Admirable Women, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

A stained glass window sparkles and shines when the sun is out. But in dark times, beauty is seen only if there is light within. Our culture places a heavy burden on women when it comes to outward appearance, but God's Word calls us to focus more of our attention on the imperishable beauty of the heart. Are we cultivating a heart ruled by trust in our Lord?

Are we allowing God's grace to transform our attitudes and affections? Christ frees us from the chains of impossible beauty standards so we can live for an audience of one, Christ Himself. Rich unpacks 1 Peter 3, 1-6 in this message titled, Admirable Women.

Let's listen in. So we are in 1 Peter. We need to review the identity of a free people is what we covered in chapter 1 because the title of this whole series is live as people who are free. And in chapter 1, we looked at the identity of the free people. We are God's chosen and beloved. And then in chapter 1 also, we discovered that living by faith is indeed liberating. Living by faith is liberating. And now we're in the third series of this book, this letter that Peter wrote.

And this third series has 12 parts to it. It's called 12 Characteristics of People Who Are Free. So let's review the first six characteristics of people who are free. People who are free are feeding on His goodness. People who are free are proclaiming His goodness. People who are free are living His goodness. People who are free are free through submission.

That's how it works in the economy of God's kingdom. We are free through submission. People who are free are faithful through sorrow. And people who are free are following through suffering.

The seventh one is today. People are free, the women who are free are admirable women. Speaking from the text that Adrienne just read for us this morning. And as she introduced it, very aptly, the first word in chapter 3 is likewise. That's kind of like a therefore, right? So we need to understand the context.

And she gave it to us. What Peter is about to say, are you listening to me? What Peter is about to say is anchored in the cross of Christ.

This is not a popular text today. But what he's about to write is anchored in the cross of Christ. And we'll discover that as we go on. So let's remember that because what Peter just finished talking about is the example that we have in Jesus.

And so it's the likewise is like so with the example of Jesus. And these other things that I've talked about. Peter's talking about relationships. People who are free manifest their freedom in the relationships that they have. First of all, civil relationships.

And he's talked about that a lot in chapter 2 so far. Are civil relationships. Here he's going to be talking about family relationships.

Later on he's going to be talking about church relationships. And people who are free manifest their freedom in their relationships. And in these relationships he speaks of order.

That's what he talked about in our civil relationships. There's a matter of order. It is a God-designed, God-ordained order in civil relationships. And so it is in marriage, which is why he says wives be subject to your own husbands. The idea here is maintaining a good order for human flourishing.

Let me just say something here. The Father and the Son and the Spirit, the triune Godhead, they are equal. The Father and the Son are equal. But they are not the same. They are equal but the Son submitted himself to the Father.

That doesn't make them unequal. Keep that in mind. What Peter is writing here is anchored in the cross of Christ. And so he's going to use a word a couple of times in here. It's the word adorning.

You know what word that is? Cosmos. Cosmos is a word that means order. And it's originally a military term. So when you see military array, right, forms, columns, marching, all this order. It's majestic.

It's awe-inspiring. And it's a word that's used for order that has nuances of beauty. That which is attractive. That which commands your attention. And so this word adorning is the word cosmos used a couple of times in this paragraph.

Let's remember that. Fundamentally, what he's talking about is order. God-ordained order.

What God designed is beautiful and good because God is good. So what he begins with is, he says, verse 3. Let's look at chapter 3, verse 3. We're going to come back to verses 1 and 2 and continue there. But let's start at verse 3.

Let's start with a negative. Do not let your adorning be external. The braiding of hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, and the clothing you wear.

Again, that adorning is the word cosmos. So he's saying, I'm not talking about a superficial beauty. Don't let your beauty be a superficial beauty. Don't let your adorning be a put-on. Don't let what makes you a beautiful person just a put-on. It's an external focus.

Cosmos is a root from which we get the word cosmetics. And those cosmetics can be tangible or intangible. Your personality or disposition.

Are you a different person when you're around people in public versus the person you are in private or with your closest friends? Is your beauty simply a put-on? Peter says, that's not the point here. Your beauty is not to be an external focus. It's not to be just a put-on outwardly. He says, superficial beauty, don't let your adorning be external because a beauty that is simply an external focus becomes oppressive. A beauty that is simply an external focus becomes oppressive.

Why? Because it becomes all about comparisons. It becomes about keeping up appearances.

And when we have everything in order, whether it's my physical being or my dispositional being, I have to put on this face so that when I go out in public, I've got everything in order. That's an oppressive way to live, keeping up appearances. Let me talk for a moment about what's happening and some of the cruelty of the unrealistic beauty standards for young females today. And these are messages that they take in and it carries with them all the way into their adulthood.

And it's damaging. The consequences of media's unrealistic beauty standards on teenage girls is frankly alarming. Parents, are you listening? Half of young 13-year-old American girls reported being unhappy with their body. This number increased to nearly 80% by the time the girls reached 17. What is informing your daughter's standard with the whole idea of beauty?

Moms and dads, that is a key role that you have in your daughter's life. Nearly half of young girls aged between 13 and 17 reported a desire to look like the models they viewed in fashion magazines and reported that these magazines gave them the ideal body to strive for. Girls who frequently read glamour magazines related to weight loss are six times more likely to engage in extreme unhealth weight loss control behaviors. And so my third point that, as Peter talks about, don't let your adorning simply be an external thing, is because not only is it oppressive, but it leads to chaos. It leads to internal chaos.

Chaos is the opposite of cosmos. And you might be spending a lot of time with cosmetics outwardly, but inside things are a mess. That's not how the Gospel works. That's not God's design for us. And when that chaos, when we have these unrealistic external standards, then that misinformation controls a woman's understanding about herself, her self-image, her understanding about who she really is, her value, and what true beauty is. And when all attention goes to the outward, the inner person is, it's a marginalized topic.

But that's where the real person resides, isn't it? And when we're paying so much attention on what a young woman or a woman looks like outwardly, and we're not paying attention to what's going on inside, it will result in chaos. I want you to look at this bust. This is from the Roman era. And this is kind of what Peter was talking about, where the women would be in competition with you, and they wanted, they demanded to be beautiful, and so they would wear all kinds of jewelry and put their hair up in some fantastic ways.

And this woman would probably be considered, she represented the beauty of first century Roman Empire. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.