Chapter 22. The Three Types of Obedience in Real Life. The vulgar, slavish, worldly idea of freedom thinks it consists in being bound to nothing. No such thing is God's idea of liberty. George MacDonald. Up to this point, we've talked about the three kinds of obedience in general terms. Now let's look at a specific New Testament commandment and see how our three representative people respond to this commandment. The commandment we're going to look at is from 1 Peter.
Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear; but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3:3-4. Fear obedience. Drusilla Dread. Drusilla Dread is always worried about the lake of fire the Bible talks about. She knows that no sacrifice in this life is too great to make in order to avoid eternal punishment.
As Jesus said, it's better to cut off our right hand than to end up there. However, as we learned, Drusilla is also a pragmatist. She's certainly not going to make any sacrifices over things that she thinks will not cause her to lose her salvation. Dress plainly? Don't wear jewelry? Don't adorn myself? She asks in disbelief. Why? I wouldn't think of living that way. One day, another Christian pointed out to her what 1 Peter says.
Okay, Drusilla replied, you may be right that I shouldn't adorn myself the way I do, but I'm not going to worry about it because it's not a salvation issue. For Drusilla, that was the end of the matter. Dutiful obedience. Timothy and Tammy Toiler. As you recall, Timothy Toiler is a type 2 Christian who is a dutiful servant of Christ. His wife Tammy is the same. Together, they are committed to living obediently to Christ their King, which is commendable. However, it's not love obedience.
Tammy Toiler obeys the commands in 1 Peter that are directed to wives, just as Timothy obeys those directed to husbands. But Tammy doesn't like these commandments at all, and she can't see what purpose they serve. I don't understand why I can't adorn myself with jewelry and upscale clothing, she complains. What difference does it make to Christ? Tammy sees no purpose or logic behind these commands.
Nevertheless, being an obedient servant of Christ, Tammy Toiler obeys these directives, although she goes no further than what the Scriptures actually say. To Timothy and Tammy, the New Testament commands are simply a list of do's and don'ts. They see no bigger picture than that. Christ no doubt accepts their obedience, but the Toilers miss out on much of the joy that comes with love obedience. Love obedience. Luke and Lydia Lovejoy.
As Christians living the kingdom life, Luke and Lydia Lovejoy approach this commandment quite differently than the others. To begin with, there's never a question in their minds as to whether or not they will obey this command. Of course, they will obey it, and they will do so with joy. What are the reasons behind this commandment? They ask. We know Christ didn't give us this command to be arbitrary or to control us or to make us different from other people. He gave us this commandment because He loves us.
Its ultimate purpose is to help mold us into His image. So which attributes of Christ does this commandment address? Before seeking answers to their questions, the Lovejoys try to think of any parallel Scripture passages. The passage they immediately think of is 1 Timothy 2:8-10. I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works. Luke and Lydia Lovejoy can't help noticing that Paul and Peter give almost identical directives. So what is the big picture behind these commands? The big picture. After considerable reflection, the Lovejoys realize that the big picture is multifaceted.
The specific items mentioned—braided hair, gold, pearls, costly clothing—are like the bricks that make up a wall. That's all Timothy and Tammy Toiler see. They're like the two masons who couldn't visualize anything beyond laying bricks. However, Luke and Lydia Lovejoy realize that these bricks are intended to construct a beautiful cathedral, a soul that is completely remolded into the image of Christ. What are some aspects of such a soul?
Peter directs our attention to the first aspect: that we must focus on adorning our soul, not our physical body. He says, do not let your adorning be external, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3:3-4. This is no small matter, for it's at the center of the kingdom life.
Is our focus on the inner man, which we adorn because it makes us beautiful in God's eyes, or is our focus on our corruptible physical body, which we adorn because we want to impress other humans? Whose presence are we primarily conscious of? God's presence or the presence of other people? Do we adorn ourselves to please God or to please people? If we adorn ourselves to please people, then we're going to adorn our outward physical body. The world places maximum value on external beauty.
In the world, what's on the outside often counts far more than what's on the inside. When we humans look at a room full of people, we primarily see faces and bodies. In contrast, God primarily sees hearts. And we cannot adorn what God sees without changing our hearts through Christ's power. Obviously, if our primary focus is on adorning our souls to appear beautiful before God, we're not going to disobey God and adorn ourselves on the outside. If we do that, we've just made our souls uglier.
Today, when people think of plain dress and the rejection of outward adornment, they probably think of Mennonites, Amish, Brethren, and certain Pentecostal groups. However, in times past, these commandments were closely obeyed by the pilgrims, Puritans, Moravians, Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and spiritually minded Methodists. One of the strongest sermons I've ever come across against adornment was preached by John Wesley.
In his sermon, Wesley points out the discrepancy between outward adornment and inward holiness. Few can readily grasp the opposition there is between outward adorning and this inward quietness of spirit. You never can thoroughly enjoy this quietness of spirit while you are fond of outward adorning. It is only when you free yourself from outward adorning that you can in calmness possess your soul. Only when you have cast off your fondness for dress will the peace of God reign in your hearts.
What's more, the putting on of costly apparel is directly opposite to what the apostle calls the hidden man of the heart. It is opposite to the whole image of God in which we were created and which is stamped anew upon the hearts of every Christian believer. It is opposite to the mind which was in Christ Jesus and the whole nature of inward holiness. All the time you are studying this outward adorning, the whole inward work of the Spirit stands still. Not only that, it recedes.
Instead of growing more heavenly-minded, you become more and more earthly-minded. If you once had fellowship with the Father and the Son, it now gradually declines and you sink deeper and deeper into the spirit of the world. Artificiality. The Lovejoys also realize that a soul that is molded into the image of Christ is also free of artificiality. Artificiality and Christ dwell in two separate realms. Everything that artificiality represents, Christ is not.
This applies both to fake exterior spirituality and to fake exterior physical adornment. 20th century preacher A.W. Tozer observed, advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense. Books are sold and clothes and cosmetics are peddled by playing continually upon this desire to appear what we are not. When we pretend to be more godly than we really are, the Bible calls it hypocrisy. When we pretend to look different physically than we really are, the Bible calls it vanity.
In the aforementioned sermon, Wesley continued, the wearing of flamboyant or costly apparel naturally tends to breed and to increase vanity. By vanity, I mean the love and desire of being admired and praised. Every one of you that is fond of dress has a witness of this in your own heart. You know in your hearts it is with a view to be admired that you so adorn yourselves. You know that you would not take the same pains if no one was to see you but God and His holy angels.
Now, the more you indulge this foolish desire, the more it grows upon you. You have vanity enough by nature, but by thus indulging it, you increase it a hundredfold. Aim at pleasing God, and these ornaments will disappear. Wasting God's money. Luke and Lydia Lovejoy also realized that part of the bigger picture is the waste of God's money. It was the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and refused to help the beggar Lazarus. Luke 16:19.
The Lovejoys can't imagine Jesus decking Himself out in expensive clothing or decorating His body with gold and jewels. He would have been adorning Himself with food taken from the mouths of the hungry. Lydia recently read that women spend an enormous $426 billion every year on beauty products. Think what could be done with that money for the poor, she exclaims. And that's merely what women spend on cosmetics and other beauty products.
When we add what both men and women spend on expensive and fashionable clothing, the overall sum is staggering. Wesley pointed out, every shilling which you save from your own clothing, you may expend in clothing the naked and relieving the various necessities of the poor. Therefore, every shilling which you needlessly spend on your apparel is, in effect, stolen from God and from the poor. For what purpose did you buy these ornaments? To please God?
No, but to please your own fancy or to gain the admiration and applause of those that were no wiser than yourself. Luke Lovejoy's application. Lydia Lovejoy has enthusiastically embraced these teachings on adornment. But what about her husband Luke? Unlike some men, Luke doesn't take the position that since both Peter and Paul address their commandments to women, he can simply ignore them. After examining the reasons behind the commandments, he sees that the same principles apply equally to men and women.
If it's wrong for a woman to put on an artificial exterior, it's wrong for a man to do so. If women are to dress modestly, so are men. Vanity is vanity, and artificiality is artificiality, whether it's in a man or a woman. Luke knows that wasting money on expensive clothing is no different for a man than it is for a woman. Both Luke and Lydia know that when God gave us these commands about adornment and clothing, He wasn't trying to add an additional burden to our lives.
He is trying to shape our souls to make them as beautiful as possible. When we realize this, it's not only easy to obey these commands, but it's also easy to love them. In the next section, we're going to look at some of the provisions God has made to help us live the kingdom life.