Avoiding Arrogance In Beauty

The many myths about beauty, sensuality, and sexuality in the church and broader culture have some people go a lifetime without ever realizing the objective nonsexuality of most things people find sexually appealing.  Others might never realize that sexuality is Biblically positive until it is misused, as opposed to the other way around.  A legion of smaller myths contribute to denial of these facts, while the true danger for certain Christians that is associated with the beauty of the body is that of thinking more highly of someone because of their beauty, especially given that Western culture, for all its increasingly normalized egalitarianism, still pressures people to conform to arbitrary beauty standards.

The biggest concern for Christian men and women, then, is not the amount of skin their clothing shows or how little or how tightly their clothing covers their bodies.  As long as they are not trying to make someone lust or objectify them--even though no one can make someone covet or objectify them, some people might intend for that to happen--the most significant concern is an arrogant belief that one is superior to others because of one's appearance.  Not everyone will even struggle with this to a slight extent, and neither a sense of satisfaction in one's body nor a desire to display it for platonic or sexual admiration is arrogant, but some people might be tempted to look down on others for their bodily appearance either for mistaken philosophical reasons or emotionalistic ones.

This, ironically, is closer to what Paul is actually condemning in 2 Timothy 2:9, which is trying to use clothing to express arrogance or draw attention to oneself in a selfish way (wealth itself is not sinful, so it seems motives and context were his concerns in this verse).   The example Paul gives is of women wearing opulent clothing in a context of worshipping God with other people.  Other examples of women or men wearing clothing for sinful purposes would involve intentional arrogance--whatever is immoral for a woman to commit is likewise sinful for men, and vice versa, after all.  Nothing about 1 Timothy 2:9 truly pertains to just women.  Both men and women can falsely regard their bodies as the core part of themselves (as opposed to the consciousness that inhabits it) or recognize this is not the case and still use clothing to express a selfish concern for the bodily appearance at the expense of more significant things.

The truth that serves as a positive counterpart to this is that men and women can delight in their bodies without arrogance and in the bodies of others without resentment, and this can be a deep expression of Christian ideas about creation and the goodness of sensuality until it is misused.  For men specifically, it can also be a celebration of the fact that men's bodies are no less sensual than women's and men are no less capable of wanting to feel beautiful or sexy than women.  For women specifically, it can also be a celebration of the fact that they can be free of Western emphasis on their bodies as if their value depends on how they look or if they can please others through them.  In no case does the Biblical deity condemn people for enjoying, "showing off," or admiring what he made to be platonically or sexually enticing at various times.

Thankfully, people can desire to be beautiful and to savor the beauty of others without ever thinking that beauty brings more objective metaphysical value.  The stupidity and pride of thinking oneself superior to another person because of the appearance of the outward shell is one of more dangerous things some people need to look out for when it comes to displaying the body--not because arrogance is the worst sin or motivates all sins, as both of these ideas are false, but because most of the other alleged sins associated with sensuality are not sins at all in the true Christian framework.  No one is rational, consistent, just, or worthy of affection or respect simply because of how their body looks, be it naturally or because of prolonged effort.