What About Jewelry?
Most people who tell you to take off the jewelry will fall back on 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3. More on those in a minute.
The first question to ask (remember, the Bible is about God)—would God portray Himself as tempting His bride to sin?
Obviously not.
Read this passage about God making Israel His bride:
I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. (Ezekiel 16:8b-13a)
Not only did God’s bride have bracelets, necklaces, earrings, a nose ring, and a crown, adorned with gold and silver … she was also adorned in fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth.
How does that square up with 1 Timothy 2:9?
Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire. (ESV)
The Lord God put a crown on her head, but we can’t wear braids? The Lord God adorned His bride with gold and silver, but jewelry is a sin? The Lord God provided Israel with fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth, but we may not have “costly attire” (whatever that means)?
How do we justify God providing what some would call “sin”?
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church puts it this way:
Paul and Peter are both saying that women are to be marked, first and foremost, by their good works, not their good shoes, or their good looks; by their godliness and not their gaudiness. To this end, John Stott said, "The church is to be a veritable beauty parlor because it encourages women members to adorn themselves with good deeds. Women need to remember that if nature made them plain, grace can make them beautiful, and if nature has made them beautiful, good deeds can add to their beauty."
As you can see, the Bible warns us against an idolatrous view of outward beauty and adornment, while approving of the right use of both.[1]
The “prohibitions” are contrasts, not prohibitions. Don’t find your worth in the things you put on; your value is in Christ, and your inner beauty is what will last.
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