True Beauty Starts Inside!

We humans are intoxicated and enslaved by the temporary. While it is a good thing to care for the physical body, this can become such an obsession that we forget to care for our soul!

There’s a famous hamburger restaurant called In-N-Out Burger. All the natives swore to me that it was the best hamburger joint in the world. Well, I tried it when I was out that way, and my verdict: Eeh, it was OK. But the name—great name—signifies quick food for inside or takeout.

But it also reminds me of “inside and outside.” And that idea has all kinds of ramifications. So much so that many colloquialisms, sayings, and quotes come to mind. The best ones always seem to come from my grandmother! She used to say, “Pretty on the inside means more than pretty on the outside.” Of course, there’s also that mean old saying, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes to the bone!” I like Mawmaw’s saying better.

There’s something deep-seated in us humans that both compels and repels us. We spend millions of dollars on treatments that beautify our outward appearance in this society. The whole fashion industry is built on the premise that looking good is vital to our existence, and even Saturday Night Live’s Billy Crystal used to quip, “It’s more important to look good than to feel good.”

But we also insist we are repelled by shallow existence. Let’s face it: We live in a world where appearance matters to us more than we care to admit it.

In today’s Gospel Lesson, our Lord Jesus confronts a group of leaders committed to appearing pious and down to the very details of their clothing. But “looks can be deceiving.” The Lord confronted these men with the harsh reality that their outsides didn’t match their insides. And the reason this was so is that these men had gotten the prescription for true piety backward.

Look at Matthew 23:23-28:

The Lord said to the Jews who had come to him, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

When God in the Flesh says “woe” to you, you better bet that’s not a good sign.

The religious leaders had gotten the process of “cleansing” backward. They thought, “The clothes make the man,” when, in reality, true purity starts from the inside and works its way out. Beginning with personal repentance, personal evaluation, and individual focus is the ONLY path that leads to authentic outward beauty. Appearances easily fool our eyes, but our hearts reveal the true us!

Let me also add this harsh language Jesus uses for these leaders isn’t meant to be some sort of scolding to them but an invitation through very plain language to escape the spiritual illnesses that are killing them AND the people they influence! This frank and plain language flows not from anger but from love.

Just as a doctor has to prescribe medicine that can sometimes make us miserable for a while to heal deadly diseases, our Lord Jesus, Who genuinely loves these men, seeks to use the bitter medicine of plain language to rescue these men who had become slaves to their heresy.

Most of us would do well to remember that when we hear what seems harsh or difficult speech coming from spiritual fathers who truly love us!

In Romans 16:1-2, St. Paul mentions a woman named Phoebe. This beautiful woman gave herself to the message of Jesus Christ so completely that she is remembered to this day for her servant’s heart. This woman disciple of Jesus understood what it meant to be beautiful first in your soul rather than investing so much work in the temporary beauty of the body! No wonder we still remember this “Deaconess” of Christ today.

Today, having such respect for yourself is lovely that you care for your appearance, but the subtle trap and temptation to stop there is deadly to our spiritual lives. We must at least pay as much attention to our spiritual beauty as our outward appearance. If the regiment you go through each day to prepare to go to work, out to meet friends or go on a date isn’t equaled by the time you spend beautifying your soul, then your “outside” has become more important than your “inside” and that always leads to woe! Be beautiful, indeed! Be beautiful to God in your soul; the outside will shine with true beauty! Then, you’ll be living a Normal Orthodox life!

P.S. O Phoebe, converser with Saint Paul and divinely-inspired servant of God in the Church of Cenchrea, as Christ's handmaiden and filled with heavenly virtues, therefore, we honor you with spiritual hymns. Glory to Christ, Who glorified you. Glory to Him Who crowned you. Glory to Him Who, through you, grants us better things.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack.