives
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