To Wear It Or Not To Wear It. Is Makeup Forbidden In the Bible?

A topic debated of old in the Church of God is that of makeup. To wear it or not to wear it is the question, and many try to prove that only prostitutes wear makeup. In the Bible anyways. In spite of this it has long since been proven that the Bible has nothing to say against makeup directly, though nor does it have anything to say in favor of it. It seems to be entirely neutral on the subject, and since my desire and endeavor is to be strong where the Bible is strong and soft where it is quiet, it would seem that is that. Or so one would think.

A certain video and the fact that women look more beautiful to me when they go all natural prompted me to revisit the topic from a slightly different angle. With this article, I hope not so much to push my opinion as to ask a series of what I hope are thought-provoking questions in the light of Scripture. My post on modesty covers the mindset we should carry toward uncovering ourselves, but makeup is the opposite; covering something up. 

As a man, I have never worn makeup, so my opinion is based on my observations of those who do wear it, namely women. The biggest and most important question is, why do you wear it? (assuming you, my reader, are a woman who wears makeup)

All the other questions I will ask are based around this one question. Really, we should ask this question about everything we do, since we should do nothing mindlessly or without reason. No one is better at analyzing the internal reason you have to do what you do than you do. I am going to make a generalization here, and again, I am not a woman, but I do have eyes and I am observant. The generalization is this: the reason most women wear makeup is to look beautiful, or more attractive. 

Is that accurate?

I'd say so based on the women I have talked to, and the way the ads for makeup are structured. The ads are geared towards the female insecurity about their own looks and pushes a damaging lie that a woman can't look beautiful without wearing face paint. Obviously, this is great for their business. Every woman wants to look beautiful, so if they can get a woman to swallow their lie, they have a customer for life. They have been very successful in pushing their products, and God only knows what human civilization did before women had paint so they could look beautiful. They saved us from extinction!

When we start to get to the heart of our question we get near an uncomfortable truth that prompts a defensive reaction. Wearing makeup is based on believing a lie. Simple as that, really. Perhaps that is an oversimplification, but it hits too near that truth for us to ignore it. 

Proverbs 31:30 NKJV — Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

Beauty passes away, at least the outward sort of beauty. There is an inward beauty, a real beauty, that never fades. It never goes away because it actually has substance and it is based on the sort of person you are. The way you love your husband and take care of those around you is the greatest sort of beauty.

1 Peter 3:3-4 NKJV — Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

True beauty is on the inside and no amount of makeup is going to make one ounce of difference to what is going on inside a person. While I don't think wearing makeup is a sin, there are questionable attitudes that accompany it that we need to examine while we are happily asking our fun little questions. Deeply connected with the question why is the question who? Who do you wear it for? (Again, assuming you are a woman. If you are a man wearing makeup reading this article, check out this fun post on tolerance.)

We already know that the valuable sort of beauty is found on the inside and that it comes from being a godly woman, so who are you wearing the paint for? 

It's not for yourself since you aren't looking into a mirror most of the time, so it is for others. It is to present something to others, a good-looking version of yourself. This brings up an obvious question, at least in my mind and it really brings us almost full circle to where we began in this post. Why do you think the version of yourself that is there every day without paint isn't good enough to let other people see? 

For that is what you must think, isn't it?

Surely, if you think that you need makeup to look beautiful or attractive then you must believe yourself to be un-beautiful and unattractive. For some perhaps this is indeed the case as in the video, but wearing enough makeup to correct this natural hideousness is merely presenting a version of yourself to the world that doesn't actually exist, as with camera filters. As with wearing wigs, masks, coloring the hair, or getting cosmetic surgery, it's not real. Rather, real beauty comes from the inside and it is achievable even for the most outwardly hideous person. I do not mean to say that wearing wigs is always wrong as with cancer patients, but that is a question you must find the answer to yourself from the bible.

For most women, they look simply beautiful without any makeup or wigs. They don't need to wear anything on their face to look attractive and doing so makes them begin to look fake. What has happened is that Satan has gotten them to believe a nasty little lie and to start comparing themselves to other women. The lens they view themselves through is skewed, and they cannot believe themselves to be beautiful unless they look like a certain celebrity. Oh, what a lie Satan has sold!!

Makeup seems to stem from a deeply held inward belief that a woman must have makeup to look beautiful. This creates a false image of themselves that only exists when they have makeup on, and thus, to bring this woman-who-is-not-really-them back to life they must continue to wear makeup. When we get done examining this we find that our answers are quite unsettling since they imply that women have a deep-seated false belief about themselves that drives them to wear makeup. Perhaps you arrive at different answers when you read the questions I have posed, and in that case, I'd love to hear what they are below! 

I suppose in an attempt to counter the questions I have put forth here one could simply respond with, “Well, you could ask those questions about anything and use it to say even jewelry and braiding the hair or wearing nice clothes is wrong.” 

Again, I do not believe makeup of itself to be wrong, however, I find the spirit behind it very concerning. If you ask those questions of yourself about those other things and are concerned by the answer you get, then perhaps it is time for a change. I do not mean to imply that it is wrong to get dressed up or to look nice, but rather that perhaps putting something out there that is not you and claiming it is could be unwise. Only you can honestly assess what motivation you have for wearing makeup or anything else, but it is a necessary assessment. It is far too easy to wander through life without making this sort of assessment but considering the fact that this life on Earth is only temporary, and we are preparing for something different, it is absolutely essential to become Christ-like.