Question:
Dear
Are
we told anywhere in the Bible that it is a sin for a woman to wear makeup?
I know that some churches teach this is a sin.
Grace
Answer: Dear Grace,
No
biblical passage instructs us that it is a sin for a woman to wear cosmetics.
This teaching came primarily from what is called the holiness
movement—an outgrowth of the Puritans who came to the United States from
England. The holiness movement
combined a number of denominational traditions, emphasizing the outward
manifestations and works that humans produce as both signs of their
righteousness as well as criteria that God uses to determine whether they
“make it” into his kingdom of heaven. Such
prohibitions become nothing more than legalism, which lead us away from the
gospel (see Colossians 2:20-23).
The
unbiblical abuse of the Bible that takes place in an attempt to persuade people
about such a teaching generally includes:
1.
the negative example of Jezebel in the Old Testament
(2 Kings 9:30).
2.
a passage in Isaiah (Isaiah 3:16-23).
There is actually nothing in this passage
3.
passages in Jeremiah 4:30 and Ezekiel 23:40 that use
the spiritual symbolism of
cosmetics, of appearing (spiritually) to be something one is not—passages that
speak of the nation of
4.
1 Peter 3:1-4. Again,
nothing in this passage about cosmetics—a passage often
taken out of its context by those who wish to force women to forsake cosmetics.
The
Bible teaches that cosmetics, along with many other parts of our culture,
lifestyles (including eating food) that are used in excess, for the wrong
reasons and purposes, can be wrong—but there is nothing explicitly in the
Bible that condemns the use of makeup.
In
Christ,