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Publishio
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Dear Friend:
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Many·
women have asked 1r God £orb1ds them to wear
jewelry. They have heard the teaching that God forbids
Christians to wear any. jewelry or wedding rings. This
belief was the common teaching of the last century, but it
has been retained 'by only a few denominations. This
doctrine stemmed from the principle that because the wearing
of jewelry, rings and other adornments was abused by the
world, jewelry and adornments were si.nful of themselves and
· should never be worn.
The Bible teaches that the material things are not
sin, but it is the improper use of them that is wrong. It
is the act of abuse, of misuse, that is a sin or violation
of God'a-faW7 There are two texts in the New Testament·
relating to the use of adornments for Christians, I Timothy
2:9-10 and I Peter
3:3-5-
Neither text even mentions wed–
ding rings, and neither one condemns the proper
~of
jewelry, as some suppose.
Pete·r wrote that women should not adorn themselves
with plaited or broided hair, which, among the Greeks, was
a custom in which costly jewelry and also wreaths were inter–
twined with the hair. The Bible prohibition of such a
practice becomes plain when one considers that a woman's hair
was given .her to be a glory and an honor (I Cor. 11:15).
The addition of costlJ or distracting and unnaturally bulky
adornments took awayrom the natural and intended beauty
God imparted to women. There is no scriptural prohibition
against the use of a flower or other modest adornment worn
in the hair.
The wearing of gold ornaments and pearls
1n
connec–
tion with costly array is forbidden by the apostles. Gold
and pearls are not sin: for God sanctified the use or gold
in the temple. But their great expense was not becoming to
Christian women who were to put their treasures into
spiritual traits of character which God views as of much
greater worth. These two verses contain no prohibition on
wearing a moderate amoWlt of relatively inexpensive, but
not ••cheap" adornment. A string of inexpensive pearls