From culture to culture and generation to generation there’s great variation in clothing and hair styles. But our interest in those styles remains.

Scan the covers of newsstand magazines and it becomes obvious that most of us, probably women in particular, are very interested in knowing the current styles. Even the Bible addresses this fascination with what’s “in style.”

Listen to it’s advice, written nearly two thousand years ago:

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.

In Roman culture at that time, the height of fashion was for women to have ornately braided hair decorated with expensive gold combs. Scholars tell us that the elite classes spent huge amounts of money in order to look beautiful.

Now the Bible is not giving some kind of mandate that you shouldn’t braid your hair, wear jewelry, or wear nice clothes, but it is saying that a Christian woman should not major on outward appearance. Sure, she should look good. But she should focus her efforts on developing inner beauty. Inner beauty’s a wonderful thing – it pleases God, is attainable by all and won’t run up your credit card bills!